Why I Want My Kids to Grow Up to be Union Bosses
James Hickman

Like most kids, I wanted to be an astronaut when I was little. Then a fireman. Then a pirate. Then a movie star.

My parents were pretty traditional so they hoped I would grow up to become a doctor. This is pretty typical; after all, parents just want their kids to be financially secure.

I think about this a lot with my kids— both of whom are extremely young. I give a lot of thought to what their world will look like in 20 years given the seismic geopolitical and macroeconomic shifts taking place.

America’s status as the world’s sole superpower is dwindling before our very eyes. The dollar’s role as the dominant global reserve currency is rapidly waning. And the rise of AI and robotics promises to upend just about every occupation imaginable, including white collar professional jobs which currently require advanced, outrageously expensive university degrees.

As my kids grow and develop, my plan is to focus on developing traits that machines cannot emulate, like genuine creativity, leadership, risk tolerance, big picture thinking, and bold decisiveness.

AI is a powerful tool they should learn to harness. But it will not be their master. After all, there’s a reason Captain Kirk was in charge of the Enterprise and not Spock.

However in terms of what the landscape for jobs or business opportunities might look like in a couple of decades, that’s anyone’s guess. I have no idea what will be the lucrative industries in a world where AI is pervasive.

In fact the only occupation I can think of which will provide absolute financial security is that of a union boss.

I’m totally joking of course. But in all honesty, being a union boss certainly seems to provide a cushy lifestyle these days. And as long as there are delusional leftists in our midst, there will always be fat cat union bosses to steal from their constituents.

For example, on Friday we highlighted that the man in charge of the dockworkers union— which briefly went on strike last week— makes about a million dollar per year, lives in a mansion, and drives a Bentley.

He’s far from alone.

Stacy Davis Gates, the President of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), pulls in nearly $300,000 per year.

Despite being in charge of the teacher’s union for Chicago public schools, though, she sends her child to a $16,000 per year private school.

As head of the union, Gates understands where the most important investments are made. The CTU is the largest single contributor to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign fund.

Which is probably why Comrade Mayor Johnson routinely caves to the demands of the teachers union… including their newest demand for another massive (totally unaffordable) pay increase.

Bear in mind that the city has some of the worst performing schools in the country. It’s beyond outrageous.

And the CTU is against school choice; they want kids locked into attending the failing schools in their neighborhood, as opposed to giving parents the option to send their children to better schools elsewhere.

To add insult to injury, the school district already has a massive, bloated budget. The district’s total budget has increased over 97% since 2012. Yet over the same period, test scores in reading, math, and science have plummeted.

In other words, the more money the school district spends, the worse the outcome for the students.

The Chicago Teacher’s Union is totally oblivious to this reality, and they are now demanding more than $10 billion in new incentives and compensation… because they’ve clearly been doing such a great job.

Gates has already given the order to Comrade Mayor Johnson, so the wheels are in motion to bankrupt the city with CTU’s demands, and bankrupt the students’ future.

It’s pretty obvious that Ms. Gates is the one calling the shots in Chicago. Bear in mind, this is not an elected official. She’s a union boss. But she has the Comrade Mayor’s balls in her purse.

Not to be outdone, Gates’s counterpart at the national level is Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)— the second largest teachers union in America.

In 2022, she said that parents concerned about critical race theory and gender ideology in schools were spreading “misinformation,” and added, “This is the way in which wars start.’’

So according to Comrade Randi, being involved and concerned about what your children are being taught in schools is the moral equivalent of Pearl Harbor.

By the way, she makes about $500,000 per year, plus massive benefits and incentives. And she, too, has the ear of some of the most powerful politicians in the country, including President Jill Biden and her husband Joe.

There are so many more examples about the power of union bosses.

I wrote recently about how a steelworkers union boss was able to get Jill & Joe to kneecap a competitor— and eliminate billions of dollars being invested in the distressed American steel industry.

The head of the FTC, Lina “Ghengis” Khan, routinely cites union concerns as she goes after businesses, even though her charter is to protect consumers, not unions.

Is this how you protect democracy? By ignoring consumers, shareholders, parents, and voters, and taking orders from unions?

These types of unelected special interests are exactly what keeps the graft going, why the deficits keep rising, and why the national debt keeps increasing.

America is full of highly paid, out of touch union bosses who steal productivity, distort capitalism, and divert resources to their benefit.

Obviously they lie through their teeth and pretend that it’s all about protecting workers. But if that were true, wouldn’t ‘the workers’ already be so much better off because of all the great deals their unions have made?

Except workers are consistently worse off.

So their union bosses are either totally incompetent… or (and?) they’re totally full of shit and don’t actually care about the workers at all.

Probably both. The union bosses are in it for themselves— for the highly paid, cushy lifestyle where they’re never held accountable for their failures. They rake in absurd salaries and massive union revenue, then use the money to buy politicians.

It’s a horrendous circle where the unions keep corrupt politicians in office, then the corrupt politicians use their power to protect the union bosses.

How ironic that the so-called party of democracy is controlled by unelected, incompetent, corrupt union bosses.

And all this does is add to America’s already gigantic financial problems.

We’ll talk about those more in a couple of days when the Treasury’s annual financial report is published.

Simon Black, as James Hickman is more commonly known, is the Founder of Sovereign Man. 

He is an international investor, entrepreneur, and a free man. His daily e-letter, Sovereign Letters, draws on his life, business and travel experiences to help readers gain more freedom, more opportunity, and more prosperity.

Hickman is a lifelong entrepreneur and investor that’s traveled to more than 120 countries on all seven continents. In addition, he’s started, invested in, or acquired businesses all over the world. 

He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the US Army as an intelligence officer during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Hickman founded a South America-based agriculture company that has become one of the leading producers in its industry. A few years ago, he acquired a prominent retail brand in Australia, purchasing the business from the former 1980s era rock star who founded it. 

His other business ventures have included starting a boutique, private investment bank that boasts some of the highest levels of liquidity and solvency in the world, and investing in companies from Colombia to Uzbekistan. He also serves on numerous Boards of Directors, and previously served as Chairman of company listed on a major stock exchange. 

Writing under the pen name Simon Black, he has also written extensively on business incorporation and tax residency establishment in Puerto Rico, and is a proponent of investing in gold and silver as a hedge against inflation.

He is a also a prolific writer on topics ranging from second residency and citizenship, Golden Visas and portfolio diversification, to estate and retirement planning, asset protection, tax optimization and US Opportunity Zones.

 

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