Laboring Under a Delusion
What to know: Most Americans are off on Monday, the annual celebration of Labor Day.
The TPPF take: This Labor Day, we should celebrate America’s workers—but we must also be aware of Labor Day’s collectivist roots.
“Make no mistake, labor unions served an important purpose in securing wins for workers through collective bargaining,” says TPPF’s Austin Prochko. “One of my great grandfathers was a coal miner in Pennsylvania, where unions helped to improve his working conditions. However, just as often as they secured victories for workers, labor unions found themselves infiltrated, and often run by, actual socialists and communists.”
For more on Labor Day, click here.
Regulation without Representation
What to know: TPPF’s constitutional challenge to the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) system may soon be considered by the Texas Supreme Court. The Goldwater Institute explains the crux of the case, saying: “[Property owners outside of a city’s limits but within its ETJ] are subjected to government control, but aren’t allowed to vote for the officials who enjoy that power.”
The TPPF take: The ETJ today permits regulation without representation. That is a clear violation of the Texas Constitution.
“The U.S. and Texas Constitutions promise citizens a republican form of government wherein political representation and consensual rule are central. But the ETJ system in place today denies residents that important constitutional guarantee, producing a truly troubling dynamic,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “We should not tolerate this system of regulation without representation.”
For more on ETJs, click here.
Penalty: Personal Foul, Offense
What to know: New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick says Massachusetts’ high taxes are deterring top players from signing with the team.
The TPPF take: You can’t blame the players, who stand to lose millions of their earnings to exorbitant state taxes.
“Throughout most of human history, people vote with their feet—they move to places where they surmise they and their families will prosper,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore. “People generally don’t move to, as California Gov. Gavin Newsom said, with inadvertent irony, states that feature a ‘rising tide of oppression.’”
For more on people fleeing high-tax states, click here.