Here's a novel idea to keep our jobs filled with American workers.....let's stop vilifying business (afterall who else will provide the jobs) and stop catering to the labor unions that demand falsely inflated wages that make us uncompetitive.
That was what is was supposed to be about but this RWer jumped in straight away and started going off on Obama.
I have an idea too: Penalize American companys that hire foreign workers instead of Americans, make it more profitable for them to hire American workers, creating jobs that allow the workers to buy the products that the company sells.
You mean your point about bringing American wages and working conditions down to Chinese or Malaysian levels so that American corporations can come back home and exploit us the way they exploit workers in Asia? Ooops, sorry, we're not supposed to "vilify" business. I'm sure my wage comment has hurt GE's or Dell's or Boeing's or some other corporation's feelings they've probably just shipped another thousand jobs overseas as a result. By the way, it's probably la little late for this, but have you thought about starting your own thread rather than hijacking mine? As you pointed out above, this doesn't really relate to the op.
Unions? Yeah, I think the pay they make is excessive, but I wouldn't want the ability to bargain in groups to be outlawed either. ...SO... I'd say keep the unions but with stricter limits on wages. Now how about limits on profits of large corporations... I know, going too far LOL ...but there's the rub, that workers are expected to live on a lower scale than the business owners... that business should be able to reap massive profits but workers should remain docile and obedient... to be satisfied with what they make and shut it lol
Yeah, I know. I just had to throw that in since I don't think this thread was more than 3 or 4 posts old before it was all about Obama, courtesy of you-know-who.
As a democracy, we need the unions. The Republicans will never look out for the working class man. The Democrats betrayed the working class man. Only the Unions will look out for the working class. As for pay, why can't the working class live like middle class after all they are the ones who are working.
I'd say when I was content with my pay, that I wouldn't demand more, but the unions always seem to beg for more and more and are never content. A couple of examples on why I say this: The first is the attitude one of my teachers had back in highschool (early 80s) when asked about his pay. The feeling I got was that he was extremely happy with his pay... I had never seen that before in anyone so it was odd. Now mind you, this was 30 years ago. A decade later I worked in a tax business and saw a husband and wifes return, both teachers, making an extra $2500 each every year for a five year period. That's an increase of $12,500 each in 5 years (from late 80s to early 90s) I've never heard of that before either as I was lucky to receive a 5 cent raise once a year and pay for a full-time minimum wage job was probably around $10,000 (after taxes). So I'm saying that these teachers, all union members, were content with their pay 20 to 30 years ago, and that the pay raises they received were enormous compared to the average worker. IMO, it seems greedy to demand more money when you are already content. Second, take a look at other bargaining units in sports to see how insane it can get. In Green Bay, I think Brett Favre's paycheck was 12 million in his last year as a Packer. When Aaron Rodgers, an unproven player, replaced him... he received the same amount. Brett was a superstar, but was under an older contract. Rodgers was a newbie, and unproven, yet made an equal amount of pay. I would have been fine taking say, 4 or 5 mil if I was Rodgers Ok, the second point is a bit ridiculous, I know... but I've been needing to vent about it and this gave me the opportunity
The unions are in business for the unions. They have thrown in with organized crime & the left, using the union voting bloc as their leverage. Today a union is not much more than a fundraising source for the dimocrat party and the ties with organized crime keep members, small businesses & their crooked politicians in line. Do you know why a union has a members union dues deducted from their paycheck? They know, for one, a lot of them won't pay and secondly, they know the menbers will demand some sort of accountibility if they actually had to sit down & write out that check every month.
I do think unions tend to get too greedy with their demands, and I lose respect for them somewhat when they do that. I still believe unions are necessary though, and don't like the Republican's actions (in state and federal governments) that have basically crippled them.
Why is it that Republicans have a problem with greed only when it's union greed? Corporate greed is fine. Personal greed is the foundation of a capitalist society. Their whole worldview is built on greed and it's all good until unions get greedy. Then it's an issue.
"...the World may never know..." ...Ok, I stole that from tootsie-pops, but it applies! Seriously, it is rather odd. It seems contradictory to their core belief of money, money, money. From what some have said on here it sounds like unions are taking money away from big business and are corrupt. I know tons of Republicans, none of them are involved in big business besides owning a few stocks here and there, and quite a few of them support the unions. As for being corrupt, I'd say the politicians leading the anti-union campaigns are corrupt themselves. They are backed by big business after all.
Helping workers exploit employers, anti-competitiveness, decline in the value of merit, focus on seniority and not skill, charge high dues but produce little benefit for the worker, highly political and often corrupt, serve little purpose other than to keep wages and benefits artificially higher than what the market determines, forcing employees to join, fund-raising arm and lobbyist for the Democratic Party... just to name a few.
Exploiting workers, anti-competitiveness, decline in the value of merit, focus on seniority and not skill, charge high service charges and penalties with little benefit for the customer, highly political and often corrupt, serve little purpose other than to keep wages and benefits as low as possible, actively "encouraging" employees to work “voluntary” OT, donate heavily to the Republican Party and lobby extensively for the right to do even more of the above. This would be a corporation with which I have had some firsthand experience.
I can agree that some of that is true, so I have issues with unions too. But IMO, they have a place... a purpose... in America and are still necessary.
