| The Bridge had soe excellent reporting this week on Right to Work, a big package of it the other day. To sum it up, there is no data to suggest that Right to Work does what it's supporters say, not much data to suggest that it's really awful, and in fact a lot of data to suggest that it has little impact on a state's economy. When you combine that with Lou Glazer's research that business climate isn't what creates a prosperous people, but investment in education and cities, the picture drawn is that Right to Work was mostly political payback. The Bridge had four good pieces. I'll link to two for simplicity. If you want to read it all, you can find links on that site, anyway. The first one is that claims that Indiana is where "job creators" are going right now, is not supported by the data. There's a flip side to this, by the way, which is that if you're unwilling to produce data to support your claims, you're probably talking out your hinder end. The second is a guest column from an economist from the Upjohn Institute in which it's argued that Right to Work doesn't guarantee prosperity. He also argues that the stuff we hear about companies building in the deep south due to an absence of organized labor is probably false. Probably, those companies located down there for other reasons. While you're at it, the Livingston County Press & Argus has come a long way from the time it endorsed the entire Republican slate of candidates without identifying who those candidates were running against. Today, they editorialize that benevolent overlord Rick Michigan ought to stick to data-driven decision making rather than trotting out stuff about Right to Work prompting companies to beat down Indiana's door. |
