My best friend, Al, sent me this politically incorrect blond joke …

After reading it, I was struck with the thought that it is a perfect metaphor for today’s unionized city workers. People who are told what to do, how to do it and when to do it; without once being told why they are doing it.

And the sad part of the joke is knowing that the workers are not being rewarded for their attendance, skills or diligence in performing their assigned tasks, they are being rewarded based on little more than their seniority. After all it’s the union way of bowing to the idea of a Marxist collective over a capitalist free-market system based on individual performance.

One can only imagine the negative peer-pressure when a work crew actually turns in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay … only to have their co-workers, and perhaps their supervisors, shun them or subtly punish them for exceeding the “collective’s norms” and making other people look bad in comparison.

And don’t, even for a minute, believe that this is not happening in other areas where public employee unions demand increased wages, benefits and retirement plans in return for reduced work that spreads jobs to other union members.

Bottom line …

Unless we break the strangle-hold of the public employee unions which is crippling our productivity and bankrupting our local, state and federal government … we will end up like Greece or France, where public employees run riot while garbage accumulates in the streets and the very people who pay their salaries are made to suffer greatly until they agree to tax increases.

Unfortunately, the only person to stand up to the public employee unions in public forums is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who is simply telling the truth when he claims that his state can no longer afford to do business as usual.

America is not about creating a special class of public employees who are supported and living in style while the producers in the private sector foot the bill. It’s a Marxist/Communist pipe dream of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

America is not about a ruling elite that pretends to be smarter than the general public in order to seek political control over all American citizens.

And America is not about corrupt politicians who are simultaneously violating their oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution while conferring special privileges on the special interests in return for campaign funds, media attention and voter support.

In fact, the damn joke is on us and it does not seem funny anymore.

-- steve