Poor Margaret,rnTypical liberal, more content with confusion than certainty. I think thatrnsays it all. Please never figure out what you truly believe. It might bernrnembarrassing for you.

We have similar backgrounds. Good luck to you!

“other extreme” is the sweatshops, etc. I have worked in both union shops and non-union shops (and been an employer as well); each has good and bad points; without unions, there would be no reason to not have sweatshops, and child labor – the same arguments I am hearing today are the same that were put forth 100 years ago, and the same predictions of the destruction of civilization.

I never advocated to return to sweatshops, etc. You are reading too may things into my statement. What is the “other extreme”?

So we need to return to sweat shops, unsafe work sites, have child labor laws repealed, and then we would be back on track?nThere are corrupt labor leaders and corrupt politicians of every stripe, but that doesn’t mean they are ALL corrupt. In my mind, unions and their ilk are a counter balance to the other exreme.

Everyone, yours, mine, my kids, their kids, etc. etc

The fact that you are impressed with a monthly income of $3200 says it all. Instead of railing against a teacher who may get $3200 per month (only $38,400 per year) in retirement, how about railing against the thieves that stole our livelihoods and demanded and got BILLIONS in bailouts and then gave themselves HUGE bonuses? Instead of demanding that someone receiving a pension of $3200 a month, why don’t you demand that EVERYONE get that AND MORE? You have been brainwashed into thinking that THEY don’t deserve it because they’ve beaten you down into thinking that YOU don’t deserve it and how come THEY deserve it when YOU don’t!?! WAKE UP! YOU deserve to be paid better! WE deserve an explanation as to why we are giving the Wall street Banksters BILLIONS of our tax dollars instead of putting them IN JAIL!

You really don’t see that over the years the unions have been pushed back and that is why not all of us have benefited?nThe unions have made working conditions better for everyone, as their power has waned, the corporations have stepped into the gaps and pushed back. That is why our working conditions have changed for the worst.nThe corporations do not want to pay a fair wage or provide benefits so they can make more BILLIONS of dollars. There is no such thing as trickle down economy, it trickles up, always, and they have discovered that they don’t have to share with the working class. All they have to do is divide us by teaching us to hate each other and fear the “corrupt” unions.nThe middle class is being destroyed not because of the unions but because that is the plan.nThis is how it works: Buy the government, destroy the middle class. Simple.n

I’m more comfortable with his confusion than your certainty. After the latest supreme court decision about election contributions the only voices heard will be those of the wealthy and corporations, they can contribute the most money.nnYou will benefit (or not) from government action or lack of it depending on how much money you can donate to their campaigns.nnThe result? less government for the rich, more government for the poor and disappearing middle class.

Love your post and agree with everything. I wish more people “got it”.

Whose freedom?

So when the changes come we will be represented by corrupt right leaning republicans and tea party members whose base after the latest supreme court decision is not working americans, but the rich and the corporations who can contribute to their campaigns without limit.nWe will then have the best government money can buy, how hard do you think any of them will look after the working class?nAny progress working americans have made through the years can be attributed to direct action by unions or corporation’s reaction to union action elsewhere in order to prevent their own workers to unionize. nOur working conditions as americans are what they are because of unions and those pesky government regulations encouraged by union pressure.nI have never worked in an industry where unions are a rule and I see the result now after 37 years, I wish I had.nUnions are not the problem, corporate greed is the problem, corporations and the politicians they own.nYears ago all airlines were unionized except Delta. They did not have to be, they treated their employees like royalty.nAfter all the other airlines cried poor after deregulation and at one time or another went bankrupt to destroy the union everything has changed. Airline employees have no job security, their salaries and benefits have declined and when you call an airline now with the exception of Southwes or Continental you get a call center overseas.nThe airlines did not have to outsource call centers, the customers hate it. They did it because they can keep more money by firing hundreds of employees.nAmerican workers can never compete with oversea workers, our cost of living is much, much higher.nBefore you trash the union workers and praise capitalism, take a really close look at what is going on and wake up.

The attack against working americans is working on you, you don’t know who’s on your side.

The reason workers have any rights at all is the trade union’s work over the years. You are either a union member and have a union represent you or you are a non-union worker and have benefited over the years by the work of the unions in many states.nFlorida is a “right to work” state, we have little or no union activity here and it shows.nOur jobs are being exported not because the corporations are going broke, but because they have realized that they don’t have to share their profit with those who make their profits possible. The quality of life of working Americans is at stake here.nIf we let radical governors, congress and senate members continue their attack on the working class we will become just another third world country where a decent wage, a home, an education for our children, taking nice vacations, being able to save for the future will be a thing of the past and only reserved for the rich and corporations who will be allowed to squirrel away their “profits” the way they are doing now without doing anything to help workers or the economy.nThe battle lines are being drawn every day.nIf you think the war against the unions is not your war and you work for a living you could not be more wrong.nOur rights are slipping away fast and have been for years, the difference now is that politicians have found an easy target to blame all the Nation’s ills on: the worker.nNever mind that previous administrations wrecked the budget and lied us into a war that seems to go on forever, never mind that we bailed out banks and financial institutions who now refuse to help anyone with a problem mortgate, never mind that we have been de-funding education for yeare, we can blame the problems on the teachers.nPublic workers make lower salaries than people performing similar work in the private sector, they always have and they knew it, but they were willing to trade a higher salary for better retirement and benefits, so now that it’s time to pay up everyone wants to blame them for everything.nKarl Rove is alive and well and providing material for the war on Americans.

No jim, a public sector worker does NOT get paid more than you do for the same job in the private sector. That is a lie. Now, we understand that you are upset that you make less now than you did in the past but, sorry, it is your own fault for supporting the uber rich who convinced you to argue against your own self-interest by telling you to over and over on the radio and TV. nnAs far as the budget, there was no budget problem until Walker gave his corporate benefactors almost $150,000,000 in gifts when he came into office. nnAnd as far as you paying a public worker – you paid the BILLIONS in bailouts to Wallstreet. This is just as much your money as what is paid to the teachers, nurses, police, firefighters, bus drivers, garbage men and others who make your city and state work and yet you don’t rail against them. Wy is that? Maybe if the public workers had the money to hire themselves a Rush Limbaugh or float a FOX Lies then maybe you’d believe them. nnDestroying the unions will not help you. WIthout the unions you will lose more than you already have. The union that you were in didn’t help you because most of their power was stripped from them in the first round of corporate attacks. nnWake up! Take a look around you! THINK for once. Turn off the FOX BS and THINK about who is profiting off of you. It’s not your fellow middle classers!

Never changed! Always have been! Always will be!

Actually, unionized workers do contribute to their benefits – their benefits are considered 5% of their total wages. Basically, instead of getting $1.05, they get $1.00 and 5 cents is put towards their benefits. It’s not a “gift”, it’s a deduction from their actual wages.

Oh it’s the old “Hey, Iu2019m paying their salaries!” argument.n nYes, you are. And every time you buy a loaf of bread at the local supermarket, youu2019re paying the salaries of every employee in the store. Every time you fill up at the gas station, youu2019re paying all the salaries at the oil company. This is how capitalism works. Everybody is always paying everybody elseu2019s salary. That doesnu2019t give you the right to demand that the produce manager take a pay cut to keep the price of cabbage low, or the guy behind the counter at the gas station doesnu2019t deserve a health plan.