Do as I say, not as I do

The WSJ recently reported a case where a carpenter's union hired non-union picketers to protest a building project that was using non-union labor for the project.
 

WASHINGTON—Billy Raye, a 51-year-old unemployed bike courier, is looking for work.
Fortunately for him, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line outside the McPherson Building, an office complex here where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.

"For a lot of our members, it's really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else," explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So instead, the union hires unemployed people at the minimum wage—$8.25 an hour—to walk picket lines. Mr. Raye says he's grateful for the work, even though he's not sure why he's doing it. "I could care less," he says. "I am being paid to march around and sound off."

Paying people to pretend like they care about a cause is unethical and dishonest. It is manufactured dissent plain and simple, though it seems to be a symptom of our times.  To extrapolate the point, what's then wrong with paying somebody to vote a certain way? I have a feeling that many people feel that there is nothing wrong with that as long as they're on the same side of the political divide. If you think that it does not occur already, take a look at the top all time political donors over the past 20 years --who they are and where their money goes--and you will be forced to conclude that vote buying is alive and well in the USA.

Cynically speaking, at least there's finally some hard evidence that union's are actually contributing to the reduction of unemployment by hiring non-union workers. With the median duration of unemployment at more than double 40 year highs, we can use all the help we can get.