In the course of my morning reading, today, I came across a post in the Corner by Iain Murray, pointing to a Competitive Enterprise Institute video titled “The Life of Julius,” part of their WorkplaceChoice.org project.

The video, embedded below, tells the story of the man named in its title — modeled after the creepy pro-government-dependency promotion, “The Life of Julia,” from the Obama campaign.  Again and again, throughout his life, Julius and his family find themselves stymied by the activities of labor unions, in and out of government.

The video would have been worth mention, anyway, but around 1:25 in the video, I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the informational bubbles included a reference to a November 2012 study by the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity on the premium that government workers receive in total compensation in Rhode Island and nationwide.

 

It’s also instructional to observe how the issues described in the video play out at the state level across the country.  Others of the minimum-wage studies by the Center would apply, as well.  And it’s interesting to note, in light of the video, the labor union domination of the list of organizations backing the push to increase Rhode Island’s income tax.

Also interesting (although none of the news reports that a quick Internet search produces mention it) is that those men standing behind Rhode Island’s U.S. congressmen as they promote a huge bump in the federal minimum wage are union representatives.  In keeping with “The Life of Julius,” the Center found that such a change would cost 3,466 jobs in Rhode Island.