These days politico-economic trends in the U.S. provide proponents of the free society very little to cheer about. But here is a bit of news that should elicit a hearty “YIPPEE” from free-market advocates. According to data recently released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in 2014 dropped to 11.1% of the labor force, its lowest rate in 100 years. Union membership in the private sector now stands at 6.6%, down from 35% in the mid-1950s. Of course the unionization rate among public sector employees is much higher at 35.7%, down a bit from 37% in 2011.
While salutary market forces are liquidating the restrictionist and violence-prone unions--which Murray Rothbard called “the junior partner in the Welfare-Warfare State”--the two senior partners, Big Business and Big Government, have grown closer, larger, and more menacing. Crony Capitalism is the outcome of this growth and it will not be destroyed by purely market forces. This system can be abolished only when a critical mass of productive Americans is enlightened to the truth that U.S. politicians and bureaucrats along with their corporate cronies are engaged in naked and systematic plunder of their wealth and income through taxes, subsidies, financial bailouts, military contracts, and money creation.