Harry Bridges Span School

Now Los Angeles Unified has added the dubious distinction of naming a school after an avowed communist. Is collectivization the central theme of public education now? Do not our children deserve real training in how economies work, as oppposed to the idealized pablum of "unity" which forces change or closes down the workplace?

Harry Bridges, a native Australian then West Coast transplant was instrumental in the foundation and then the proliferation of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, is the name sake for a new K-8 span school in Wilmington. This is a  new low for public education, exposing the bias which has nurtured the entitlement mentality of "99%"ers convinced that the world, the state, the group, and the groupthink which defines these collective measures, is the source of prosperity and peace in the world.

Another commonwealth man, Englishman William Hutt, produced the most comprehensive body of research and inquiry outlining the dangers and dysfunctions of unions and strike-actions. Instead of assisting individual workers, work actions create inaction while frustrating the liberty of individuals who want to work. There is no justification whatsoever for a group of workers, once leaving the job, then to preven the company or other workers from stepping in to take their place.

What are the long-term effects of union actions? Stores close, thus expanding the unemployment ranks. The price of the work increases, which is then passed onto the cosumers, while diminishing the wages of other workers. The actions are an encroachment of free speech and free enterprise, a use of force, even if the unions are private collectives striking against another private entity. Union action disrupts the price system for labor and product.

Notwithstanding the research which Mr. Hutt collected then presented, his work fell into disinterest and obscurity, even in his own lifetime, a sad fact which he joked about as a visiting professor to another institution.

Superintendent John Deasy shared the following at the open ceremonies for the school:

"From health care to all, to a living wage, to retirement, to free speech" -- these were the values which Harry Bridges stood for.

Health care of all -- have we seen one country where the policy of providing health care for everyone, no matter what the cost, has had any succcess? From the NHS in Great Britain, to the single-payer system in Canada, free health care has become long lines, rationing, and less adequate service all around.

"A living wage" -- what is that, exactly? How many economists have raged about the inherent frustration of forcing states to offer a certain wage, no matter what? The result is more unemployment, inflation, and less purchasing power every time. These sound bites are socially satisfying, but the working man can do much better without "help" from the state.