Public Union Employees Know.....

James Bovard wrote a hilarious editorial in a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal describing his stint with the Virginia Highway Department as a youth, entitled My Summer Road to Perdition.

In it, he quotes his crew's number two man, John, on the subject of the department building a new road,

"Why does the state government have to do this? Private businesses could build the road much more efficiently, and cheaper, too."

The rest of Bovard's editorial detail the shenanigans we all suspect, but rarely actually see, whereby the state employees wasted taxpayers' money while ostensibly doing the public's business.

Ironically, one of my close friends, a public school teacher, echoed Bovard's sentiments regarding a recent local road construction project.

The road in question has been closed or opened for limited usage, with delays, for months. It has, of course, affected nearby roads, completely disturbing pre-existing traffic volumes and patterns and causing huge delays.

What galls my public sector friend is driving by other unionized public sector employees who are doing either nothing, very little, or something at a glacial pace.

As a fellow public sector union employee, he knows what they are doing and told me so,

'They're obviously going slowly to make the project last longer so they are paid more for that work.'

Being a taxpayer, and seeing an activity performed by public sector union employees which could have been bid to private contractors, my friend knows he's paying too much. Of course, as an employee of a monopolized trade- public school teaching- he knows he isn't vulnerable, so he feels safe and entitled to criticize the state and county road crews.

But it's obvious he knows, instinctively, what they are doing. Because he does the same thing.