If the government cannot by the vote of majorities of citizens in the state control it’s own financial health, then the survival of a democracy or republic is in fact in the control of the most ruthless, critically situated, or powerful grouping.
You can read all sorts of things about the IMPORTANT MOMENT IN WISCONSIN where :
Average MPS Teacher Compensation Tops $100k/year
So let me set the ground.
My wife is a special education teacher in a rural setting. She makes $15k per year. There is no union. The people in this area are already getting 36% of all income from local, state and federal sources, and thus higher taxes are no answer. She contributes a bit to retirement as her income allows. Neither she nor her colleagues would EVER leave their students to commit what is occurring in Madison, WI.
Yet we can read from the left the following (Guardian)
I’m sure that you’ve been following the Wisconsin situation, especially if you’re an American. If you haven’t and you are not, in sum: the new Republican governor proposed a budget with tax cuts and various tax breaks (especially for the well-off and corporations), huge cuts to education and other services and most controversially a provision that would strip public-employee unions of the right to bargain collectively for anything except wages (not benefits, not vacation days, etc.).
Actually, what we see is that the request for the union to pay ONE FOURTH of what most american workers in the private world pay for health and a somewhat comparable amount for retirement, BECAUSE THE STATE OF WISCONSIN IS IN A FISCALLY DIRE AND UNSUSTAINABLE SITUATION TODAY, DUE IN PART TO THE RESULT OF THE SETTLEMENTS THESE PUBLIC UNIONS HAVE COMPELLED, has triggered a NUCLEAR RESPONSE NATIONWIDE FROM FORCES IN THE UNION MOVEMENT, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND PRESIDENT OBAMA AND HIS PERSONAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZING MOVEMENT -ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA.
The newly elected Republican gov, Walker, whose belief, like those in my state (where a dem senate, house and gov were reversed to republican) is that if BUSINESS LARGE AND SMALL is enhanced, all earn more, all pay more taxes in a ‘rising ocean’ is instead depicted as a crony of millionaires.
Unions, one could forcefully argue, so COMPULSORY at the turn of the 20th century, swung the pendulum to destruction of the industries’ owners they protected their workers from by the 1980’s. Today in the ruined foundations of General Motors and Fiat (remember what Chrysler is now ?) we can see in the structure of their bailouts that the industry’s rescue was PURELY to keep the unions there alive (UAW) with constituents.
With 2 years of unemployment is there any doubt that nearly all the workers from a non existent General Motors would find safety in the increased demand sent over to Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, Ford, and Nissan, all of whom now have large (mostly non Union) plants in the USA?
But we speak of Wisconsin.
This is simple. If the government cannot by the vote of majorities of citizens in the state control it’s own financial health, then the survival of a democracy or republic is in fact in control of the most ruthless, critically situated, or powerful grouping.
If the unions WIN over the citizens voting in a govt specifically to change this situation, the citizens are not in control. Vocal minorities who can stage a TV event, and intimidate are in control.
Never mind Al Qaeda, here is the end of the USA. Dollar by dollar, public union contract by public union contract. The public SEIU’s are fighting for their lives AGAINST THE PUBLIC. There may be a day when we need unions desperately again, but that day is not today. Today they are the parasite that kills the host.
I am 61. I support some kind of raising retirement age to 70 (I don’t expect those doing heavy labor to keep on keeping on), NOW. TODAY. For obvious reasons. My wife, the teacher, is appalled and disgusted by what she sees in Wisconsin.
Why should we not demand equally selfish barbaric looting if these union people WIN?
THAT is what is at stake.
Linked at my site, at the bottom of the post I just put up at my site.
ReplyDeleteGood analysis, Epa.
Unions (and most Americans) do not understand that when you want a piece of chocolate pie and there is none left, no matter how much you bitch and moan, there is no pie left.
ReplyDeleteIF the unions win, it will only be for a relatively short time. Their all-or-none mindset will leave them and the rest of us with none.
Actually, I think most americans DO get it, and that is why in BIG BLUE places like WI and ME, the gov, and both state houses flipped to all red.
ReplyDeleteLOCAL
SURVIVAL
Bound to be ugly.
This IS the beginning of a more genteel CIVIL WAR.
It is between those who think they KNOW BETTER than the majority and promise free lunches, and those who understand in their gut that the idea of free lunch is, unfortunately, an emetic.