Steve Jobs: Tech Can't Fix What Unions Break
Steve Jobs STATED THE OBVIOUS in a recent panel discussion (with Dell CEO Michael Dell) when he said he believes that "what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way...This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy." The same goes, I believe with everything that's unionized. Unions -- which are nothing more than legalized mafia protection rackets that kill innovation and customer service -- poison everything they touch. No amount of technology can save Detroit, for example, or, say, unionized grocery store chains against the coming onslaught from non-union Whole Foods Market. Now excuse me, while I go buy a Mac.
3:56 PM * PERMALINK * 8 comments
Comments:
Of course jobs wants textbook free classrooms,that way even schools will be dependent on the mighty apple.I for one don't want everything in the classroom to be web based.As far as unions go,if they weren't there how much LESS would already underpaid teachers be making? It's easy to complain about unions when you have a few billion in the bank.
I could not disagree with you more. Unions are not the problem, MANAGEMENT IS. The lack of innovation comes from on high, not unions. Unions can be collaborators in success, but instead management just sees their employees as a cost to reduce instead of a resource to develop and utilize.
Supermarkets got their draconian deal from the union and they continuing to die in the face of Walmart, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods.
Thanks for publishing this. I almost bought an Ipod.
Don't like the "legalized mafia protection rackets" of the teachers unions? Get off your butt, go to a few meetings and check out the Neo-Nazis that got elected to your local school board (legally, just like Hitler).
"Unions -- which are nothing more than legalized mafia protection rackets that kill innovation and customer service -- poison everything they touch."
I agree with that sentiment - if you're talking about investment unions, that is, corporations. Investment Unions / Corporations are the closest thing one can get, constitutionally, in the US to a patent of nobility - it even defines a club as a legal "person".
I agree with Jobs. For a private education for my kids, I paid less each year than the per student state allocated amount for each unionized public school student. (Although I still had to support the unions too.) My kids out do the union trained in college. Just like everywhere else, with competition, you get a better value. And no required union shop training courses in politically correct thinking.
Vouchers are the way to go.
If the total cost of educating each child were divided by the number of children in the U.S., and vouchers for that amount (redeemable only for "tuition") were given to each parent -- and if the entire public school system were dismantled forever -- thousands of small, high-quality, localized and diverse schools would spring up. The teachers who work at them would make more, enjoy their work more and actually get to educate kids rather than serving as prison guards.
Just my $0.02.
Mike
I disagree with your huge generalisations.A lot of anti-union talk is really about driving the costs of wages down. In life and in education you get what you pay for and that is why America is becoming a giant Wal-mart. Everything has a cost, even cheapness.
*** A lot of anti-union talk is really about driving the costs of wages down. ***
Can you give me one example of a unionized business that has to compete internationally and that successfully does so?
Unions are parasite organizations that have to be paid for, but they don't themselves produce anything except antagonism between labor and management.
Who pays for all this with both higher costs and poor quality products and services?
We all do.
American unions are the best thing to ever happen to China.
Mike
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