‘Conscience of a Conservative’ ch. 5-6
Chapter 5, “Freedom for the Farmer,” is mostly self-explanatory, and can be outlined with just two major points. First, “No power over agriculture was given to any branch of the national government.” Of course, this has not prevented Congress and federal agencies from worming around the Constitution, typically with the interstate commerce clause as an excuse. Second, Goldwater points out that government interference, with subsidies for example, has caused more problems than it has solved. For more detail on this, I’ll simply refer the reader to Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, especially chapters VI (“Credit Diverts Production”) and XVI (“‘Stabilizing’ Commodities”).
Chapter 6, “Freedom for Labor,” is among the best in this book, and his criticism of “big labour” is trenchant and still especially relevant. He does support unions generally, “What could be more fundamental than the freedom to associate with other men, or not to associate, as each man’s conscience and reason dictates?” However, he attacks policies of compulsory membership, and also of unions representing entire industries.
Goldwater’s critique is well-founded. As has often been observed, union monopolies have driven up the price of labour so high that overseas competitors have overtaken American industry, while American corporations have offshored many jobs, contributing to unemployment at home.
Now, though Goldwater is correct in his analysis of unions, his solution – creation or revision of legal statutes – seems inconsistent. He noted in the previous chapter that the national government has no authority to regulate agriculture. I do not see that it has the authority over labour, either. Should this not, then, be a state or even local issue? Surely labour is a perfect example of an issue best dealt with at a local level, by those most directly affected – workers and their families and community. In a labour dispute in, say, Texas or Michigan, Washington, D.C. is so distant it may as well be London.
