As I was traveling down the street today, I saw a group of people–maybe fifty or sixty–carrying signs saying On Strike! Since about half of them were strolling along the sidewalk in front of a suburban school while the other half sat under makeshift tents socializing, I assumed they were members of the teachers’ union on strike against the school, even though school isn’t in session until next week.

I didn’t see any signs explaining what they were on strike against or why, but I guess that doesn’t make any difference these days as long as they proclaim that they are “on strike.” Maybe they didn’t feel any need to justify their strike since there was very little traffic on the side street where the school sat empty.

I was only mildly interested in their “grievances,” but I did think of a couple of questions I would like to ask them if I could expect an honest answer or if I thought there would be any point to a confrontation over what they must consider a rational action.

The first question that popped into my mind was “If you don’t like your job, why don’t you just quit and find a better job?” It seems like an obvious question. There are no slaves anymore, in spite of the idiot who coined the term “wage slaves.” Anybody can quit any job for any reason with no adverse consequences. Some people even object to a prospective employer asking why the person they are interviewing for a job resigned from his or her previous position.

In contrast, it is becoming more and more difficult for an employer to get rid of a useless employee, especially if the employee is a member of a union. Multiply that difficulty if the incompetent employee happens to be a member of a protected minority.

An honest answer to the question may be, “I might not be able to find a better job.” Or even, “I might not be able to find a better job before I run out of money because I have never learned to live within my means.” Of course, the second answer would probably be phrased differently. “I might run out of money because they don’t pay me a living wage.” Even teachers, who make a pretty good living relative to other occupations, would probably claim to be making less than a “living wage.”

One reason nobody would want to give an honest answer to the question is that they would then have to consider why they are so ungrateful to the one organization willing to pay them the salary (or benefits) they are protesting. If they quit the job about which they are complaining, the strikers would also have the option of starting their own business, but that would make their ingratitude even more apparent when they discover the difficulty of finding good employers.

​Perhaps the most honest answer to the first question is also the answer to the second question that occurred to me. “Is it just easier to gang up with your fellow malcontents and try to extort your employer than it would be to take responsibility for finding an occupation you like?” Now there is a question I would never expect anyone to answer honestly.