Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux
“In our more or less free societies, we regularly see confirmations of an idea well defended by Friedrich Hayek and by Anthony the Jasay. The idea is that remunerations determined by politics, that is, by coercive authorities under the threat of punishment, are not only less efficient but also more conflictual than if determined only by impersonal markets. In a recent example, the International Longshoremen Association (ILA), a government-protected union (as they all are by labor laws and government bureaus), called a strike. Its leader, Harold Daggett, haughtily threatened 200 million consumers. Of the many employers of his members (container carriers and terminal operators), he said: ‘We’re going to show these greedy bastards you can’t survive without us!'” (10/29/24)
https://www.econlib.org/remunerations-determined-by-markets-or-politics/