[JPKab]

Agreed. The excuse that you will hear over and over again whenever anyone mentions the obvious inefficiencies is the moralistic bullshit where "We shouldn't make it cheap and easy for people to buy poison."

I owe unions for many great things like weekends, safe working conditions, etc. They worked to codify these things into law. Once these things were accomplished, they slowly turned into impediments to competition. Private businesses whose unions went too far were driven out of business or hurt by companies whose unions cooperated with management (GM vs. Toyota). It's funny how the government monopolies (education, transportation, etc) are the most unionized industries left. The unions don't have to care about their customers, so they don't. Toyota has one of the most powerful unions on the planet (Japanese laws after WW2 made sure of that), and yet they don't squeeze out benefits at the expense of customers every chance they get.