OT - The Public-Union Ascendancy -- Government union members now outnumber private for the first time
Joseph Gwinn
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870383700457501342406064946
4.html>
The Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2010.
Joe Gwinn
co_f...@yahoo.com
Certainly true in Oregon. The recent vote on higher taxes showed the
measures lost in all counties, EXCEPT those with the largest number of
active and retired government employees, and their family and
relatives. We are screwed.
Paul
Tim Wescott
Note that the article states that of all the union help, there's more
public employees than private -- you have to double-check the US census
to see that the cited total number of union workers (15.4M) is but 5% of
the total US population (308M).
And the unionized workforce is declining overall, although whether the
public employees unions are gaining or losing isn't clear from the first
two paragraphs.
So it's not like the public employees unions can just win in a direct
vote, yet. It's more like the Portland area has yet again voted as one
while saying "Prineville? Isn't that in Utah?"
F. George McDuffee
<t...@seemywebsite.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:44:01 -0800, pdr...@coinet.com wrote:
>
>> On Feb 3, 6:29 am, Joseph Gwinn <joegw...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>> The title tells the story.
>>>
>>> <http://online.wsj.com/article/
>SB1000142405274870383700457501342406064946
>>> 4.html>
>>>
>>> The Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2010.
>>>
>>> Joe Gwinn
>>
>> Certainly true in Oregon. The recent vote on higher taxes showed the
>> measures lost in all counties, EXCEPT those with the largest number of
>> active and retired government employees, and their family and relatives.
>> We are screwed.
<snip>
========
If you are going to rely on broad based taxes such as income and
sales, one of the basic requirements is that the bulk of the
people must have adequate income to tax and to spend.
After the select few individuals and corporations gathered up all
the productive assets and cut the employees wages and benefits,
who did they think was going to pay the taxes? Why would you
think the U.S. would be any different than Mexico or Haiti in
this regard?
One suggestion is to set the graduated income tax brackets as
multiples of the previous years median wage, with steeply
increasing rates for higher multiples, and very low rates for sub
multiples. {The general rule should be that everyone files a tax
return and pays something, even if only a dollar or two to keep
the reported median wage accurate.] This has several very good
effects, including raising the income tax rates on the
responsible individuals every time they cut the wages/benefits.
Another suggestion is to specify governmental compensation,
including judges and other elected officials as a multiplier of
the previous years median wage. This would insure there is no
wage creep and a downturn in the economy is shared by everyone.
Unka George (George McDuffee)
..............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).
Wes
>The title tells the story.
>
><http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870383700457501342406064946
>4.html>
I've never been able to figure out how goverment at all so many levels which substitutes
it's judgement for mine and is viewed by many as being the benevolent, right thinking
body, has workers that need a union to protect them from the same govermental units that
governs me.
Wes
--
"Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect
government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home
in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller
Larry Jaques
"pdr...@coinet.com" <co_f...@yahoo.com> scrawled the following:
Turn out the lights. The party's over.
--
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire,
you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.
-- George Bernard Shaw