a conservative view of Labor

1. 66

   SparklingJewelposted 14 years ago

   Economic Issues
   
   February 5, 2010
   GOVERNMENT UNIONS WIN, YOU LOSE
   
   Since President Barack Obama was sworn into office, the U.S.  economy has shed 3.4 million jobs and the unemployment rate has risen to 10 percent.  But not all sectors of the economy have been suffering equally.  In fact, the sector of the economy most supportive of President Obama has not only avoided contraction, but has actually managed to grow instead, says Conn Carroll, Assistant Director for the Heritage Foundation's Strategic Communications.
   
   According to a recent report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):
   
       * In 2009 the number of federal, state and local government employees represented by unions actually rose by 64,000.
       * Coupled with union losses in the private sector economy, 2009 became the first year in American history that a majority of American union members work for the government.
       * Specifically, 52 percent of all union members now work for the federal, state or local government, up from 49 percent in 2008.
       * To better illustrate these statistics: three times more union members work in the Post Office than in the auto industry.
   
   So why should Americans care, asks Carroll?  There's one simple reason: private firms face competition; governments don't.  If a union extracts a contract from a private firm that eats up too much of the profits, then that firm will be unable to reinvest those profits and will lose out to competitors.  But when a union extracts a generous contract from a government, the answer is always higher taxes or borrowing to pay for the bloated spending:
   
       * The average worker for a state or local government earns $39.83 an hour in wages and benefits compared to $27.49 an hour in the private sector.
       * While over 80 percent of state and local workers have pensions, just 50 percent of private-sector workers do. 
   
   Unionized government employees not only want to keep their bloated compensation packages, but their leaders are desperate for more members and more union dues.  That is why public-sector unions have become a fierce lobbying force for higher taxes and more spending across the country.  Organized labor once fought against taxes and regulations that impeded the economic interests of their employers, but now they are in alliance with environmentalists pushing private sector and economy-crippling cap-and-trade legislation, says Carroll.
   
   Source: Conn Carroll, "Government Unions Win, You Lose," Heritage Foundation, January 25th, 2010
   
   For text:
   
   http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/25/mor … -you-lose/ 
   
   For more on Economic Issues:
   
   http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?A … ategory=17

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2. 67

   MikeNVposted 14 years ago

   I read an article recently that 52% of all Americans are dependent on the US Government for the majority of their income.  By 2020 the number is expected to rise to 67%?
   
   How is this not Socialism?
   
   I compete online in several niches where Government Websites are ranking #1. These sites have the tax payer funds to hire web designers, outsource SEO, etc.  And they have no problem spending far more then their revenue from the site because they do not have to show a profit.
   
   Government is competing with Private Enterprise on an alarming level.  And because they Government can lose huge sums of money the private sector stands little chance.
   
   What happens when there is no private sector?  We have a system of socialism where the Government tells you what to do and how and when you can do it.  We have no incentive to work hard.  We have no incentive to produce.
   
   Obama is a Socialist plain and simple.

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3. 74

   Mikel G Robertsposted 14 years ago

   We need to get Government out of business and business out of Government.

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4. 62

   mikelongposted 14 years ago

   But such a relationship has never existed....and looking at government dependence in terms of receiving a paycheck (regardless of how) is a flawed way of perceiving our issue here..
   
   Government unions should not be mixed with independent unions...no one has done this here, but I just wanted to lay it out there...
   
   
   To my point, private enterprise uses government for its own benefit...
   
   Andrew Mellon (Mellon Bank, Alcoa, Gulf Oil-at the time...etc) was Secretary of the Treasury in the 1920's and 30's......the Mellon family was also heavily invested in Dupont....
   
   Dupont, along with supplying the military with gun powder (still does), carries paper-making interests dealing with wood sources...
   
   Relationship?
   
   Hemp is a great source of paper....it is more plentiful, easier to cultivate, and cheaper to transform into paper, and a wide variety of products....
   
   and hemp producers were Dupont's major competition....
   
   At the same time Depression is setting in, and in the American Southwest a man named William Randoph Hearst (the largest land owner in Los Angeles...and I believe the state of California at the time), who owned the Los Angeles Times and was also invested in wood derived paper began publishing articles about the "Mexicans" and their "Marijuana" that would make them "go crazy" and rape, murder, and do all kinds of ridiculous things....
   
   films were produced under the auspices of the Federal Government through a new branch of the Treasury, enacted by Mr. Mellon, who put one of his own friends into the position...the predecessor organization to the DEA today...  These films were made via the governments close ties with the film industry, using their civilian facilities and expertise (and receiving payments...socialism at work, right?).....and shown in schools, churches, and community organization meetings all around the country, but specifically targeting the South West...
   
   Marijuana became illegal.....hemp was banned, and Mexicans were deported...citizens of the United States and otherwise....
   
   Paper is still made out of wood.....and Dupont and Mellon still hold great power economically and politically in our nation....
   
   
   This is just one example....
   
   Government is a tool.......who is using it is another story...

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