On the Right

What was most interesting about the strike against United Parcel Service was the politics of it. Ever since Mr. John Sweeney took over the reins of the AFL-CIO he has been lusting for a fight that would attract the attention of the public and, above all, of unorganized workers, these accounting for about 85 per cent of the American work force. Memory reminds us that not all that much has changed. When asked what he wanted for his union, Samuel Gompers replied with the quiet but resonant word, “More.” Supply-side teaches that more is indeed always possible. That’s so because there is an infinity of human appetite, which tosses and turns against the scarcity of human resources. More can always be had, in the sense that general productivity can rise and other products can be devised, and yearned for.

Whereas Gompers had asked for More, Ron Carey of the Teamsters accepted as his battle cry: “Greed.” “An excessive desire to acquire or to possess more than what one needs or deserves,” as the American Heritage Dictionary defines it. This definition requires application to real-life stories. The economic model in capitalism is that a living wage must be paid in order for an economy to function. Mr. Carey insisted that part-time workers for United Parcel Service earned “too little to live on,” which prompts the question, Why aren’t they dead? The specific reply of management’s James Kelly was that the average part-time worker for UPS earned more per year than the average American worker-and so it went on.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

What was most interesting about the strike against United Parcel Service was the politics of it. Ever since Mr. John Sweeney took over the reins of the AFL-CIO he has been lusting for a fight that would attract the attention of the public and, above all, of unorganized workers, these accounting for about 85 per cent of the American work force. Memory reminds us that not all that much has changed. When asked what he wanted for his union, Samuel Gompers replied with the quiet but resonant word, “More.” Supply-side teaches that more is indeed always possible. That’s so because there is an infinity of human appetite, which tosses and turns against the scarcity of human resources. More can always be had, in the sense that general productivity can rise and other products can be devised, and yearned for.

Whereas Gompers had asked for More, Ron Carey of the Teamsters accepted as his battle cry: “Greed.” “An excessive desire to acquire or to possess more than what one needs or deserves,” as the American Heritage Dictionary defines it. This definition requires application to real-life stories. The economic model in capitalism is that a living wage must be paid in order for an economy to function. Mr. Carey insisted that part-time workers for United Parcel Service earned “too little to live on,” which prompts the question, Why aren’t they dead? The specific reply of management’s James Kelly was that the average part-time worker for UPS earned more per year than the average American worker-and so it went on.