Framing the Dialogue

Posts Tagged ‘labor’

Then You’re Not Worth What Your Parents Told Your Delicate Little Ass

seattleI know that’s a long title, but it is taken from a comment after a blog post about Seattle’s upcoming minimum wage hike to $15.00 per hour.  The hike goes into effect on, of all days, April Fools Day.  The “Living Wage” has long been one of the liberal alters.  At that wage, working forty hours a week and fifty-two weeks a year you’ll earn just over $31,000.00 a year.  The rub is that minimum wage jobs are SUPPOSED to be entry level jobs to help train young folks some work ethic and give them some independence in their lives.  The minimum wage job is not supposed to be your career!  The other rub is that at $15.00 per hour those entry level jobs are going away.  Businesses cannot afford to pay that much to someone to sweep floors, serve burgers, or check coats.  Seattle is finding that out as pointed out in the Protein Wisdom Blog;

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Labor Day 2012

Yesterday’s mail included this littel gem from the Ameriacn Federation of State and Municipal Employees (“AFSME”).  I am not a member…please, but am FORCED to pay my “fair share” to the organization.  I have to pay them one percent of my salary even though they DO NOT REPRESENT my views.  My money pays for this crap!  I know that they’ll argue that my money only goes to pay them to negotiate on my behalf…a function that I did not request.  The idiots forget that money is fungible and any money that I am FORCED to pay to an organization who supports views opposite of mine is criminal or it should be.  Actually they know that money is fungible…they are relying on the fact that public education has so eroded people’s understanding of economics that YOU won’t know.  They know!

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News Briefs – Nothing But the Half Truths

I am going to shock you…

  1. Politicians lie!
  2. The main stream (old media) covers for them…at least the Demoncrats.

Brief 1: July’s jobs report came out and Obama hit the stump bragging about how many private sector jobs were created that month.  Apparently we are heading in the right direction;

“That means that we’ve now created 4.5 million new jobs over the last 29 months, and 1.1 million new jobs so far this year. Those are our neighbors and family members finding work and the security that comes with work.”

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Parsimony – Right-To-Work

Yet again an Associated Press story is the muse fo a Parsimony post.  I don’t seek out AP stories, but it often seems like their reporting often shows the bias of the mainstream media.

First the headline (with a link to the original story)…

Unions expect right-to-work will cost them members  

…Now the story

INDIANAPOLIS – After losing their fight against right-to-work legislation, labor organizers are making a desperate bid on shop room floors and at union halls to persuade members to keep paying their union dues and avoid crippling labor’s influence in Indiana [and all across the country although that has been the trend for more than a decade with decreasing membership in the private sector].

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Update 3 – Liberal Alters – Unions

One of the typical accusations about labor union leaders is that they no longer really represent their members and pursue their own agendas…agendas that most of their members do not support even to the extreme of advocating a socialist or even communist viewpoint regarding collective bargaining.  There can be no denying that labor unions spend hundreds of millions of dollars collected from members to support Democrat candidates that push for stronger union control of labor markets.  When union members voluntarily give their pay to union bosses that is free choice.  However when workers, like myself, are force to pay a “fair share” to unions to which we do not wish to belong that should be illegal.  My earnings are taken from my pay, given to unions, and often given to the very politicians who forced me to pay the unions.  They didn’t make me join, but they take a percentage of my pay without my approval. 

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Taxation = Theft

The following video was from a blog (AndyLogic) with the above title and is pretty well done and should be required viewing for all school students as a balance to the statist views now taught. 

The only edit that I would suggest is where the “bill” is sent to George.  Our politicians have long figured out that by withholding the tax money from our paychecks BEFORE we get the money is a pretty effective way of hiding their theft.  We don’t truly miss what we never had.  I have found this despicable practice used when a labor union that I have not voluntarily joined takes their “fair share” of my earnings.  There are efforts in some states to cease payroll deductions for union dues.  What should the state government act as a collector for the labor unions?  You might be able to take an educated guess the party affiliation of the legislature and governor of those states.

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Update 2 – Liberal Alters – Unions

It’s been a whole day since I updated the Union Liberal Alter, but the events in Wisconsin scream for comment.  First off a little recent history.  In 2008/2009 we were repeatedly told that “elections have consequences” and that Democrats won and they could rule as they pleased.  It turns out that the electorate was not very pleased and in 2010 we had more of those election consequences only this time the Republicans swept.  The Republican sweep in the U.S. House was the primary focus of most news reports, but perhaps more importantly was the Republican sweep in the states.  The Republicans now have 29 governorships and have “more seats in the state legislatures than they have had since 1928” and they are itching for real change.

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Liberal Alters – Unions

A few months ago I posted about the first liberal alter, abortion.  Now on Labor Day it seems appropriate to post my second installment about unions.  I think that I have a pretty unique perspective on unions having grown up in a heavily unionized Pittsburgh area and raised by a very pro-union father yet I was never a member of a union.  I certainly remember my father having to take turns on the picket line when his union went on strike and I remember many times when he could not cross other picket lines in support of other unions. 

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Hunky Dory

Before I start, I want to ensure you that since I am at least 75% Ruthenian and/or Slovak I have the proper standing to use the term “Hunky.”  I really never considered the label as derogatory and I always took some pride in calling myself a Hunky.  

The homelands of my ancestors have changed names so many times, I often hesitate when answering a question about my nationality.  I guess in today’s PC world I would be a Slovak-American, but an American none the less.  I got a shot of native homeland pride recently when I read an article about one of the home countries, Slovakia.

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