How Government Unions Became So Powerful

Or, How the Unions Begat the Ruling Class:

Quoting Amity Shlaes:

This weekend we celebrate Labor Day in a country divided between two kinds of workers.  The first is the private-sector worker, the vulnerable one who rides the business cycle without shock absorbers.  The second worker, who works for the government, lives a cushioned existence in which terminations take years, pension amounts are often guaranteed, and recessions are only thunder in the distance.  Yet worse than this division is the knowledge that the private-sector worker will pay for public-sector comfort with ever higher taxes.