Republicans survive Recall effort in WI, what will happen in PA, PGH? (Pittsburgh: rent, insurance)

[TelecasterBlues]

now, now fellas....but as the tea partiers are now saying: The rich create JOBS!!!!! That's why we need to help them out and make the middle class suffer for a while!!!

...uggggh. Honestly, if government officials and even the citizens of this state and others now think that tactics such as collective bargaining, a means so that people in a few fields can pull in an average of $35k-$55k a year with medical and health benefits, is the root of all evil...well, we're all screwed and middle class America will soon be out the window entirely. Seriously, just think about all of that for a while. It makes me want to pull out a 2x4 and slap some sense into the world every time that I see a low-middle class worker bashing unions and democratic practices in favor of extremist right wing policies and whatnot...really, the republicans aren't out to help the average citizen and never really have been. Wake up and smell the d@mned coffee; put aside your personal beliefs and support whatever it is that is going to help make YOU, YOUR LIFE, YOUR JOB, and YOUR FAMILY better off. These people are basically saying: "yup..had to pay higher taxes due to school cutbacks, lost my medical coverage, had my work position reduced...but gosh darnit!!! It's all for the better cuz' now we can give more money to the gas drillers and we're not bein' run by no Dems!!!!"

Give me a freakin' break...are people really so blind as to not even know when they've just been taken advantage of and had their quality of life flushed down the toilet in favor of promoting handouts to big businesses that they're not even a part of ???

All of this basically just amounts to the rich getting richer, middle America becomming poor, and the poor being forgotten outright. Nobody outside of the wealthiest of the wealthy should be supporting ANY of what's happening right now from the right wing side of the political scope.

[Craziaskowboi]

Half of "middle-class America" is government jobs these days.

[MeinGlanzendMotorrad]

I don't remember the last time some crack riddled hobo created a job... but hey let's hate the people who sign our paychecks.

[Treima]

Originally Posted by MeinGlanzendMotorrad

I don't remember the last time some crack riddled hobo created a job... but hey let's hate the people who sign our paychecks.

I don't remember the last time a strawman argument was effective...but hey it's worth the old college try.

[zip95]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

A unionized public employee, a Tea Partier, and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table sits a plate of a dozen cookies. The CEO reaches across, takes 11 cookies, looks at the tea partier and says,"Look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie."

Repped!!!

I can't even begin to fathom how people can't see this. It's been utterly obvious for about a decade.

The rest of the story has the government attempting to tax the CEO 3 of those cookies, to redistribute back to the unionized employee and the tea partier. The CEO again looks at the tea partier and says, "Look at what those socialist, muslim, health-care, debt, debt, debt Dems are doing. The path to prosperity is to destroy more unions, ship more jobs overseas, deregulate more industry, and let me keep more cookies".

Brain dead people

[ditchdigger]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

Half of "middle-class America" is government jobs these days.

That's not because of any great growth in government jobs, it's because of the disappearence of many of the private sector jobs that kept people in the middle class.

I don't remember the last time some crack riddled hobo created a job... but hey let's hate the people who sign our paychecks.

Tis true, but, business creates jobs where it's most advantageous for business, and we all know that business has created tons of little paychecks overseas, and eliminated many middle class sized paychecks here.

I'll say here what I've said other times and in other places--What American labor needs, is for somebody to go and unionize the third world. That would level the playing field. But it ain't gonna happen anytime soon, and in the meantime, the unions here are going to continue to be villified for driving up costs, when the real problem is that the American worker is now competing head to head with people who'll work for a buck an hour and be gald they're getting it.

(And for the record, I'm in a field where union work is common, but I'm not a union member, and that's by choice.)

[szug-bot]

the major unions (such as the auto workers) want ABOVE AND BEYOND what is reasonable.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by szug-bot

the major unions (such as the auto workers) want ABOVE AND BEYOND what is reasonable.

Or perhaps you are just getting below what is reasonable?

Also I never understood the whole "you should be happy for rich people because they give you jobs". There is no reason you should worship the rich because they compensate for a service you provide.

[bradjl2009]

Speaking of the rich and their mentality.................The rich are different. I read this little piece today.

[Love2Golf09]

I'm not sure why this is even a big deal since unionism is dead. It is dead! Anyone with half a brain knows that if they try to strike in this economy they will be playing with fire because their company can have a ton of non-union workers to replace them at a moment's notice. It's hilarious to hear delusional liberals talk up unions as if this is still the 1960s. In this economy, with globalization, decent jobs are hanging on by a thread. Starting a union or striking could easily shut down a company and have a thousand jobs shipped to Mexico, Viet Nam, China, Cambodia, Turkmenistan, etc. Those Verizon employees striking are playing with fire. If Verizon didn't care about the potential negative press, they would fill those jobs with non-union replacements within a week, no problems at all. There are plenty of motivated, educated, desperate unemployed people ready to grab those jobs.

What also bothers me about people talking up unions is that they never focus on what happens when things go wrong. We saw this in Pittsburgh. For decades unions were striking right and left, constantly pushing their members to push harder and harder for more benefits, more wages. What happened in the 80s when it finally started to rain pink slips? Where were the tough-guy union bosses when thousands couldn't pay their bills? Where were the class warefare people when a union member was sitting in his car crying with a guy at his head, ready to end it all because he couldn't feed his family and had been out of a job for 8 months? 150,000 jobs left the area in the 80s, almost all union jobs. That's pretty pathetic. The only people that made out back then were the lawyers and union husslers that kept telling all their members that everything would be fine and the corporations would cave if they just held out a little longer.

When I see union big wigs having "meetings" at resorts in Florida paid for by member dues, it makes me sick. Members can't even refuse payment since it automatically comes out of their check. And all those scumbag thug union leaders say it "They don't have to be in the union. They can get another job!" Absolutely disgusting.

So, to the people talking up unions as a way back to the middle clacss...you're fools and need to get back into the real world. Unionize and your job is as good as gone. There are billions of workers in the world that can do what you do for a heck of a lot less money and hassle. Unionism is dead! It ate itself to death.