Posted on 11/20/2009 9:02:33 PM PST by neverdem
NEA claims they only spend 15 bucks/year on political pacs, they rebate that back to us. 15 bucks outta thousands, big deal. No way of beating them. Conservatives should support their repub teachers, never do though. Hate them all.
Ya know, the only time I talk politics with fellow teachers is around the fire, when they come up to my moose camp to hunt every fall, ha. Then , we argue.
I am glad you resist the urge to shoot a couple of them. :-)
All you ever hear from Democrats and the NEA is the need for more money to hire more teachers and to build or repair more schools. Smaller classes mean more teachers, etc. The reason that is their hot button is that each will bring in more union members, more money, and on and on. All new school construction has to be done with union labor in most instances.
My point is that it is a shame you have to support the parasites who suck your lifes blood in order to stay alive yourself.
btt
The union will say it’s a teeny-tiny fraction of the dues. We all know that must be creative accounting. Back when I was a teacher it was around $3 out of the $70 monthly payment they stole out of my paycheck each month.
They might say the amount deducted is insignificant, but it is only because they perceive it so against the risk of reprisal. Were that risk insignificant, they would be more likely to exercise that right, after all, if it's only $15 a month that's $180 a year in your pocket. Why not have the $180? Heck, they could spend that money on a conservative candidate instead, and you can bet that it would be both needed and appreciated.
Hence, that they do not exercise that right, they are admitting cowardice and deserve the consequences, for they are spending that $180 on supporting Slave Party candidates.
Believe me, if one spends 5 years in school to attain an ed degree, then jumps thru all the hoops, background checks, testing, continuously paying for/taking classes to keep certs current, work 14 hour/days doing school related activities (in school & at home) to make a decent livng doing something that's quite enjoyable;;;; it sounds completely nuts to rock the boat and be looking for new employment in our world today. I really like the summers off too actually.
I did donate a couple hundred to Palin last year. We have voted for repubs since before Reagen, write letters to our unresponsive politicals, and generally keep up on what;s going on.
By the way, talking about cowardice & consequences makes you sound quite foolish, where have you been all your life? You sound as bad as the libs that claim the rich will have to pay for nat health care for everybody.
No offense, we'll keep our positions, continue to vote for conservatives, live our lives, and scratch our heads at your outlook.
No offense intended, but you may go into defensive mode long before you ever finish reading this post. I may be wrong about you, but there are a whole lot of people in other fields, not just in teaching, who feel about the same as you do.
What I am referring to? To your wonderfully frank line: “it sounds completely nuts to rock the boat.” That is precisely the predicament that those who are out to steal our liberty have created for you. They know precisely how you feel and have been making a winning gamble that you and those like you will do nothing to undermine their racket if it will endanger your own. See my tag line.
There are so many regs (statism) and collectivist thugs (fascism) that you feel up the creek without a paddle to do real battle with them. The threat of getting out of the canoe and portaging out of the ever dwindling lake our masters have you locked up in isn’t that difficult were you to wildcat strike, and if done right, it would put the fear of God into those schemers who’ve been milking you and us all these years. When it comes time to retire, you won’t like what they have planned for you (and they aren’t talking about it either).
But canoes are so easily upset: can’t even stand up like a man cause it may rock the boat (ruining your relatively ok status quo). The water simply doesn’t hot enough to jump out, eh brother frog?
I spent five years in school, worked 90 hour weeks, lived a quarter of my year out of the country, and gave up my career to pursue an injustice, not so much to me as to others, from which I have yet to earn a dime. So far, it has cost me over !,000,000 in lost income not to mention nearly a decade of brutally physical and demeaning work.
No sale.
LOL. When I pinged you, I didn’t dare emphasize that phrase. It kinds stood up and did handstands and threatened to alight fireworks all on its own. :)
Actually, sch dist policy dictates those sort of things in our schools. I guess I could start a federal case about the Union dues, but I would eventually find myself unemployed as a teacher. I prefer to stay where I'm at, even if it means they are stealing 2 gran/year in dues.
You're off the deep end about boiling frogs; not reality for vast majority of Americans. I remember back in 90's. I had friends playing army at night in the woods, their militia games. I laughed at them too.
If it does come down to a complete collapse of our system, we're pretty well set in rural Alaska. I sure wouldn't want to be in any urban area depending on dollars & retirements. In other words, there will be many others worse off than me.
I just don't get too radical about anything anymore. The pendulum swings back and forth, not much changes; been that way for many years. Again, no offense meant either, just difference of opinion. Life has been good.
C.O. Boy I would never do what you have done. Our incomes allow us live a good life. I guess some of us go off on crusades and others just see a different real world. No offense, I hope you achieve what you’re after. We have our kids raised, in school, and quite happy/content with the rest of our lives too.
You may have had it good living off the capital bought at the price of blood, but the price is yet to be paid. If you can't see it, then you'd best open your eyes.
What is correct is that a vast majority of Americans haven't yet met up with reality.
I understand the conservative view point. You have it in spades. "Just leave me tend to my problems and you tend to yours." 'Cepting that we will be cursed by the posterity we will have enslaved with the money robbed by the current gang of thieves, and robbed of the opportunities we have (for the most part) taken for granted. I tend to be grateful for those who've made my life good, and thus think it my duty to try and persuade others that perhaps we OWE it to them to do the same for those to come. Perhaps you won't let that trouble you as much today as you might in days to come. Let's pray it never comes to that.
You're right about the urbanites too; I'm one of them, and report from the worst of it. E.g., voter fraud has been rampant here for close to 20 years, and the Republican party has been too "conservative" to rock that boat. They positively have hate in their eyes for me when I asked what they were going to do about it. And that was when we had a GOP secretary of state.
So, you see how your aversion to "rocking the boat" is merely a more innocuous version of a much more virulent disease? You are certainly not to blame for those who sit and do nothing in areas of America far from you. But in an Edmond Burke, father of conservatism, sort of warning, it is a caution if not reprimand to all those who lay claim his political view.
I'm not singling you out either Eska. More than anything, the single most common trait of conservatives is "LEAVE ME BE!" That, and there are a whole lot of conservatives who want to protect their principal and will let their "leaders" to worry about principle. There's much humor in that vision. And again, there is Matthew 19:24. "Life has been good" will surely be understood well.
No argument from me about that! I agree. The point is that I suspect that through “creative accounting” and nebulous jobs even those who DO opt out still end up having their dollars put towards political goals anyway.
By the way, back then I asked about opting out of the union entirely, but was told that to do so, I had to come up with the entire amount of “dues” at the beginning of the year. IOW, pay the entire amount up front instead of merely being robbed of $70 per month out of my paycheck. I didn’t have $840, being young and broke, so union it was for a couple of years. Until I moved to a state that does not compel union membership. If unions were actually helpful, states wouldn’t have to force people to join. Ours never did anything for us. They’ll take credit for the fact that public school teachers are more highly paid than private school teachers. The thing is, if teacher to student ratios had been kept constant over the past 40 or so years, teacher pay would be much higher than it is now because there would be far fewer teachers. In some places there would be half as many teachers. Instead, in some places as class sizes decreased, we got a lot of young, dumb teachers hired because they were warm bodies. Educational quality decreased, but since almost every teacher contributes to the union, the total union dues went way up. Most of this history applies to California, but it probably happened in many other states as well.
In short, I have nothing against collective bargaining as a matter of free association, but legally enforced monopolies are destructive to product quality and wealth generation.
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