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Comment by makomk | Hacker News Reader

In which case you won't get to draw that government salary that would go towards the union dues, and whoever gets the job instead of you has to pay those same government dollars to the union. Hence they are in effect government funded; there's a pool of government dollars that are earmarked for their pockets, and the employee who's nominally paying the union has no actual control over this transfer of funds from government to union.

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Once I earn the money it is my money and no longer taxpayer money. I fund the union with my money. The union does not receive money apportioned by the government.

Is the landlord I rent from supported by taxpayer money because I’m a public employee that rents from him?

> Once I earn the money it is my money and no longer taxpayer money. I fund the union with my money. The union does not receive money apportioned by the government.

You can't have it both ways. If it's the employee's money, they have the right to do what they want with it, whether that means giving a portion to a union or keeping it for themselves.

If they don't have that legal right, then the money isn't theirs, and it's coming from taxpayers, because it's paid by the government.

That's pretty spurious reasoning. Do I not have the right to do what I want with my money because I have to give part of it to my landlord?

> That's pretty spurious reasoning. Do I not have the right to do what I want with my money because I have to give part of it to my landlord?

If your rent is automatically withheld from your paycheck as terms of your employment and given directly to your landlord, then yes, that logic might hold.

However, I'm betting that's not the case.

Yet, it was still my choice to live there. And, and this is the most important part, I still earned that money through my work. Having it auto deducted from the paycheck isn't any different than having auto pay set up on my bank account.

That's the difference - you choose to live there. You can't choose to not be part of a public union, for state jobs that have one. Support for political causes should not be a requirement for employment by the state.

Again, yes, you can. You are free to choose your job based on the conditions of the job.

I’m not having anything two ways. Here are two statements which are not contradictory.

1. Unions are not government funded. 2. Those who benefit from collective bargaining ought to help pay for it.

That's like saying Cox is "government funded", as any government employee that has Cox as their cable provider is going to be paying that bill with money they got from the government.

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