There is much libertarian debate over the question of unions and social demands. Every individual should have the right to assemble and create organizations. But the right to organize does not imply in any way the positive right, granted by the State, to extort and threaten. The economic consequences of acting in this manner bring us job instability and provide a living for a select few at the expense of the rest of society:

Demanding acquired rights. Acquired rights are privileges a group of workers has wrested from producers thanks to the unilateral force of the law and the State. If, for unrelated reasons, individual production raises other workers´ nominal salaries, this means the company is going to be less competitive. It will have to raise prices and cut jobs for those wanting to enter the labor market.

Demanding women’s rights. If we studied who earns more, men with blond hair or men with brown hair, the result would show discrimination of some against others. But such a study would be ridiculous. Each person is compensated for the effort and achievements they provide the company where they work. It doesn’t matter if you are a woman, a man, a foreigner, have blond or brown hair. If by law we raise women’s salaries (or brown-haired men’s) independent of how much they produce we will only be ensuring companies hire fewer women (or brown-haired men) and giving incentives to female unemployment (or brown-haired joblessness).

Minimum wage. If we fix a minimum wage for everyone above the market rate, we are only encouraging unemployment for the least skilled among us: like young people, people with little specialized knowledge, immigrants escaping their country, etc… If unions and the State impose a law stating interns must receive 6,000 euros a month, this would not make interns any wealthier. It would simply eliminate them from the labor market.

Collective agreements. These agreements only have one real loser: the worker. If an agreement sets up high “social benefits” for one sector, that sector will be flooded with low output workers looking to live off the benefits. Soon, everyone there will be unemployed.

Working conditions. What are good working conditions? What some politician or union boss hundreds of kilometers from where we work says they are? Forcing a company to spend its money and creative capacity of its employees on resolving such innocuous issues only leads to lower production and another entry barrier for those who want to start working. An employee chair’s correct angle or “good ventilation” do not afford us greater comfort and security, but rather precarious employment.

Severance pay. If we oblige companies to pay for firing workers, we will have too many comfortable people blocking entry to young workers with much to offer. At the same time, we are encouraging workplace laziness, low production, inflation for national products and the entrance of foreign imports (from China, Morocco, etc…)

Putting social demands into effect is not a step forward, but a step back. Our high levels of unemployment and scarce job opportunities are proof Europe’s experiment with radical unionism and omnipotent Statism has failed.

The day we learn that each individual is the real motor of his or her own welfare, without depending on others´ demands, we will create a sane and prosperous labor market where unemployment, literally, disappears.