Crush Liberalism

Unions staying behind the times

From Say Anything blog:

There are some very clever automated pothole machines on the market. I have seen them operate. They come on top of the hole, a tooth goes in and clears out the hole and high powered air blows the debris and water out, the hole is sprayed with molten tar which drys the hole and hot asphalt is measured into the hole, rolled and vibrated down until it is as smooth as the surrounding pavement.

It’s fast, it’s efficient, it’s effective and it works. The machines aren’t terribly expensive comparatively. And we always have potholes.

BUT we don’t do it that way. We do it like was done 70 years ago. A crew drives to the pothole chips out the junk, sweeps it out, blows air in it, a little tar and a couple shovels of hot asphalt. Then, a guy with a hand tamper comes along behind and tamps. That’s it. Bad and expensive fix.

Why? Unions and political patronage jobs. In Chicago and Cook County pothole repair crew members are paid 28 per hour plus overtime. I know men with PhD’s who do this. It’s good money. And the work isn’t hard.

These PhDs could be inventing better automated pothole repair machines but they don’t because they are on the payoff. It’s better money to just suck on the political machine teat.

This is what is wrong with unions, political machines and politicians.

It costs money to elect democrats. 

Hey, those union dues don’t pay for themselves, you know.

March 7, 2008 - Posted by crushliberalism | unions