The "Envy" of the Public Union Workers

The "envy" that is so troubling for work and fairness in America today, is not "of" the unions, but" by" the unions, to create resentment and their overwhelming sense of entitlement that they do not deserve -- and to justify their trade monopolies.

When total compensation is studied, the median for union (government) workers is twice that of the median for all other workers -- and the latter median should be the basis upon which the fair compensation of the former should be tied to -- which is the ability of the community to pay for their public sector (service) workers -- and not that government (union) workers are entitled to more because they "sacrificed" by taking less than the highest compensated members of society.

The fair comparison for union workers compensated for seniority, is the median for the entire population sample (community) -- and not the top 10% determined by merit, which the union workers delude themselves is their "comparable peers" -- who are there because of extraordinary merit and luck. But a society can afford to reward a very few in that manner -- because they are not everybody -- and that is a good basis for doing so, and NOT envy, resentment, delusion and entitlement.

Just because one has done the same job for 30 years, does not make them the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. There is something about genius and innovation that is more than just putting in one's time doing the same thing everyday for 30-50 years. And that is why society has to reward the innovators of the light bulb or computers more than just those who can use one equally.

And then, when the union (government) workers compare their compensations to private sector workers, they distort that comparison by ignoring substantial compensation like nontaxable health benefits, holidays and employer payments -- which the taxpayers (their employers) have to pay and so while already receiving twice the actual median, are resentful that they're not getting what their imagined peers in the top 10% are getting, even though most harder working people are usually getting less.

That is the issue as most people see it, and not that they are resentful or envious that they are not the ones in on their great deal of getting over everybody else because they stick together and can therefore force their communities because they are the only ones allowed to do so by laws passed by lawmakers they largely determine.

That's not fair.