They are the disease of which they proclaim themselves the cure."

Matthew Kaminski interviews economic historian Fred Siegel in today's Wall Street Journal. Siegel has been spending time in New York interviewing bankers and Occupiers. He finds the theater of the Occupy movement ironic in that the bankers and the Occupiers are "on the same side of the street politically. They're both in favor of big government!"

He links the liberalism of the 1960s, not any excess of the free market, to today's crisis. The Great Society put the state on growth hormones. Less widely appreciated, the era gave birth to a powerful new political force, the public-sector union. For the first time in American history there was an interest dedicated wholly to lobbying for a larger government and the taxes and debt to pay for it. "Wall Street makes money off the bonds that have to be floated to pay the public sector workers in New York."

In Mr. Siegel's estimation, only Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has tried the needed fix after last year's elections. "Part of the reason Walker has become such a lightning rod" is that he pushed "straight up, unambiguous structural reform." His move to restrict collective bargaining for state employees isn't as important, says Mr. Siegel, as ending the requirement that state workers pay union dues.

During the presidency of George W. Bush, the number of government workers who belong to a union surpassed the number of unionized private workers.

Government workers make up a growing share of the middle class. And perversely, says Mr. Siegel, unions can justifiably claim to defend the interests of the middle-class worker. "That's because the costs that they've imposed have driven out the private-sector middle class. They are the disease of which they proclaim themselves the cure."

The link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203716204577016092542307600.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop