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Mises Economics Blog

Pro-Union PSA from the 1980s

May 10, 2006 1:31 AM by Tim Swanson | Other posts by Tim Swanson | Comments (11)

Textile wages in foreign country: $2.50/hour
A dozen tube socks: $4
Union Dues: $35/month

Public Service Announcement rehashing hackneyed anti-trade sentiments for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union: Priceless

There are some things money can buy, for everything else there is Economics 101.

Comments (11)

  • Thomas J. Van Wyk

  • Funny. Simply hilarious. Unfortunately, what isn't priceless is economic illiteracy - it costs us all.

    I will say that that retro message is hilarious.

  • Published: May 10, 2006 1:50 AM

  • Ryan Fuller

  • Well there's 60 seconds of my life I'll never get back. Those singing, undergarment manufacturing, union bastards!

  • Published: May 10, 2006 4:29 AM

  • Chris Meisenzahl

  • LOL, great sentiment! ;-)

  • Published: May 10, 2006 7:04 AM

  • Gil Guillory

  • Sometimes, I just don't get it.

    It's the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

    So how come there are men?

    And how come it's all about Americans buying from Americans? Isn't that infranational?

  • Published: May 10, 2006 7:27 AM

  • jeffrey

  • Yeah, this is a winner. Alternative lyrics keeping popping up in my mind: "Give us your wages / pay higher prices / we work at other's expense. Our rags are shoddy / Don't look for quality / Fork over and make our day!"

    Something like that.

  • Published: May 10, 2006 8:05 AM

  • Ryan Breen

  • Weird coincidence. I saw that commercial last year when I rented a bootleg DVD copy of the Star Wars Christmas Special from a cult video store in my town. I thought it was as hilariously bad as the Christmas Special itself.

  • Published: May 10, 2006 9:07 AM

  • Person

  • A related coincidence: That commercial is parodied in a South Park episode, Freak Strike. In that episode's parody commercial, a union of physically deformed people make a plea for viewers to only watch shows with "physically deformed freaks" and not people who are "freaks" just because they're "trailer trash from the South". On the DVD, Trey Parker and Matt Stone claimed they got their inspiration from seeing the union ad in the Star Wars Christmas special.

    "So always look for/ the True Freak label/ because you need us/ right here in the USA!"

  • Published: May 10, 2006 9:36 AM

  • Yancey Ward

  • Person, you beat me to it!

  • Published: May 10, 2006 10:06 AM

  • Vince Daliessio

  • HA! I trump both Person and Trey and Matt - Saturday Night Live (original cast) did a parody back in 1978-ish for the "American Dope Growers Union" - I think Larraine Newman was the first singer in the parody, holding a bag of pot with the 'union label' on it as the camera pulled out to show Belushi, Ackroyd, et al as dope farmers, packagers, and sellers, all singing the praises of being a union pot producer!

  • Published: May 10, 2006 2:44 PM

  • Vince Daliessio

  • Actually it was April 1977;

    http://snl.jt.org/detail.php?i=788

    Neither Belushi or Ackroyd were in the bit, but Larraine, Gilda, Jane Curtin, and Al Franken were in the parody. It was pretty much a rip on unions. Oh, how times have changed!

  • Published: May 10, 2006 2:49 PM

  • billwald

  • The jobs that can't be outsourced: migrant farm labor, hotel and resturaunt jobs, theme park and recreational jobs, nursing and hospital jobs, most public school jobs and other govt jobs, auto sales and repair, construction jobs. What did I omit?

  • Published: May 10, 2006 8:09 PM

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