I post about this from time to time, and with a new Administration coming in, promising to spend yet another king's ransom on "infrastructure," it may be time to revisit the issue.
During the Depression, with not a whole lot of Federal money being spent, Congresspeople would fight to the max to get construction projects approved for their districts, hoping to create some local jobs and win a little good will from the voters. But these plans were often foiled by itinerant construction companies that were largely staffed by southern "Negroes" who were willing to work at sub-standard wages. They would bid the jobs and be the low bidder, "taking jobs away from" the local white people.
So Congress passed the Davis Bacon Act, which required that regardless of who was bidding the job or where they came from, they were required to pay "the prevailing wage" in that locale. This took away the advantage of the itinerant Negroes, and basically killed that segment of the construction industry.
In time, being bureaucratically lazy and in the pocket of the Democrat party, the Department of Labor stopped trying to figure out what the "prevailing wage" was and simply started using the local union scale. This was absurd in many geographical areas. You might have 2% of the local construction workers being members of trade and craft unions, but the union scale was deemed the "prevailing wage" by DoL.
In due course, the minute any State legislature was in Democrat hands - even if only temporarily - that state would pass an analogous "prevailing wage" bill, so that on state and local construction projects, the same principle would apply, being administered in exactly the same way.
If you are a taxpayer and thinking as such, you might ask yourself, What the Fuck? If these projects are all funded by tax dollars then why do "we" tolerate a law that mandates high wages, when the general principle SHOULD BE, give the job to the low bidder, PERIOD. Just like contracts for manufactured goods and for services. How much extra are "we" paying for these billions and billions of dollars of construction projects than we WOULD BE paying, in a free market for construction services? At least 15-20%.
Consider, what is the cost per square foot of residential construction in your area? And that is mainly done with non-union workers. Would you be willing to absorb the extra cost of a government mandate that only union wages apply? You would, if you are sane, scream your bloody head off at the arrogance of such a government mandate. If would increase the cost of housing dramatically.
I know there is no chance of a repeal of Davis Bacon; it would be political suicide. But we should all be aware of the racist origins of the law and how much extra we are paying for projects that are ALREADY wasteful and full of fraud and corruption, just because of this racist law.
During the Depression, with not a whole lot of Federal money being spent, Congresspeople would fight to the max to get construction projects approved for their districts, hoping to create some local jobs and win a little good will from the voters. But these plans were often foiled by itinerant construction companies that were largely staffed by southern "Negroes" who were willing to work at sub-standard wages. They would bid the jobs and be the low bidder, "taking jobs away from" the local white people.
So Congress passed the Davis Bacon Act, which required that regardless of who was bidding the job or where they came from, they were required to pay "the prevailing wage" in that locale. This took away the advantage of the itinerant Negroes, and basically killed that segment of the construction industry.
In time, being bureaucratically lazy and in the pocket of the Democrat party, the Department of Labor stopped trying to figure out what the "prevailing wage" was and simply started using the local union scale. This was absurd in many geographical areas. You might have 2% of the local construction workers being members of trade and craft unions, but the union scale was deemed the "prevailing wage" by DoL.
In due course, the minute any State legislature was in Democrat hands - even if only temporarily - that state would pass an analogous "prevailing wage" bill, so that on state and local construction projects, the same principle would apply, being administered in exactly the same way.
If you are a taxpayer and thinking as such, you might ask yourself, What the Fuck? If these projects are all funded by tax dollars then why do "we" tolerate a law that mandates high wages, when the general principle SHOULD BE, give the job to the low bidder, PERIOD. Just like contracts for manufactured goods and for services. How much extra are "we" paying for these billions and billions of dollars of construction projects than we WOULD BE paying, in a free market for construction services? At least 15-20%.
Consider, what is the cost per square foot of residential construction in your area? And that is mainly done with non-union workers. Would you be willing to absorb the extra cost of a government mandate that only union wages apply? You would, if you are sane, scream your bloody head off at the arrogance of such a government mandate. If would increase the cost of housing dramatically.
I know there is no chance of a repeal of Davis Bacon; it would be political suicide. But we should all be aware of the racist origins of the law and how much extra we are paying for projects that are ALREADY wasteful and full of fraud and corruption, just because of this racist law.
