Ungovernable

Megan McCardle blogs about reading The Ungovernable City, about the troubled administration of former New York City mayor, John Lindsey. One of Lindsey's huge problems was public sector unions. McCardle takes the issue to the next level, and correctly so. Money quote:

When crucial public sector workers collectively bargain, they end up with ruinous power over the taxpayers:  how many days can a city survive without its police, its transit workers, or its teachers? 

Why? Because politicians will always find it easier to give in to labor's demands than to withstand pressure from a public deprived of essential services. Well almost always. There was that unsuccessful police strike in 1979.