It may be that in some circumstances, unions contribute to unemployment, but that is far from their only function. You can dismiss union activities as contributing to unemployment and leave it at that, but then you should also dismiss everything else that also contributes to unemployment. It is silly not to acknowledge the positive effects of unions.
Basing an argument on pure economical theory and ignoring any kind of actual human problems inflates economics to be more of a priority than it should be. It makes perfect economic sense to not hire women-men don't need maternity leave- think of the boost it would give to our economy. Or how about the economic sense it would make if employers could refuse to hire members of the national guard- i'm sure many small business are hurting from the employees they were "coerced" into hiring because they couldn't say no. It would also make good economic sense to completely eliminate any kind of restrictions on how employers can deal with their employees. Think of all of the jobs we could create if we could tap into the sweatshop markets. Even though all of these things might make sense for the economy(some of you may argue that they don't) following those paths would be a step back for our society.
My point is that you can't use economic theory to bolster a perspective in an argument about the real world because, as some people would say, econ is autistic.- it can count real well, but it generally misses the point.
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