The union percentage for public employees is 37 percent (for all employees, it's about 12 percent).

The type of defined benefits that the Lockheed union is fighting for--just for new hires, mind you--is what's killing states and cities across the country. But that's a separate issue.

Middle class prosperity has done just fine on its own in many, many industries in which unions never figured. Of the 16.3 million workers in union shops, 14.8 are union members, while only 1.5 million are workers who are not members but still work for a company covered by a union contract.

That 1.5 million, of which half are government, is your "penumbra" of prosperity. The "hangers-on" of union membership.

As for political contributions, note that unions have had free rein in contributions for the decades prior to the recent Supreme Court decision. What were they "balancing" then?

A list of where the campaign loot comes from, and which parties it goes to.