Does the Hippocratic oath trump collective bargaining?

Recently, I have been deep thinking about the notion of collective bargaining. You should give it some thought too. Why? Because in my opinion, it will be more and more popular in the next decade. The social issue is - does any group of workers have an inalienable right to cease providing services to other Americans. The legal issue might be, if the service is a threat to national security, can we force these workers to go back to work against their collective will? Legally, perhaps yes, but practically I doubt it. There are no easy answers to these questions. But the answers do focus on the fundamental issue of democracy, or the rights of a few versus the needs of many. 

Teachers, garbage removal companies, air traffic control operators, police, fire-persons, truck drivers and train workers, to name a few categories, all provide essential services, at one time or another, and clearly they have a right to strike-or exercise their collective bargaining right. What about banks? What if the banks, or bank workers, or ATM service personnel, refused to work as a part of a collective bargaining agreement. Further, I doubt my authority to compel others to provide services that I need when they exercise their right not to. My trash would pile up in my garage quickly, smelly and voluminously with the trash haulers not working. I could not get any cash from my ATM or pay my bills if the bank workers were not working. And so on.

And what if? Just what if, Google said to the DOJ, “We are tired  of your absurd investigative, condescending, threatening activities, we are going to shut down Google for a month or two.” Wow! Life without Google would no doubt hamper the DOJ who most probably use it to search for damaging material about Google itself, or AT&T. It might be less expensive for Google to bargain with the DOJ, on this basis, rather than reserve $500 million for legal expenses as they have already done. 

It is not yet a cashless society, as usually demonstrated by the car lines in front of the ATMs. If the ATM service people went on strike, It would truly be a cashless society for awhile. 

Tomorrow, if the people who operate the Kansas City Power and Light refuse to work, I would have to agree to give them significant increases in pay, just to make coffee. I doubt if we would force them to work at gunpoint.

And the farmers of the world. What if they, through collective bargaining, refused to grow more food, unless they get paid more? Farmers would see a resurgence of national respect, increased land value and perhaps several farmers would hire Morgan Stanley to file an IPO because a farm’s value would now be worth more than software. I can get along without Windows, but I need food to live.

In the next decade, taxation, as a method of wealth redistribution, will be replaced by collective bargaining. For example, health care is a union target and they are making in-roads too. Let’s hope the Doctor's Hippocratic oath trumps collective bargaining, in the spirit of Apollo, the physician.