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Who is watching Wisconsin?
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Anonymous
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My dears, I won the Ayn Rand essay contest for Atlas Shrugged when I was a senior in high school. Luckily, I outgrew that simplistic economic moralism shortly after I wasn't, you know, 17 years old anymore.
Those of you hating on unions are buying, wholesale, a lie by the Republicans that strong workers' rights are evil and cost the nation money. You know who actually pays that cost? Whose money they are really trying to protect? It's not your paltry middle-class or upper-middle-class rat-race pay. It's the money of the big boys (the ultra rich) who finance pretty much every aspect of politics in this country. The rich are just sick of having to pay their fair share in taxes to finance things like roads, firefighters, bridges, schools, libraries, etc. Not only have they (very successfully) sold the poor a false bill of goods that lowering ALL taxes is ALWAYS a good thing -- thus widening the gap between themselves and the hoi polloi -- they now are attacking the only source of money (earned income) the middle and working classes can count on. Rich people don't give a shit if America becomes Industrial Age London, with no worker protections, and people making a tiny pittance with no benefits -- after all, they are the ones holding the whips (and the ones holding the leashes for their pet politicians). And most of their money is not earned income (btw, for a laugh, look up the tax burden of an income earner vs. someone who's rich and gets most of their money via investments. Surprise! They are totally scamming the hell out of American taxpayers). And hate to break it to you, but -- if you actually educated yourself on the subject of taxes (instead of just squawking the kneejerk "taxes are bad and evil and I shouldn't have to pay them and the government is corrupt and to hell with them if they think they'll get anything") -- you may find that they are economically the only way for a democracy to achieve a stable infrastructure that allows for people to avoid permanent serfdom (by enabling and protecting a middle class), and disallows for the establishment of a permanent aristocracy (something our founding fathers fought against with every fiber of their beings). If you think all taxes are always bad, you are a shitty, shitty American. Good LORD. I just read that 60+% of people think unions are bad. How much tripe is the American public willing to swallow!? I have never seen swine so eager to line themselves up for the slaughter. Enjoy slavery to the ultra-rich! |
Anonymous
| Lets all join a union that pays us $65000 a year and we can't be fired. Then we can all strike and have "sick-outs" against each other to get regular pay increases no matter what the rest of the World is going through. Then when no money isn't there we can print as much as we want . We can all pretend to work and then we can pretend to get paid. This is the fastest way we can get to our socialist utopia now.....LETS GOOOOOOOO!! |
Anonymous
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note that fed unions cannot collectively bargain for wage increases. note that most southern states are right-to-work, and have experienced higher wage growth than union states. finally, note the implicit unfairness with giving public unions the right to collectively bargain - their main focus is electing politicians that agree with them, who they then "bargain" with for the next package, who then obviously grant them their demands. It is not true arm's length negotiations that you would find in the private sector.
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Anonymous
Thank you. You are a tough one. I will now confess that I was in the steel workers union while going to college in the 60's. From my view they kept me as safe as possible in the most dangerous environment I have ever experienced, a good thing. I do not feel all unions are bad and never suggested that. However, the pendulum has swung too too far. As far as I know, steel is no longer produced here in the US and unions have outlived their usefullness. It seems teachers unions have ruined education along with other sociological factors and so on. |
Anonymous
Aw, you sound just like a Republican! "I don't know where the money will come from, but somehow, we will pay the rich and let the country go to hell!" This was a complex allegory about Wall Street ruining our country and still rolling in bonuses, etc, while the rest of us suffer unemployment and salary cuts, right? |
Anonymous
Wait, so since the union that protected the industry you briefly worked in is no longer "necessary," now none of them are useful? YES. I'm not dead, so ALL HUMANS ARE IMMORTAL! God, I love your reasoning style! P.S. "No child left behind" ruined education. Thanks, W! |
Anonymous
| dude, depending on the year, the US produces the 3rd or 4th most steel in the world. in fact, I think we produce more steel now than we did when you were doing the job in the 60s. I'm on your side in this debate, but not sure how an ex-steelworker could be so clueless. |
Anonymous
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Thanks for the info. I stand corrected. I thought steel production around the Great Lakes was non existent or minimal.
It was a college job many years ago. |
Anonymous
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_steel_production
It appears, steel production, to be dropping like a lead rock. |
Anonymous
pretty bad recession, as I am sure you have noticed. I think in the early 60s it was around 100 million tons/year, about what it was in the mid 2000s. Peak was somewhere in the mid 70s. |
Anonymous
| I just saw the Governor of Wisconsin's press conference. tough SOB. Seeing him and Gov Christie gives me SOME hope for the future. |
Anonymous
| I agree, tough and sober minded SOB's. |
Anonymous
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The brilliant thing about Wisconsin (and other Republican measures to destroy unionized public services) is that it will lead to the public service sector being abandoned by those that formerly found a good balance of stability and pay there.
Who will step in to fill the gap? Why, private contractors! And who will make the money? Why, the giant contractors that already hold such sway over the political landscape, and siphon so much money out of our government already. But you know, why shouldn't a few people get filthy rich so we can cut the pay of firefighters, police, teachers, etc -- those lousy layabouts don't deserve the money as much contractors do! And there's never been a problem with the quality of work or the amount spent when we rely on contractors to do what the gov't used to. |
Anonymous
| I agree. DeKalb County in Georgia would be a great place to start. That union is worthless, and you can be certain they did not just show how lazy and arrogant they were on the one day cited. |
Anonymous
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No incentive to perform in any way.
Hey what's for dinner tonight. Let's get back to the house befroe it gets cold! Nice job boys! |