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A blizzard slammed the Great Lakes region this week, with blankets of snow and sheets of freezing rain closing roads and taking out power lines. Hundreds of thousands were left without electricity, heat and water (read: no toilets). With no utilities and temperatures in the single digits, my family’s lakehouse in south-central Michigan felt like a log cabin in “Little House on the Prairie,” with the little house being dropped into the frozen tundra of Sarah Palin's Alaska. This torrent, however, was nothing compared to the storm of controversy surrounding new Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder‘s new budget.
All the citzens since the pay cuts that the state workers get will go to the tax cuts of bussness as stated in the article. So the ones who do not work for the state still get to pay the same tax load or even more. In return they have disinchanted teachers (those that don't move to another worker friendly state) teaching the children. Disinchanted state cops won't give a crap if some one is speeding so awful much, Judges won't care either. They will all get paid what ever the gov. wants for them to be paid.
Neighbours are already fighting wars in the neighbour hood. Peoples homes who had campain signs for this gov are having their homes egged, Paint balled cars and homes, trash dumped out all over their what will be lawns come summer and even the kids beat up at the bus stop.
Company My daughter worked for as a chemical enginner, called a meeting 3 weeks ago and told all the workers they were going to get a 20% pay cut. Of the 8 employees, 2 quit on the spot. My daughter and another guy quit the next day and by the end of the week the place closed its doors since all the workers had quit. My daughter now works as a retail sales person in the mall making 3 dollars an hour more than she would have at her old job after the 20% pay cut. She has a interview with 3 M on Monday, Her and hubby are already making plans to move to Minnesota to work. Brian can transfur as he works for a bank that has branches in Minnesota. Daughters Mother in law is making plans to move to France since she was a war bride and has a whole passal of kin there still.
All the citzens since the pay cuts that the state workers get will go to the tax cuts of bussness as stated in the article. So the ones who do not work for the state still get to pay the same tax load or even more. In return they have disinchanted teachers (those that don't move to another worker friendly state) teaching the children. Disinchanted state cops won't give a crap if some one is speeding so awful much, Judges won't care either. They will all get paid what ever the gov. wants for them to be paid.
Neighbours are already fighting wars in the neighbour hood. Peoples homes who had campain signs for this gov are having their homes egged, Paint balled cars and homes, trash dumped out all over their what will be lawns come summer and even the kids beat up at the bus stop.
Company My daughter worked for as a chemical enginner, called a meeting 3 weeks ago and told all the workers they were going to get a 20% pay cut. Of the 8 employees, 2 quit on the spot. My daughter and another guy quit the next day and by the end of the week the place closed its doors since all the workers had quit. My daughter now works as a retail sales person in the mall making 3 dollars an hour more than she would have at her old job after the 20% pay cut. She has a interview with 3 M on Monday, Her and hubby are already making plans to move to Minnesota to work. Brian can transfur as he works for a bank that has branches in Minnesota. Daughters Mother in law is making plans to move to France since she was a war bride and has a whole passal of kin there still.
Al
I'm sorry, but I just don't understand the attitude of people like the protesters in Wisconsin. It sounds like your daughter did the right thing!! She didn't whine and complain and go out in the street and hold up a sign. She quit and found another job.
I was raised to be thankful for what you have and what you get, but that nothing in life is guaranteed. I come from a lower middle class background, a "blue collar" background, but not a union background. You will never catch me raising hell because I am "getting screwed by the man." Why? Because I'm in control of my own life. When I've been unhappy with jobs in the past, I can always look back at some decision I made in my life that put me in that position. The blame is always, ultimately, with me. Not someone else. If I'm unhappy with something at work, I'm am going to spend every waking hour trying to find something better.
Especially as a public worker, to walk out of work and protest during the middle of a painful recession because you don't want to give up anything that you are entitled to seems childish, selfish, almost narcissistic. I will never, ever be able to understand that way of thinking. I can't even figure out how to empathize with them.
I have been a history buff for a longgggggggg time. Recent history like WWII has always bothered me. How did Hitler ever get the power he had to do what he did.
What is happening in Wisconsin is teaching me just how.
Hitler got in office with the promise of jobs, Much like what happened in Michigan recently. He made the jobs all right making war material. The whole time he gathered around him the others filled with hate and able to blind people to what was really happening like the rounding up of jews and putting them in camps. Since the people of Germany were steadly fed that Jews were bad for the ecomeny the People just stood by and allowed it to happen.
So in Wisconsin a gov. is elected who promised to cut the states spending, cut taxes and balance the buget.
A bill is inderduced to not only just cut wages but also to destroy the colltive bargining process. The People of Wisconsin will not get the tax cut but bussness will. Yet the working class blue collar people just stand and allow it to happen because they keep getting told that a teacher,cop judge making a decent wage because of belonging to a union is bad but for a CEO of a company making obseine wages is good. And some of the people of Wisconsin stand by and allow it to happen just like the citzens of Germany.
Once Wisconsin is settled with busted unions and disinfranchised state workers next will be the workers in factorys that are non union. The 40 hour week will soon go, health and saftey devices will be gone that means more hands lost in presses because the saftey devices slow down production. Workers pay in the factorys and other places will also be cut because the CEO wants a new Jet to fly to a tropical island for the winter.
If it happens in Wisconsin it will snow ball to other states then the capital of the USA. Once it hits Washingon only a war will clean up the mess that has put millions on the streets like during the depresstion.
Giving tax cuts to busness and dumbing down the citizens will not make Wisconsin or any other state a better place to live.
You really think bussness is moving to China to get closer to natural resourses?
Really it is for the money. No minium wage, no clean water acts, no clean air acts, no health and saftey standards and best of all nearly slave labor.
A prime example of how money does the talking is the banks here in the USA that got bail outs and gave bounes to those who were in power when the trouble started.
Then the Auto CEOS flew into Washington in their private jets with their hand out.
Only on condition did they get the hand outs of money. Not on their backs but the backs of the workers and retires and in GM's case the stock holders. For every model droped 100,000 hourly workers lost jobs. In GMs case that was Pontiac, Saturn, Sabb, Hummer, just to name 4 brands dropped. How many presidents vice presidents lost any thing??
Working for a dollar with stock options isn't losing a red cent.
What is an obscene wage for a business owner to make? Most of the small business owners that I know make $150,000 - $300,000 per year iff their business is successful. However even if they are nto successful, they still have to pay the workers, the taxes and the utility and other bills. Many of them are making nothing or losing money right now. In exchange for the privilege of making nothing, or possibly making a lot, they get to work 14 0 15 hours a day at least 6 days a week. They worry constantly that someone will sue them or a worker will mess up and they will lose everything and end up completely broke. They feel responsible for the livlihood of each of their workers. People do not pay on time and they have no cash, yet they still have to pay their workers on time.
Business owners have seen a seady decline in their income for the past four or five years at least. The cost of benefits, worker's compensation and liability insurance, and taxes has skyrocketed. Meanwhile workers clamor for more raises and more benfits. I feel sorry for people who make little and get cuts, however I do not feel any sympathy for people who expect raises or increased or even continued benefits during the worst recession we have ever seen (at least most of us).
People need to realize that there is only so much money, and you cannot spend more than you have.
Government is the same way. Everyone says "Don't you dare cut MY program, (or pay or benefits). However there is not enough money. Period. Pretty much everything has to be cut. When they start cutting education, you know that the situation is dire. Education cuts are pretty much political suicide. This needs to be done. We muay not like where or how they cut, but the hard cuts have to be made. It is a good thing that we have a governor willing to forgo re-election in order to make the tough choices.
I have been a history buff for a longgggggggg time. Recent history like WWII has always bothered me. How did Hitler ever get the power he had to do what he did.
What is happening in Wisconsin is teaching me just how.
What is an obscene wage for a business owner to make? Most of the small business owners that I know make $150,000 - $300,000 per year iff their business is successful. However even if they are nto successful, they still have to pay the workers, the taxes and the utility and other bills. Many of them are making nothing or losing money right now. In exchange for the privilege of making nothing, or possibly making a lot, they get to work 14 0 15 hours a day at least 6 days a week. They worry constantly that someone will sue them or a worker will mess up and they will lose everything and end up completely broke. They feel responsible for the livlihood of each of their workers. People do not pay on time and they have no cash, yet they still have to pay their workers on time.
Business owners have seen a steady decline in their income for the past four or five years at least. The cost of benefits, worker's compensation and liability insurance, and taxes has skyrocketed. Meanwhile workers clamor for more raises and more benefits. I feel sorry for people who make little and get cuts, however I do not feel any sympathy for people who expect raises or increased or even continued benefits during the worst recession we have ever seen (at least most of us).
People need to realize that there is only so much money, and you cannot spend more than you have.
Government is the same way. Everyone says "Don't you dare cut MY program, (or pay or benefits). However there is not enough money. Period. Pretty much everything has to be cut. When they start cutting education, you know that the situation is dire. Education cuts are pretty much political suicide. This needs to be done. We muay not like where or how they cut, but the hard cuts have to be made. It is a good thing that we have a governor willing to forgo re-election in order to make the tough choices.
Alleyooper said CEOs were making obscene wages, not small business owners like the ones you mentioned.
The hardest working people I've ever met have been small business owners. I concur with you on that much. I wonder what would happen if small business owners and labor got together politically? It's not as far-fetched as one might think. The GOP pretends to be "pro-business", but it does not help all businesses equally. It promotes the interests of large corporations over small mainstreet establishments, finance over manufacturing, and multi-nationals over those that do business only in the US.
These days, corporations are sitting on huge cash reserves instead of hiring or investing in new equipment or expanding research. And those CEOs and executives are still taking home huge compensation packages. The money is out there. We do not have to cut public services or employee wages and benefits to balance the budget. We could just tax all the wealth that is currently going to those who already have more than they know what to do with. Cutting public payrolls at a time of high unemployment is stupid, especially when the private sector is not hiring despite the fact that the recession has been officially over for some time now.
Deficits are a serious problem, but unemployment is worse. And here's a case where the needs of workers and small business coincide: cutting public payrolls means fewer customers for local businesses.
Here's something to think about: why are so many of our brightest minds going into high finance to make their fortunes? Why are they coming up with crazy new derivatives and financial "products" instead of inventing new technologies or curing diseases? Why aren't they starting their own enterprises like your small business owner friends?
We should be taxing the @#$% out of the people who make millions moving other people's money around and then have to be bailed out when their schemes collapse. Likewise for those who have never done a day of honest work in their lives but have inherited vast wealth. People who want to make millions should have to take real risks of their own, come up with products and services that serve genuine human needs, and put people to work at wages they can live on. Real enterprise should get incentives, not just "business" in the abstract.
These days, corporations are sitting on huge cash reserves instead of hiring or investing in new equipment or expanding research. And those CEOs and executives are still taking home huge compensation packages. The money is out there. We do not have to cut public services or employee wages and benefits to balance the budget. We could just tax all the wealth that is currently going to those who already have more than they know what to do with. Cutting public payrolls at a time of high unemployment is stupid, especially when the private sector is not hiring despite the fact that the recession has been officially over for some time now.
This makes for a good political talking point, but isn't really based in reality. Businesses don't "sit on cash" just for fun. That's not how businesses work.
The hardest working people I've ever met have been small business owners. I concur with you on that much. I wonder what would happen if small business owners and labor got together politically? It's not as far-fetched as one might think. The GOP pretends to be "pro-business", but it does not help all businesses equally. It promotes the interests of large corporations over small mainstreet establishments, finance over manufacturing, and multi-nationals over those that do business only in the US.
Michigan is definitely more friendly to large manufacturers than it is to small businesses, but it's not really a Republican/Democrat issue. The current Michigan Business Tax is set up to favor manufacturers, while small business owners generally hate it. But it's not really the fault of either party. A bunch of clueless legislators from both parties came up with the MBT during Granholm's time in office. Gov. Snyder's 6% corporate tax plan would actually make things much easier on small businesses, but would likely result in a higher tax bill for large manufacturers than what they are seeing now.
Last edited by michigan83; 02-28-2011 at 11:03 AM..
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Al
