i’ve been asked to debate that question today on CNBC–I will post the video later. But, why do we even debate this anymore? It’s entirely about ideology, not economic facts. Union workers make almost 25 percent more than non-union workers–the difference was actually wider not too long ago but I suspect that deep concessions hitting unionized workers everywhere slightly changed the differential…certainly not grand wage hikes for non-union workers.

   The reason, then, that we debate this question is not about economics. It’s all about ideology. I was asked in the pre-interview to the segment (that’s how it works–a producer calls you ahead of time to ask you what your talking points are, presumably to prepare the anchor/host) two interesting questions:

1. "In a time when growth is not robust and we are in different economic times, do unions matter?" Uh, yes–after all, if the question is how do you get out of this mess, unions are the solution–since part of the reason we ended up in this pickle is that wages have been flat for 30 years so people had to use credit cards and home equity to survive.

2. "Since we are moving from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, do workers need unions?" Well, first, there are still plenty of manufacturing jobs in the country–but lots of them are not unionized and pay poorly. And service sector jobs do not have to be bad jobs. Manufacturing jobs were once horrible, dangerous jobs (and many still are) before unions made them safer and better paying. The same can happen in the service sector.

Anyway, the fun begins at 2:20 Eastern time.