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I learned a trade at 18 that made me a valuable commodity, and I was very good at my trade. I didn't need anything but a bent car and an air compressor and electricity. When I started working for someone else, they got half of the labor I produced and all of the parts profit. No benefits whatsoever.
They raised the labor rate but did not want to give us our half so everyone walked out of the job. There was no union, it was just a spontaneous reaction to getting screwed. They gave in that time but eventually they stopped paying us 50% of the labor charge.
I built cars on my own and started my own business. Learned a lot about running a business and got my arse kicked the first time. The second time I did better and my employees got a salary, full medical benefits and a 15% matching retirement contribution to their individual retirement accounts. Paid vacations and sick leave, as long as it was reasonable.
I understand the reason why unions were an essential part of the labor movement in the early 20th century. Management considered people as expendable tools of capital production. Use em up and let them go.
I also understand the problems involved with running a business and how unfair it is to work 60 hours a week for less than 70 cents and hour, living in an unheated building, with no hot water, so you can become debt free and financially strong, conditions no employee would tolerate for any length of time these days compared to 100 years ago.
To attribute the value of happy employees to the union movement demonstrates a biased attitude. In general this form of character assassination is used by both parties to get people to hate someone because they are a despicable tyrant or control the money supply, or control the job market. Maybe this was the case in the era of the giant monopolies of the early industrial era in the US but it is certainly not the case today.
Like all entities, unions must evolve into a useful partnership with the corporations and govt agencies they interact with or they risk obsolescence, especially if they act like a virus and kill the host that provides the essential capital supply for existence.
The northern states are seeing the results of the last 50 years of union dominance of industrial operations. The pendulum has swung towards the left this time and the CEOs and owners of the large manufacturing companies are looking elsewhere for profitable operations. If you were them you would do the same, when you are facing bankruptcy if you allow the status quo to continue.
Now the US faces its greatest threat of all the time since our existence. National bankruptcy is not a joke, or some empty threat. There are many examples to study in history. Khrushchev said "we will bury you". he didn't say how it would be done. but the US in its self righteous arrogance is now fighting the perpetual conflict in Afghanistan that bankrupted the old Soviet Union, and we are headed in the same direction form my perspective.
If you hate Democrats or Republicans, the problem is between your ears, and you have been programmed by propaganda as effectively as the Germans were in the 1930s.
WE have maxed out the US credit card, most of it was on the Democrats watch, so spare me the hypocrisy of trying to blame the Republicans, as that act renders your point as worthless.
If the govt of Wisconsin as well as the govts of many other states continue to allow a small percentage of their citizens to force them to continue on this course of financial disaster then every citizen in the US will suffer when the US dollar ponzi scheme dies and even those who were fiscally responsible loose their savings and retirement security.
WE don't have the national cojones to even decide to change the retirement age for Social Security for gods sake. Life expectancy in 1900 was 43 years. When SS passed in the 30s it was 62. Guess what, that was the retirement age. That meant half of the people paying into the system never saw a dime. Of course when you pay out benefits it's hard to complain about not living long enough to get your dime back when you did not pay in for 30 years.
My grandmother paid in 40 quarters. She paid in at 1%, a total of about $375 over 10 years. She got about $100 a month for 28 years from age 62 to age 90.
I would have to live to the age of 545 (no misprint) to receive the same benefit to money paid in ratio that she did.
If you want to look at govt gone wild, study the history of FDR's presidency.
Study the history of federal income taxes and the max rates at 90% + in the early 1950s when they actually tried to pay back the war debts from WW2.
Can you honestly tell me that inflation is as low as the govt tells us. Its only because housing values have collapsed.
Many of the northern states jacked up peoples property tax rates when times were "good". I read about a city bus driver making 100k a year in some north central city. Include benefits like retirement and medical insurance and he is making several times more money than I ever made in my lifetime, for driving a bus.
The localities in Michigan where the auto manufacturing companies were a significant part of the industrial base raised their property taxes to rates I have seen as high as 6% per year. Our local rate is .685% about 11% of their rate.
How can you pay 6% property taxes and 93% federal income taxes and stay alive, unless you are making many millions of dollars a year.
Do some research and see how many people actually make that much money a year. Let them pay the 70 trillion this country owes now and they will leave the country instead of paying the bill.
Go ahead, slap Bill Gates and Warren Buffet with a 99% pre death inheritance tax and see how much they spend on attorneys to prove its unconstitutional, while the rest of us poor citizens are sent a bill to pay for the govt's continued stupidity since they don't have the money to pay their attorneys.
regards
Mech
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