Hey Republicans, Adopt the AFL-CIO’s 2004 Message: Show Us the Jobs
by Kyle OlsonI distinctly remember the placards in the windows of the union hall in my union-stronghold Michigan city: “Show Us the Jobs.” It was a thinly-veiled campaign against the Bush administration for what the AFL-CIO saw as a failure to create jobs.
The economy in 2009 and 2010 was and is far worse than it ever was in 2004. The unemployment rate in 2004 was 5.5%. Today, it’s 10%. If Obama could get the unemployment rate somewhere in the middle, the Nobel Committee would likely send him the prize for economics.
Saul Alinsky’s Fourth Rule for Radicals is, “Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.” So, in true Alinsky fashion, why not turn the left’s campaign against them? Republicans: adopt the “Show Us the Jobs” campaign. After all, the AFL-CIO’s bus tour to swing states didn’t begin until March of that year.
A pro-union newsletter said this about the AFL-CIO’s campaign:
A bus tour will soon travel to eight states and 18 cities to highlight parts of the country from small town America to large cities that have been hardest hit by job loss. The tour will end in Washington, D.C. to call on our nation’s leaders to make the jobs crisis their number one priority, and to put America back to work at good jobs. As the tour winds through these cities a spotlight will be focused on the devastating impact of the nation’s deep jobs crisis.
Seems like it’s about time for another bus tour, eh, AFL-CIO? It would be with good reason. In April 2004, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers framed it this way:
Show Us The Jobs was planned to put human faces behind the cold statistic of 2.2 million jobs lost since President Bush took office.
Using that qualifier (ie. “since President Bush took office”), here’s a dirty little fact: In just one-eighth of the time, the “cold statistic” provided by Americans for Tax Reform in June tells us that 2.2 million jobs have been lost since Obama took office.
President Obama was able to accomplish something that took the Bush administration eight times longer to do, through the AFL-CIO’s lens. Congratulations!
But sadly, this is still not a priority. No, it’s the opaque power grab of health care reform.
And the fact that the AFL-CIO isn’t waging a campaign against President Obama and Congressional Democrats underscores that cold fact.
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80 Comments
Unions served a purpose, at one time, as a type of check & balance, but just like what they were fighting against, they have become, greedy monsters out to dominate the world. The difference is that unions strive to make it imposable for employers to employ, subdue innovation and individual achievement, promote mediocracy & make the whole world one miserable slum.
Hmmm, i agree that you can use this tactic, but 2.2 million jobs lost during a worldwide economic boom compared to 2.2 million jobs lost during an economic recession aren't quite the same. I'll use this tactic against both Republic and Democratic adminstrations thank you…
If the GOP wanted a future, they would steadfastly adopt a "REJECT GLOBALISM NOW" stance….and DO it.
Raise tariffs
End NAFTA and all trade agreements
Tell the world to get stuffed. Build EVERYTHING here.
I defy anyone here to explain how we are going to remain a sovereign nation otherwise.
But this won't happen until you eliminate the CFR candidates and politiicians. I'd rather have a non-CFR Democrat than a CFR-Republican like Bush, McCain, etc…
exactly. How do comepete in the world when your labor force is one off your opponents?
should read: What time do the prison buses with the criminals in congress leave for Illinois??
Funny thing about recessions Kyle. They tend to build up over time, spring on us quickly and then drag out for 18 months to two years. This one seems to be following a familiar pattern, complicated by the near total meltdown of the banking system and collapse of the housing market. We can all point fingers about who is to blame and we will never agree. So now we just have to live through the recovery like we were trying to get over a injured knee or broken heart. We all know it just takes time.
While blame assessment can be difficult, there is no denying that the wheels came off of this trolley in 2008, right in the middle of the presidential campaign. It was in all the papers. By January 2009 the job loses were massive and we were all scratching our heads wondering if this was going to be another typical business cycle or the beginning of a 21st century depression.
Into the mess stepped a new president. It was left to him to try as best he could to figure out what happened and how do we get through it with the least about of human suffering. The party of Bush acted like life began on January 20th and somehow Obama was responsible for everything bad that happened up to that point. They offered lots of suggestions, but most amounted to more of the same policies that took us up to the edge of the abyss…. more tax cuts and more deregulation. When that was rejected they began to pout and snipe.
Now it's a year later and the recovery seems to be right on schedule. Disaster was averted and now it's just a race to see who will benefit politically in the 2010 elections. The consensus is that single digit unemployment with some job growth and Democrats get to keep their jobs. Double digit unemployment and maybe a collapse in the commercial housing market and Republicans get the keys to the House.
At this point there is nothing for Kyle and the conservatives to do but try and scare people into believing that somehow Obama created all this mess. Try and assign the blame while ensuring he is never able to claim any credit. It's a tough balancing act, but if your are dedicated to winning, and not worried about whether the words spilling our of your mouth are based on any semblance of facts, you can do it. Check your honor at the door because it's gong to be a dog fight.
"you could not outline a worse economic plan" THAN THE ONE WE HAVE NOW.
It was walled off before when we reached the moon. Now we can't even repeat that feat if we wanted to. You are repeating bilge from "Free Trade" econ departments which has all failed.
"Pick any time in history and the best place to live is the city or state that was open to vigorous trading. Amsterdam, Venis, New York, Hong Kong, London all had great ages when they had access to the worlds trade."
Aren't these areas with strict gun control and little land ownership, too? If you think the good life is wasting money on rent in some diseased city then that is your problem. I don't know of anyone who would want to live in some Hell hole like Hong Kong. Sure, the corporate elite like it….. You are easily fooled in to peasantry all because of some shiny things.
"Your point of view is whats killing Michagan."
My POV is what is making China skyrocket and Japan before that.
I distinctly remember the placards in the windows of the union hall in my union-stronghold Michigan city: “Show Us the Jobs.” It was a thinly-veiled campaign against the Bush administration for what the AFL-CIO saw as a failure to create jobs. (Courtesy of Kyle Olson)
They should have been blaming themselves. Michigan is basically plagued with Government hand-outs and Unions that ultimately led to the strangulation of businesses that caused them ultimate demise of Michigan.
Only one problem with that analysis…
Its wrong…
But stay with that…it'll make it easier for you in the end…
Get real, tariffs have never worked economically, all tariffs do is start tariff wars with trading partners.
America nor any country is a self-contained economic unit.
Educate yourself.
I didn't blame him – I simply applied the same standard the AFL-CIO did to President Bush. Was the AFL-CIO unfair?
Any seats left on that bus?
AFL-CIO response: "Hey! Yous can'ts be usein' our words we spokes with our own mouths against us!"
And from the AFL-CIO website:
"The problems we are seeing are a result of an approach by politicians of redistributing wealth upward. The upward redistribution is now greater than it has ever been."
Looks like there are still some bright spots for employment; from the statements made by union leaders, it's clear that meth dealers still have customers.
I'd be very careful about "demanding" that the Federal Government be held accountable for creating/saving jobs. People in the Soviet Union and in "Oceania" ("1984" by Orwell) all had full employment… and we know how that turned out.
The sad truth is that we SHOULD (yes I said that correctly) have gone through a depression dating back to 2007 and liquidated all of the MALINVESTMENT out of the economy with desparately cutting back on government spending (which includes all of the social programs, welfare state, warfare state, and gov't bureacuracy) to actually produce a REAL recovery like we saw after WWI during the DEPRESSION OF 1920.
Don't buy any of the "green shoots" jargon… we are heading for really hard times. Become self sufficient by taking care of the basics and not being dependent on anyone else. Get out of debt, get an emergency fund put together, live below your means, and prepare for the worst thing that could happen to you and when/if trouble happens, you will be ready to face it.
http://andykatherman.blogspot.com
I always thought that if it was financed by money taken from citizens, it shouldn't be called a job. What the current policy is doing is stimulating goverment expansion. So let's call it what it is. It is clear that this administration has no intention to stray from the agend of big government. & a big percentage of why there are no real jobs to be had in most of this nation, is fear of a big government, tax and spend agenda.
If Republicans were to gain back majorities & power, & create private sector jobs, businesses would lose the fear & start hiring again. There's your recovery, baby.
But as you can see, dems won't do it. They aren't smart enough to stop making deals with our money over health care, & they aren't smart enough to create jobs either.
this blog article is pretty funny. Its like the author is saying: "Conservatives: Here is a way we can attack the dems! Tear a page from there playbook and make a stink about the job situation! Here's a quote from Saul Asslinsky to back up this logic!"
Okay okay. That's interesting.
Its too bad that you guys need this type of elaborate and politically scheming logic to criticize Obama about the job situation.
Here's a clue: No matter what Saul Aslinsky said, no matter what the AFL-CIO said, criticizing the President about the job situation is fair game and a self evident problem in and of itself. No special theorizing necessary!
Dhasselhoff,
I strongly urge you read about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley... established under Hoover. Possibly the worst piece of legislation ever constructed which was a disaster and was one (of many) of the factors perpetuating the great depression.
Tariffs don't work my friend and never have.
It might be better to say, "Jobs lost since the Democrats took over Congress."
Why didn't you hear about the depression of 1920?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcUmnsprQI
Government has done everything possible to create a depression – giving incentives to export jobs is the worse. Not PROTECTING our industries like EVERY OTHER NATION DOES. However, what they can do to "fix" something like this is NIL. We are going to go off a financial cliff because of the bailouts and the printing of money. There will never be a recovery so long as they ignore PRODUCTION. Production is the economy – consumption is the erosion of it.
The unions were angry because the rhetoric that came from the White House trumpeting the Bush recovery from the Clinton recession, but it was a jobless recovery. Productivity continued to grow each quarter but where were the jobs? We were losing good paying manufacturing jobs and replacing them with telemarketing jobs. So unemployment was falling but real wages were still in decline. Bush's tax policy had provided economic stimulation that was promised, but it came with half trillion dollar budget deficits and that didn't even include two wars that were being fought "off budget". And where was the trickle down? We were cashing in the equity in our homes and charging up our credit cards. Something just did not smell right.
While I believe Bush's economic and tax policies and deregulation ideology were largely responsible for the eventual meltdown, I don't blame him so much for the jobless recovery. He was experiencing the results of an economic shift that was 20 years in the making and exacerbated the jobs problem… plants were closing and these jobs were gone for good. Gone to Mexico and South American and Asia. Bush was as much a victim as the rest of us. So in that sense it was a bit unfair.
Obama is going to have the same problem as our current economy recovers. As we replace good paying jobs with service sector jobs. Some people are really going to be frustrated when the Democrats begin crowing about reasonable unemployment numbers, while workers sit in the drive through window at McDonalds and stare at the factories that are closed for good. Fair or unfair, that is going to be on the president.
Stop expecting the government to create a business climate condusive to jobs creation… ain't gonna happen!
Create you own (business) climate change now: http://www.mymoneyfish.com/u/fishing4dollars
But if you can use the same tactics to blame Democrats and the Obama at the same time…do it…
Sorry, but if we can legitimately spread the misery to the supporters that voted for it, I just don't see any problem with it…
I think thats what the Progressives had in mind when they came up with UNIONS
" Productivity continued to grow each quarter but where were the jobs? We were losing good paying manufacturing jobs and replacing them with telemarketing jobs."
The funny thing is, you prolly don't even realise you contradicted yourself in consecutive sentences…..
"but it came with half trillion dollar budget deficits"
The largest single Bush deficit was that for FY2008, essentially a Pelosi creation + TARP. In fact the deficit decreased steadily 2002-2006, until the Dems took over thw Hill. But that's not the hysterical paqrt- the laff riot is that a supporter of Obama's obscene deficits complains about a trifling half-billion! I suppose you posit a differnce between Bad Republican Debt and Good Democrat Debt?
The rest of your post came straight out of your weekly AFL-CIO newspaper: rubbish. The unions have been singing the same Edward Lear song for years: productivity bad, inefficiency good.
Sorry- productivity is the economy. Basic Econ 101.
Why do we never hear of the Deptression of 1920? Because it doesn't fit the Narrative. You see, Warren Harding and Andrew Mellon actually did the right thing: curt taxes, slashed government spending. Problem solved: the economy recovered.
But the Narrative only wants to talk about the Depression of the 30's which FDR handled in the approved Leftist manner and (shh! Don't tell anyone!) made much, much worse.
Most of the world was in a depression as the decade began. Eight years later, only the United States was.
its odd that such tactics would be useful. Are the critics of Obama and Dems unmoved by the unemployment figures alone? That's wrong.
As far as I'm concerned: If Obama can't make the Democrat-style solution to our problems work, well then, him and his dems don't deserve to be rewarded by re-election. Whatever, solution to the problem… 10% unemployment is (and should be) political death.
"Why is China getting rich?"
Good question. Let me reply: Every thing we "import" or buy from another country, has to be purchased with "DOLLARS". Those dollars can go 3 places. 1) they can subsidize our debt by purchasing T-bills (what china is doing) 2) can be re-invested back as capital into domestic plants here in America (ie. japanese car companies creating American jobs) or 3) exchange dollars for other currencies or assets that accept dollars (whom then can have to pick between options 1, 2, or 3).
How many of our heroes have been punished, killed and maimed due the rules of engagement?
Does anyone care other than me?
It seems we're of the few that do.
Give me one example in history how Tariffs work. I would love to hear an honest example of it. But, after doing my homework on history and considering our economic condition, tariffs usually have the opposite of effect of their intention and are met with retaliation (which China, India, and Japan could very well use because they own about $2T of our debt).
If we want to counter that, we as americans must 1) produce and save MORE and 2) consume LESS. It's not rocket science but simple economics.
Not that simple. Bad debt is deficit spending during economic expansion. Good debt is government "spending of last resort" to prevent a recession from becoming a depression.
Don't blame congress for things that happened on Bush's watch. Nothing got passed into law without his signature. Take some responsibility.
My contradictions are only in your mind unless you share them with us.
We hold commoners accountable, but we refuse to hold our leaders and KINGS of our country accountable. .
Lastly, one of the reasons why jobs, capital, and production have fled to other countries is due to our huge cost of doing business from a multitude of regulations, taxes, bureacracy, as well as the highest corporate income tax in the world (35%).
I'm not sure how you equate protectionism to prosperity. The last I checked car manufacturers, Walmart, and many other companies are pouring capital into China more than other places around the globe. And, I'm not an ivory tower theorist nor do I know anybody of that ilk. I am a free market, liberty, and private property loving individual that knows we do live a global marketplace/world where we shouldn't be afraid of competition. Rather, we should get back to understanding hard work, thrift, savings, proper capital formation and the path to prosperity doesn't lie with putting up protectionist walls.
Our country due the lack of and selective Accountability is bankrupt. We were a country of freedom to not from. Where are the jobs? I guess we are protected from jobs.
No, all deficits are bad. Sometimes, once in a great while, they are
necessary evils as during World War II. Sometimes they're simply
unavoidable, as when Congress can't be made to cut spending sufficiently.
But deficits are *never* good.
You seem to be clinging to the Keynsian fairytale that deficits during a
contraction \”prevent recession from becoming depression.\” Sorry, kid:
there's no such thing as Santa, the Easter Bunny, or the Keynes
Multiplier. Deficit \”stimulus\” never works, never has, never will- as
evidenced most recently of course by the utterly useless Porkulus. There
was precisely ZERO private-sector growth in 09Q3: none. The touted
\”growth\” the WH is hawking was 100% Federal spending- no multiplier in
sight.
In fact, the lesson of the New Deal is that deficits in a contraction can
turn a depression into a longer, deeper depression. Contrast the
Depression of 1920, and how Harding and Mellon tamed it.
Or are you arguijg , perhaps, that Obama's unending years of
trillion-dollar-deficits are \”good\” because we will be in a perpetual
recession? That I could almost believe.
________________
Oh, contradiction- your claim that the Bush deficits, puny as they were by
Obamanist standards, somehow \”caused\” the meltdown in the financial
markets- and immediately went on to say that the only way to fix the
damage supposedly caused by the Bush deficits is through Obama's
hyperdeficits.
Dude, I can only imagine the things you've said to get that score you're toting, but I have to go with you on this one. Tariffs aside for the moment, what we need to do is reclaim our production base. Right now we're long on thinkers, talkers and spenders, and short on doers and producers. Importing producers is only going to bankrupt us faster. It's high time America got off it's lazy ass and started making things for itself again. Things that the whole world wants. Then we can sit back and say "Go stuff yourself. We're not selling you any more guns, bombs or medicine". Or, at the very least, charge them 4X what they're worth. They'd pay it, because there's no where else to get the stuff we'd be making. Of course, we'd have to start enforcing the death penalty for espionage and treason again to maintain our proprietary advantage. I could live with that.
Keep in mind, GOVERNMENT JOBS ARE GROWING….PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS ARE DECREASING! Why?
i agree completely….. you couldnt go wrong with that …reguardless,…..
Duh……………………….ONLY Democrat controlled union "gubment" jobs are important. The private sector should shut up and pay more taxes so Obamie and Michelle can fly to Hawaii and stay in Kailua. Welcome to the USSA. /s
“Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.” Sadly, that would be 'un-american' for the republicans to embark upon such… What time does the bus leave???
you could not outline a worse economic plan. to wall off the US to comption would mean or economy would atrafe like Argintina in the 50's.
Pick any time in history and the best place to live is the city or state that was open to vigorous trading. Amsterdam, Venis, New York, Hong Kong, London all had great ages when they had access to the worlds trade.
Your point of view is whats killing Michagan. Who the hell would invest in unionized and corupt Michagan. The rust belt will rise again when you cut up your union cards and get to work.
Lending and spending… that is what will lead the economy out of the recession. Hiring will lag, as it always seems to do.
We have two problems that may complicate the recovery. Some jobs are lost forever… they are not coming back. We will adjust to this but it will take longer than the typical recession time of 18 months to two years. The other problem is going to be the $2 trillion the Fed has laid out there to keep the banking system liquid. That money is going to have to be called in by the Fed to prevent inflation and that is going to be a delicate balance. Pull it in too soon and you strangle the recovery. Leave it out there too long and inflation can do a lot of damage to your economy in a hurry. It's not going to start for a couple of months at least. The latest job numbers showed a loss of 87,000 jobs in December. Markets held firm today in the belief that these numbers will hold off the Fed from raising the prime. By the end of March I believe the Fed will be in full defense mode.
The economy is going to be what decides who is successful next November. Single digit unemployment with positive job numbers on election day and Dems keep their jobs. Double digit unemployment and with expanding job losses and Republicans win the House. Senate is too far gone at least until about 2012.
Nothing else is going to matter in the midterms…. not terror, not health care… and especially not right wing knuckleheads putting negative spin on press reports.
It's the economy…
I want to play!
Could it be…The recession?
FDR is fairly well regarded in the history books Pedro. At least in American history books.
Our blame lies solely in our refusal to change the system that offers us a choice between two evils. I lack to words to convince people if we put soldiers in prison or punish those in our military for a small lack of judgment when placed in a impossible situation, where a moment can determine life or death, then we most hold our leaders to same code they hold our heroes.
It has been the rules and laws that have bankrupted our country, we have strangled the ability of the worker to go from worker to business owner using their talents and money to protect big business for the public good. You want America to succeed then everyone must be allowed to succeed or fail based on their talents not dictated or protected by the government.
Unions purpose may have been served for the first 36 minutes from inception. After that, Officials turned them into corupt organizations that do nothing but take your dues, strangle your employers business into the ground, and will sell you out on the next contract negotiation.
Kyle,
Please don't give the Nobel Committee any more ideas. It's hard enough dealing with Obummer and his one Nobel prize.
Mabey not so /s
Seems to ring true for me
It should be easy for any true conservative to gain office this year. There are so many easy targets. Jobs, economy, war on terror, health care, cap and trade, immigration ….
Come on now, "Green" Spain suffers from an unemployment rate of more than 19.4% with young people there almost at 50%. Ireland has an unempooyment rate of 13%. The Netherlands has an unemployment rate of only 3.9%, and Europe overall has a 120% unemployment rate now, approximating that of the United States.
Every cloud has a silver lining. Reduction in employment helps reduce carbon emissions. Reduction in production creates austerity. A problem however, is that in a modern technologically and scientifically based urban society, people without wherewithal are in desperate straits and maintaining stasis within the society requires reallocation of resources through the intervention of government, which draws capital from the economy. The alternative is putting folks back to work and also producing more. Greater efficiency has largely maintained production with reduced payrolls.
The Obama vision unfortunately is that of an inexperienced juvenile, who has not viable model of economic activity. If the United States is fortunate, conditions will permit the election of a highly intelligent, experience, and proven competent leader such as Mitt Romney at the next election. I sincerely hope that bigotry towards his religion, he's a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon), does not cause the people of this country to shoot themselves in the foot by failing to elect a man who can lead a full recovery and better the lives of the people of this country.
Why is China getting rich? Certainly not be importing everything and hemorrhaging wealth – that's what we are doing with "free trade." Free Trade is a scam by globalists to average the quality of life of those in nations like the US with those living on dirt floors. Tariffs work to prevent dumping – maybe YOU should research what Japan did to the US electronics industry in the 80's.
Stop loss a draft of the brave and who is being held accountable for this injustice, While so many in our country have not to served? We hold only a select few accountable but not our KINGS?
\”His tax cuts for the wealthy took billions away from the middle class\”
What piffle. \”Took???\”
\”His tax cuts for the wealthy took billions away from the middle class\”
What piffle. \”Took???\”
should read……….. when does obozo go to jail for the corruption and treason on America
of course you are not wrong…………. its just that the liberals hate to have their hypocrisy thrown back in their faces
the unions have been allowed to convince the workers that they should make six figures for putting a nut on a bolt for 8 hours a day for thirty years and then retire at 80% with America being more than happy to help finance the budget breaking promises made to union exhortion.
America sure luvs see obozo use taxpayers money to keep the unions flush while we suffer from our own job losses and hits as served up by obozo and unions
America luvs the cheap chinese goods as made possible by cheap chinese labor,,,,,,,,,, and who's to blame us………we have learned to get all we can and quick as possible ……….before the obozo/reid/pelosi set take our money from us to give to their favorite mooches
oh look, another liberal that does not like to see the liberal tactics of radicals like alinsky/obozo turned back on them to show the liberal hypocrisy
truth always hurts the liberals …….err………..the few the liberals that have a little intellectual honesty………..as these days, that number is getting fewer and fewer
nobelbozo at service to America haters worldwide
after 3 years of liberals running us in the ground, we dont need ot point out the obvious facts of the economy killing of reid/pelosi to go along with the obozo corruption and lies
govt jobs are filled by quotas and dont require any actual work or qualifications, so the obozo set fit right in
if you like what the unions have done to detroit………… you will love what the unions want to do to America
In order for the Obama plan to work he must first destroy the economy before it can be saved. History shows the dismal effects of the Roosevelt era's attempt to 'nationalize' the economy and how today's attempts closely mirror the past and the devastating effects it had. People are waking up, but will it be enough , and in time?
Let's just say we disagree and leave it at that.
The Bush deficits did not cause the meltdown. The deficits were a result of his economic plan, not the cause. His tax cuts for the wealthy took billions away from the middle class and provided capital for the investors to leverage and buy the derivatives from deregulated banks and that did melt down the banking system. It all might have worked if the tax breaks had been used as investment capital in this country… but it wasn't. The global economy is a big reason why supply side economics doesn't work. The wealthy can chase the best returns any where in the world. Even if it is ultimately in derivatives backed by air.
You provide those same tax breaks to the middle class and the money is spent in the U.S. Providing real stimulus.
As long as unions can promise their card holders that they can make 10 times the minimum wage ( minimum, by definition, being the lowest you can be paid!), they will always be around…until the card holders understand, that their being in a union, does NOTHING to enrich their lives, rather it is putting money in the pockets of union bosses…Look at the jobs that have been lost after being in the hands of the unions…totally criminal!!
The best economic system is written about in the Book of Leviticus. It required however, that “church” & “state” believe in the same God, so that the citizens would have a high level of morality and integrity…as well as the “Administrations”. The Administrators did not receive their incomefrom the Tax (tithe) collections! “Blue Collar” workers did not pay a tax…Only business people(s) paid a 10% tax on their gain and eventually the 10% tax was proved to be too much, so it was reduced after a short time of being in operation. There’s more to it of course. But remember: Leviticus Ch 25 Vs 10 is stamped on our Liberty Bell (you know the bell with a huge crack in it)
As long as we are operating under the socialist banking system and the socialist income tax system our personal wealth is being reduced. Technically our Nat'l Debt can not be paid off…because there's not enough money in circulation to pay off the interest portion of the debt. Well, the next generation will pay it off seems to be the mindset….that is impossible.
Indy: I wonder if you even think that if it were not for the unions who you are so quick to condemn there would be no 8 hr day, few holidays and the working conditios that you enjoy, regardless of your station in life would not be as good. I suggest that take the unions out of the picture and you would slowly return to what was the norm many years ago prior to the Trade Union Movement. I belong to a very good union and many of our members are part of your community and if not for them the community would not be what it is, are we perfect? NO however we are working at it every day and our success or failures can be reflected in your daily living.
and our country can be a big MA or CA.
I WILL SHOW YOU THE JOBS. THERE ARE 8 MILLION JOBS CURRENTLY OCCUPIED BEING BY ILLEGAL ALIENS.
OBAMA COULD CREATE AS MANY AS 8 MILLION JOB OPENINGS SIMPLY BY ENFORCING OUR EXISTING IMMIGRATION LAWS AND BY COMING DOWN HARD ON COMPANIES THAT EMPLOY ILLEGAL ALIENS.
MILLIONS OF LAW ABIDING AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE LOOKING FOR WORK. WE NEED OUR JOBS BACK. WE NEED THE GOVERNMENT TO GET OFF IT'S COLLECTIVE POLITICALLY CORRECT ASS AND ENFORCE OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS NOW!!!!
Where in the world would get enough raw resources to do this? Take as just one example, aluminum. We don't have anywhere near enough proven reserves of bauxite to make enough aluminum to provide for our needs. The price of aluminum would SKYROCKET! Who could afford a can of soda? "Then we use tin," you say. Where do we get enough antimony? We don't have enough proven reserves of it to produce what tin we make NOW. Again, the price would skyrocket. Under an isolationist concept, the price of raw materials would absolutely fly out of control. And the worker would NOT be seeing any of that money in his pocket. Our standard of living would fall at an incredible rate. You would be looking at a stagflation of incredible proportions. Rising costs and falling wages. That is why isolating ourselves on an economic basis would never ever work.
The Unions seem to have one consistent problem, they are headed by evil people who only are after power, even at the expense of their own Union! It was, is, and will be a continued front for Organized Crime and the Fascist/Marxist Movement started by Adam Weishaupt (Jew turned Catholic) and his closest friend, Karl Marx, who rewrote his friend Adam's "New World Order under Lucifer" (Illuminati) into the Marxist agenda to corrupt the moral of the citizens in the process!
Who knew that I would agree with the AFL-CIO during Obama's reign of terror.
Big Barry is going to go down in flames
Ed, I agree with you to a point. As I stated, unions served a purpose and I did not say get rid of unions, I stated that they were a type of check & balance that has gotten out of control. The unions need to be brought under control, especially if we want to get production of goods, services and the general economy going again. Most of what the unions were originally fighting for, work hours, vacation, working conditions and pay are now protected under various state and federal laws so that part of their job was done. Now it is all about the money, whose? Your employers and yours. Do you really think that you would not be taking home more money if you weren't paying the ever increasing union dues? Every pay raise you get, the union takes out more money from your check. Every time you work over-time, the union takes more money out of your check, every time they go to negotiate for the workers, they take more money out of your check, every time they want to "donate", in Chicago we called it buying, a politician, they took more money out your check. Why? Because they have become a business all unto themselves, an unregulated business that has gone from looking after the employees to being as bad, if not worse, than the businesses where before the unions. Many of the demands they put on the employers, on behalf of the workers, are unrealistic and unsustainable if you want to keep a company running. I have been part of negotiations that the employer was offering a better deal than what the union wanted, the employer was offering a pay increase of 2% above cost of living increase, changing overtime start from after 40 yours per week to after 8 hours a day, a 5% increase pay increase for the union itself. The union wanted a much smaller increase for the workers (not even up to cost of living increase), 30% increase pay going strait to the union, a third floating holiday on top of the 18 holidays they already had. Negotiations, of course, started to breakdown until the company relented & the workers ended up a $1.75hr raise for the employees, well below cost of living, and no change in the overtime start and their extra floating holiday but they had to cut their health insurance down. The union walked out with over 50% pay increase that went strait into the union & of course union dues went up more than the pay increase. This cost to the company was $ millions more than if they were to have taken the offer and the workers came out with less than when they went in but the union called it a victory because they got their money. Unions are for one thing, unions, not the worker, not the company, not the betterment of society but for themselves. If that is not good enough for you, take a look at how well union cities & states have fared recently, California-Broke, New York-Broke, Michigan-Broke, Detroit-Broke, unemployment in union cities & states is much higher than national average, Why? The unions have made it imposable for these companies to exist there. So, tell me again how great unions are & how they are looking after the worker.
100% in agreement.
although, in truth, if the Dems let things stay so screwed up, I would more likely just stay home then actually vote Republican (cough cough hack hack).
And that is why we are slowly fading as a country.
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