President Barack Obama declared Monday that modern benefits like paid leave, minimum wage and Social Security "all bear the union label," as he appealed to organized labor to help him win the health care fight in Congress.
Not quite, indeed as to Social Security not at all.
Not as bad as Al Gore remembering his mom sang him "look for the union label" when he was a child (it was attached to that silver spoon of his no doubt). But still pretty historically ignorant.
Social Security was hardly created by Unions. It was first put into practice by Bismark in Germany in 1889 (with a retirement age initially of 70, older than the average German's life expectancy at the time - kinda sneaky those Krauts eh) and then adopted by FDR in the 30s. Indeed, the Social Security Administration's own official history of Social Security shows precious little union influence, if any at all, in having Social Security passed.
He's going to have to look for the union label elsewhere....
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