Posted on 09/13/2012 9:55:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
Their hunger can’t be satisfied.
In a country where government spending now makes up 40 percent of our GDP annually and where our national debt is 106 percent of our GDP, public employees are helping out their fellow citizens during tough economic times by demanding a larger slice of the shrinking national pie.
In California, the state public pension plan is stiffing private investors- even ones they just recently borrowed from to make up for poor investment performance- in order to make sure that government employees are golden.
In another case in California, the Poway Unified School District is borrowing $105 million to build schools, with promise to pay back close to a billion dollars at the end of the 40-year loan period.
“Last August, district officials obtained $105 million for school construction with the promise to repay investors $981 million under long-term financing known as capital appreciation bonds, or CABs,” writes the U-T San Diego News. “The deal prevents the district from paying anything on the bond for 20 years as interest compounds, and requires repayment in the 20 years after, reaching the maximum 40-year term permitted for bond repayment under state law.”
More schools mean more union construction jobs and more union teachers.
How can we let a billion dollars stand in the way of that kind of progress?
In Jefferson County, Colorado the public school system- after continuing the spending party during the recession by dipping into reserve funds and taking federal stimulus dollars- is putting off making the tough budget-cut decisions by again asking voters to hike taxes. The primary beneficiaries of a successful tax hike in this case will be union employees.
Across the Mississippi, in Chicago, coddled teachers, in what is one of the chronically worst school districts in the nation, have rejected a 16 percent raise over four years and have chosen to hit the picket line demanding higher wages and better benefits than small business owner have.
“Keep in mind that CPS is a system where the average median salary for teachers is $76,450 a year,” writes PolicyMic, “compared to the $53,976 made by the average private sector employee, where their graduation rate is barely half (55%), and where only 6 out of every 100 children in a system responsible for over 400,000 children will go on to earn a bachelor’s degree by the time they are 26-years-old.”
On the east coast longshoreman- not public workers but same deal- are threatening to strike the ports on the east coast because shippers have had the gall to ask union workers to abide by over-time rules to help keep costs down.
In Detroit, Michigan a judge recently denied the police union’s request to halt the ten-percent reduction in pay that Mayor David Bing ordered in July to combat annual budget deficits for the city.
Detroit, the city Obama “saved” is in such bad shape economically that it is only operating under a consent agreement with the state and is a hair’s breath from bankruptcy.
Although Scott Walker’s struggle against public unions in Madison was the first open outbreak of fighting in this long war of attrition between the public purse and the public porkers, the stakes for the rest of the country are far greater.
There is no more corrupting influence in politics than union money going to the very politicians who are supposed to be negotiating on behalf of taxpayers with the unions who keep them funded.
The unions eat up the politicians and the politicians gorge on the taxpayers, and thus the food chain is complete.
And despite 100 years of education reform in the United States, we still haven’t gotten the formula right.
According to USC the United States spends $7,743 on each school aged child- more than any other country- and yet the test results compared to other countries are middling.
The country commits to close to a trillion dollars on K-12 education annually without much result.
And the unions cry for more, more, more.
As long as we have greedy public unions funding self-interested politicians, expect the money binge and purge to continue.
ALL unions are public enemy number one. As I like to post here...
I’m distressed by the fact that the narrative currently in vogue, (even among conservatives, and this is horrifying for what it means for the future of the country) seems to run like this,
“Public sector unions are REALLY bad. There are some bad things in private sector unions, too, but they aren’t pure evil like public sector unions. Private sector unions, especially at the turn of the century, were actually pretty good.”
This is pure BS! It is very, very, very scary when, even here on FR, for Pete’s sake, people do not recognize ALL UNIONS AS GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED THEFT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY FOR THE PURPOSE OF BUYING DEMOCRAT VOTES.
I expect ignorance of this fact elsewhere, but here on FR??????????????????????
Here’s how the purely evil, anti-American, communistic, welfare-begging private sector unions work…..
I set up a business, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY (my capital and/or cash money).
I pay for the space, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I pay the taxes using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I supply the parts and inventory, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I pay for the insurance, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I pay the labor, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I recruit, hire, and advertise, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
Oftentimes an entire life’s savings (MY PRIVATE PROPERTY) is at stake.
My future, my standing in the community, my credit, and MY PRIVATE PROPERTY are all at stake.
If I fail, I stand a good chance of being economically crippled for life.
One day, on MY PRIVATE PROPERTY that I own and acquired using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY, one of my employees, who is only in my presence because of the risk of MY PRIVATE PROPERTY, comes to me and says, “Here’s the story, Bub. From this moment forward I am going to begin organizing your other employees to work AGAINST YOUR PRIVATE INTERESTS and do everything in our power to TAKE BY FORCE AS MUCH OF YOUR PRIVATE PROPERTY AS WE CAN GET OUR HANDS ON. We are going to spend a great deal of time and effort ORGANIZING AGAINST YOUR INTERESTS TO DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO GROW STRONGER AT YOUR EXPENSE, IN ORDER TO TAKE YOUR MONEY. You might as well have your business competitors working here on the shop floor. If you do not agree to our demands, we will go on strike, make your life miserable, harass and threaten and/or MURDER IN COLD BLOOD anybody you may want to hire in our place.”
Now the one and ONLY way that such a thing could EVER take place is for the government to step in and say, “Mr. Employer, if you fire this union man, you are going to jail.”
Plainly and simply, no union could ever exist in a free society. Yes, in a free society, you should be able to form and join a union of any type at any time for any purpose whatsoever. AND YOUR EMPLOYER SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIRE YOUR HAPPY ASS IN A HEARTBEAT FOR DOING SO. FREEDOM IS A TWO WAY STREET.
I find this ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Truly. A man strolls onto the PRIVATE PROPERTY of another man and tells him how he will employ his PRIVATE PROPERTY going forward, OR ELSE!, and hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people the world over think that the first man is not only somehow better than sub-human filth, they actually see him as a hero! To me, this is one of the most perverse and mystifying examples of twisted human thinking the world has ever seen. I can’t say it enough; you come onto my PRIVATE PROPERTY, and bargain with me, using the THREAT OF GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED FORCE, about how much of my PRIVATE PROPERTY you will allow me to keep! And this is somehow acceptable?
As I say, even conservatives, (who have escaped the liberal brainwashing that begins when we are still in the womb on guns, race, US history, etc., etc., and do not subscribe to the easy notions that are so readily picked up by the unthinking) seem to fall for this trap. Seem to believe that…
“The work place is filled with mean managers and mean bosses who were/are really mean to kids and women and workers and paid them pennies instead of the legitimate millions that they were REALLY worth, making evil white male capitalists even richer, and they enslaved them and coerced them and made them work real hard and were really, really mean. THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for the government stepping in and saving women and children from mean bosses and really mean white capitalist men.”
Needless to say, each and every single word of that narrative is as totally false and ridiculous as the liberal narrative on US history, or bad guns, or evil white men. If you know people who believe that stuff, you cannot help them. Do not waste your breath on them, do not do their research for them; have them read Sowell or Williams or von Hayek, or von Mises, or Friedman, or even Stossel when they write of “sweatshops” either in today’s 3rd world or in America at the turn of the century.
Unions have pushed the entire world over the brink..look for world wide depression soon.
“One day, on MY PRIVATE PROPERTY that I own and acquired using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY, one of my employees, who is only in my presence because of the risk of MY PRIVATE PROPERTY, comes to me and says, “Here’s the story, Bub. From this moment forward I am going to begin organizing your other employees to work AGAINST YOUR PRIVATE INTERESTS and do everything in our power to TAKE BY FORCE AS MUCH OF YOUR PRIVATE PROPERTY AS WE CAN GET OUR HANDS ON. We are going to spend a great deal of time and effort ORGANIZING AGAINST YOUR INTERESTS TO DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO GROW STRONGER AT YOUR EXPENSE, IN ORDER TO TAKE YOUR MONEY. You might as well have your business competitors working here on the shop floor. If you do not agree to our demands, we will go on strike, make your life miserable, harass and threaten and/or MURDER IN COLD BLOOD anybody you may want to hire in our place.”
Actually, it works a little bit more like this.
Person A, comes to you and asks if you need someone to work for him.
You require Person A to own his own vehicle - pay for insurance, pay for gas and maintenance. You supply the hardware in the form of a radio.
The extent of your ‘investment’ is the radio. That driver only makes money if people pay him enough money in tips (something you have no control over).
In exchange for the privilege of having the radio, you collect a percentage off every delivery and a percentage of tips.
You don’t even pay taxes on your ‘employees’ because they are ‘independent contractors’. But independent contractors get to set their hours, and they all sign contracts, (which you are careful not to sign. These drivers are employees, and they end up ponying everything for the business.
But why are they independent contractors? Because that way you evade taxes.
Employee A after working there gets home, realizes he’s making less than minimum wage because of gas prices and you taking half the delivery fee and half the tips. Employee A realizes you are doing illegal things to make more money. Employee A talks to the other employees and decides that they are all going to walk off unless you either lower your percentage of the take, or raise the delivery fee.
The only private sector employers who see unions form under their watch are the ones who are shitty employers. If you were treating your employees well, there would be no desire to unionize.
The unions and government of California are like drug addicts. No matter how bad life gets the only thing that matters is satisfying the addiction. In our case in California it’s the lust for more from the citizens in the form of taxes.
Bad investments doesn’t relieve the residents of California of the fact we are required to make up the difference. Bad governing is not helping. In fact, they are complicit in taking more income from the public to feed the addiction of the unions. And they lie to the public and try to convince us that they really, really want to change the system.
That will never ever happen.
Until the addict wants to change they will continue to lie and steal to support their addiction. There is no 12 step program for dysfunctional government. There are no consequences for the government to stop their theft from the citizens. And most of the public is too weak or stupid to do anything.
All BS. Every bit of it. Unions form because of human greed to take the property of others.
On MY PRIVATE PROPERTY I have the right to be a crappy boss. Don’t like it? LEAVE. But do NOT use government force to take my cash. Wanna form a union? Fine! I fire you because of it? Fine!
It’s called freedom.
By the way, in the “business model” you describe, the employer would go out of business VERY VERY VERY quickly. He would have no employees. If he has employees, he is, by definition, paying market wages. So, if you know of a business where this goes on, then the empoloyer is paying market wages and that’s a good thing.
“All BS. Every bit of it. Unions form because of human greed to take the property of others.”
So you think it’s ok for an employer to lie and cheat and evade taxes?
Said employer replaced his experienced crew with new people. Employer is now out of business and has been for many years.
Like I said, shitty employers who lie and cheat see unions form. If they were good businessmen, they would pay their employees honestly. People are not going to work for you, if they aren’t making any money.
“By the way, in the “business model” you describe, the employer would go out of business VERY VERY VERY quickly. He would have no employees. If he has employees, he is, by definition, paying market wages. So, if you know of a business where this goes on, then the empoloyer is paying market wages and that’s a good thing.”
Well, he was unwilling to pay market wages and closed. Had he been willing to take a smaller percentage his staff would have stayed on.
He had two problems. One - with the rise in gas prices, he wouldn’t budge on his own take. The drivers who were supplying all of his business capital and taking most of the risks were not getting sufficient compensation to continue working.
Two, he had awkward staffing issues. He needed another half a driver and was overstaffed with a full one.
Like I said, employers like you describe GO OUT OF BUSINESS! The market works! You prefer setting up a system to funnel $1 billion to Obama and Reid and Franken every year.
Who said it’s okay to cheat and not pay taxes? You put words in my mouth because you have no case.
Unions form because there is enough sub-human filth in the world to gang up on other people and steal their cash.
Again, on my private property, I have a right to be a shitty employer, and the employees have a right to leave. It’s called freedom.
I have despised almost every boss I’ve ever had, only as a free man I didn’t run to the G begging for help, like a welfare-begging piece of filth.
“Well, he was unwilling to pay market wages and closed. Had he been willing to take a smaller percentage his staff would have stayed on.”
You see! THE MARKET WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! And neither the kenyan, nor harry filth reid, nor al sub-human monkey puke franken got one single penny out of the deal.
Indeed. If an employer is willing to do the right thing by his employees, no union will form. And please - don’t forget many businesses get significant government subsidies in order to operate. Case in point, General Motors.
Is it right that the taxpayer is on the hook for their bad business decisions?
Not REALLY.
They are paper tigers who have been given their “fangs” by generations of feckless politicians who have pandered to their every whim for a handfull of cheap votes and campaign money.
THEY are the number 1 enemy.
Take care of them and the unions can go @$^*(($^@#&*^ themselves - as was demonstrated in Wisconsin and to a lesser degree in New Jersey.
Human greed mandates that unions will form, no matter how good an employer is.
Businesses get subsidies... Yes I know this. They never should. Not sure what this has to do with unions.
The taxpayer should NEVER be on the hook for bad business decisions.
Close but not quite accurate. The truth is nearly all public employees are the problem. Not all, mind you but fully 80+ percent are not needed and are nothing but a drain on the economy and the liberty of those in the private sector who pay for them.
There is no such thing as a "Public Sector Job". Public employees are the economic equivalent of a huge light bill.
Public employees do NOT pay ANY taxes. The entire paycheck of a public worker originates from taxes taken from someone in the private sector that produced the wealth. So when a public employee "pays" taxes all they do is hand back some of the money that was originally taken from those that earned it. They are "paying" nothing.
Sorry if this sounds harsh but it's the truth. This is why we must have LIMITED government. Reducing the size of government means eliminating all government employees with the exception of those that are absolutely needed for the functioning and protection of our country.
“The taxpayer should NEVER be on the hook for bad business decisions.”
Sounds like you’re one of the good ones. Good luck to you sir. I hope that you have plenty of success in your endeavours. :)
Ah, you are too kind.
There is truth to this, since debt is the only weapon which will destroy current USA and public unions with other socialist programs are the reason we have so much debt.
I’m with the Dr on this one. I’d say unions form in response to immoral employment and should un-form once employment is reasonable. Business markets with good competition would help level business/employee relationship. The trouble is unions stay and stay, so maybe they shouldn’t form.
Public unions are very wrong. When you work for the gov. it is a privilege. Find a real job if you’re not happy with what gov. provides.
“Public Unions are Public Enemy No. 1”
While I despise the vile unions, it is really the press and media that are Public Enemy No. 1. Without them, the corrupt pols that do the unions’ bidding wouldn’t have the power to do what they do, and the unions wouldn’t be such a problem.
Greed will be the death of The United States, unions were a reaction to greedy corporations only to have the unions become just as greedy! A catch-22, counties need to have strict outlines for government employees, the tax payer cannot continue to be over taxed so as to fund exorbitant pensions, or the citizenry will stop the economy in it’s tracks, as they have done now. Union members live as if Rome will never burn and feel as if they can picket to grow their already substantial bank accounts at whim as in Chicago! Unions are fueled by politicians. The government beast needs to be starved otherwise we become prisoners and victims of it’s incessant need to grow!
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