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If you're truly intrigued, why don't you do the research yourself?
How would an individual do the research?
They would have no access to a database of welfare recipients, for example...and even if they took a 'survey' of the general population they would have no way to verify whether anyone is actually telling the truth. (e.g. if I were on welfare I would lie and say I'm not.)
Amen to that. I hate when people try to say that pensions are a form of welfare.
My shoe might as well be a form of vegetable.
While I agree that military pensions are fully earned, I consider most other government pensions a form of inflated compensation not really fully earned.
I worked on campus as a student janitor (slightly above minimum wage, no fringe benefits, no pension, no health insurance, no paid holidays (this one I hated because holidays meant I couldn't work and thus didn't get paid) right alongside union janitors who were paid wages 3x mine, plus pensions and other fringe benefits (including paid holidays) worth 2x my wage.
Anyone care to tell me with a straight face that the union janitors earned 5x what I earned?
p.s. the student janitors actually did the harder work - I did floor care and cleaned restrooms - while the union janitors emptied wastebaskets from instructors' offices and napped a lot.
While I agree that military pensions are fully earned, I consider most other government pensions a form of inflated compensation not really fully earned.
I worked on campus as a student janitor (slightly above minimum wage, no fringe benefits, no pension, no health insurance, no paid holidays (this one I hated because holidays meant I couldn't work and thus didn't get paid) right alongside union janitors who were paid wages 3x mine, plus pensions and other fringe benefits (including paid holidays) worth 2x my wage.
Anyone care to tell me with a straight face that the union janitors earned 5x what I earned?
p.s. the student janitors actually did the harder work - I did floor care and cleaned restrooms - while the union janitors emptied wastebaskets from instructors' offices and napped a lot.
While I agree that military pensions are fully earned, I consider most other government pensions a form of inflated compensation not really fully earned.
I worked on campus as a student janitor (slightly above minimum wage, no fringe benefits, no pension, no health insurance, no paid holidays (this one I hated because holidays meant I couldn't work and thus didn't get paid) right alongside union janitors who were paid wages 3x mine, plus pensions and other fringe benefits (including paid holidays) worth 2x my wage.
Anyone care to tell me with a straight face that the union janitors earned 5x what I earned?
p.s. the student janitors actually did the harder work - I did floor care and cleaned restrooms - while the union janitors emptied wastebaskets from instructors' offices and napped a lot.
You must have felt discriminated against?
you were not alone.
I had 200,000 miles of OTR driving experience when I was hired at Yellow Freight Lines, $12.80 per hours, casual driver, LTL.
Union drivers looked down upon me because they felt by me being a casual driver, I was taking money out of their pockets, by picking up and delivering freight that they would normally have transported, and earning overtime wages while they did it. I was hired to take up their overtime. I did the same jobs as they old timers did, and for a lesser wage. I didn't stay with Yellow Freight long enough to earn a pension, as I couldn't stand going into the drivers room everyday and facing down men who worked for that company for 20+ years or more, and knowing I was taking bread off of their tables.
If I could have withstood the dirty looks and condescending remarks from the old timers, I might have stuck it out and been a union driver.
Aren't government pensions largely driven by unions?
Driven?
Not necessarily, not all government employees are union members. My brother, a fire fighter and fire safety inspector paid into a government workers pension fund for 30 years, non union.
I had 200,000 miles of OTR driving experience when I was hired at Yellow Freight Lines, $12.80 per hours, casual driver, LTL.
Union drivers looked down upon me because they felt by me being a casual driver, I was taking money out of their pockets, by picking up and delivering freight that they would normally have transported, and earning overtime wages while they did it. I was hired to take up their overtime. I did the same jobs as they old timers did, and for a lesser wage. I didn't stay with Yellow Freight long enough to earn a pension, as I couldn't stand going into the drivers room everyday and facing down men who worked for that company for 20+ years or more, and knowing I was taking bread off of their tables.
If I could have withstood the dirty looks and condescending remarks from the old timers, I might have stuck it out and been a union driver.
your post is proof that unions damage america now.
americans should be allowed to work wherever they want whenever they want. the fact that you thought that you were "taking bread off their tables" is nuts, because what you were doing is "putting bread on YOUR table, and they were trying to stop you.
i think it is beyond ridiculous that union workers drove out non-union workers after the storm, and i see that at least one person has died of hypothermia in NJ.
not to mention that the unions did NOTHING to stop illegal immigration and, in fact, ENCOURAGED it-when they should have been looking out for the members they already have, you know the citizens who have been paying them massive dues for years to look out for them.
the selfishness of the union bosses amazes me, but then again they have a hand in the worker's pocket so that is always going to be their primary concern.
Last edited by floridasandy; 11-05-2012 at 03:33 AM..
as far as the OP question, blue states have more social spending than red states so if you want to be poor forever you should be in a blue state. california has 1/3 of the nation's welfare recipients.
the article is interesting because it has a blue state slant (the blue state people are happier, healthier, blah, blah), yet people are leaving the blue states to move into the red states, and they can't figure out why that would be the case.
maybe people are realizing that the "government money" spent on all these programs is really THEIR money and they would be better off keeping it in their own pockets.
as far as the OP question, blue states have more social spending than red states so if you want to be poor forever you should be in a blue state. california has 1/3 of the nation's welfare recipients.
the article is interesting because it has a blue state slant (the blue state people are happier, healthier, blah, blah), yet people are leaving the blue states to move into the red states, and they can't figure out why that would be the case.
maybe people are realizing that the "government money" spent on all these programs is really THEIR money and they would be better off keeping it in their own pockets.
What about the working poor? I'm confident they don't want to be poor forever - should they be in a blue state or a red state?
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