FREEDOM to Profit by Bill Holmes The fundamental issue is force. When a group can gain privilege by way of government force, all of the problems associated with a monopoly result. It does not matter whether the group is a business, industry, union or social category. The group will artificially increase its profit margin (money earned per money or effort invested) by 1. extorting money from consumers with government mandated prices (Labor unions artificially increase consumer prices by demanding higher-than-market wages and benefits.) 2. extorting money from taxpayers with government mandated subsidies (Government- funded/mandated disability insurance, work-site inspection, etc., is a subsidy for its beneficiaries.) 3. hobbling its competition with government-mandated regulations (Labor unions always resist cost/labor-saving technology like container ships/trains and materials like plastic pipe.) 4. distorting the behavior of its competition by threatening to send in the goons like the IRS, EPA, OSHA and union thugs (My mom's person and personal property were threatened with violence by unionized market employees. A big, fat union steward at Rockwell International repeatedly leaned against a summer-hire friend of mine, pushing him into rotating machinery while suggesting that he should join the union to get its great medical benefits.) 5. distorting the behavior of its competition by engaging in violence (direct force) against property and persons (Read/watch the news). These are just a few reasons why libertarians believe the initiation of force is wrong. We also believe in the right to freely associate and to voluntarily deny someone your labor, but the emphasis is on 'voluntary'. Union-categorized workers make it easy for contractors to know what they're hiring, but such categorization should be done by competing independent testing laboratories (UL, Consumer Digest) funded by the consumers (contractors). Temporary unions can get the attention of corporate management and improve work place conditions for safety and profit. Permanent unions tend to obstruct labor-saving progress and create problems to justify their existence. Large, military-style corporations are disintegrating and with them go unions and their justification. Bill Holmes currently hosts the Freethought Forum on America Online and manages Synergy Enterprises, a desktop video business.