By Their Leave...

Much that the Biden administration does can be understood through the Orange Man Bad (OMB) paradigm. As in, if Trump did something, it must be a Bad Thing and therefore the only proper followup is doing the opposite. While that might get us somewhere if they emphasized things that were not only OMB but wrong per se, in practice we see many of the things that Trump actually got right being undone first.

Trump, in his second week in office, issued one of my favorite of his Executive orders, "Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs," that mandated two regulations be rescinded for every new regulation enacted. Biden reversed that EO on Day One of his presidency.

All Regulations Matter, I suppose.

This was a harbinger of the OMBism that is the defining characteristic of Biden-era policy.

It continued recently with the planned undoing of a rule that came out during Trump's post-election "lame-duck" period (January 7, 2021, to be precise). A series of maneuvers by the Biden administration ultimately blocked the Trump rule, and now Biden's putting forth a new set of metrics that more closely mirror California's 2019 dagger into the heart of the gig economy.

This is just the latest move in a decades-long war that unions and their government lapdogs are waging against companies, non-union workers, and the free market itself. Unions, which once served an important role, have largely become leeches, sapping wealth, undermining productivity, and enriching a few at a greater expense to the many. Countless actions declared as protections for the working classes are primarily about helping unions resist the waning of their power and influence.

If I am a free person, I should have the right to trade my skills or labor or intellect for compensation with whomever I wish and under whatever terms we both agree upon. I should be able to contract with Uber or Lyft or DoorDash or whomever, with no restrictions or mandates or interference from the government. That includes the matter of whether I'm an employee or a contractor. To have that decision taken from me is a violation of my economic liberty.

Market forces will ultimately inform the terms to which I and the person or company who wants to pay me to do stuff agree. In times of tight labor, I will have a comparative advantage. In times of high unemployment, the other side will. Either way, the overall outcome will be more beneficial to the overall economy than one in which government set some of the parameters or otherwise restricted our liberty to negotiate.

The usual arguments, such as "big companies have too much power compared to the little guy," are almost invariably "I want government to tip the scales in my direction." Absent coercion (e.g. olde-tyme union-busting thuggery), which is when the government should step in, high-dudgeon protests are almost invariably mask selfishness.

This "war" is one form of the endless conflict between liberty and government. Technology is often on liberty's side, and helps keep us a step ahead of the controllers, regulators, and otherwise power-hungry among us. Technology fostered the gig economy, giving people work-arounds to the limits and restrictions government is continually piling upon us.

In the case of your right to work, the government attitude is "only by the rules we set for you." Or, more succinctly, "by our leave." This makes a mockery of that right, turning it into a restricted privilege. One that can be taken away, in bits or en toto, at the government's whim.

Whose side do you choose in this fight? Whose side should you choose?

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Peter.