Posted by carmpatriot on 01/30/11

Why Unions Are Bad

We have bought in to the idea that labor unions are good.  After all, they can protect us from wrongful firing, protect salaries, and in many cases, guarantee salarie increase.  Unions help to create benefit packages that include "guaranteed" pensions to state and local government employees.  Should a person be the beneficiary of such protection, unions are a good thing.  But, before we settle on this belief, let's consider the ramifications of organized unions.

While labor unions may protect members' salaries, it does little to protect the taxpayer's wallet.  Civil servants whose job it is to serve the people, have done more to serve themselves - with contracts that have ladened the taxpayers with ever-increasing property taxes, top dollar salaries, Cadillac health benefits, and cozy retirement pensions ( largely funded by the taxpayer).  Meanwhile, a vast majority of Americans are either losing jobs, taking pay cuts, or even losing their homes to foreclosure.  At one time, these salaries had been humble, but at least they had medical benefits and a small pension.  Now they have their cake and are eating it too, while most Americans are paying well up to 60% towards their own health insurance with no guarantee of a pension when they retire ( let alone keeping their job). Should the taxpayer be monetarily penalized for the irresponsible fiscal actions of corrupt politicians past?  It is my belief that we should not.  Here are some more reasons why we should not stand for it.

Unions have had control over our Educational system for quite some time.  They ultimately decide how much you pay in property taxes, how large your classroom is, and have the power to trump any Board of Education in anyschool system's decisions on where to cut in the school budget.  A good teacher will always find work, with or without the protection of the union because parents want what is best for their own children.  However, ineffective teachers, who make their way to tenure (3 years of service in N.J.), never seem to lose their job. Automatic pay raises and health benefits are also maintained, whether there is money or not, they simply increase taxes.  Keeping an ineffective teacher in the classroom is not only a waste of taxpayer dollars, it is a detriment to the quality of our children's education.  It forces the local Board of Education to honor unrealistic contracts, which ultimately result in cuts to services and benefits to the taxpayer.  The nerve of the NEA to claim that our children come first! The salaries and benefits of its due-paying members come first!  Just ask the teacher's union if they would be willing to forgo raises next year to have these services and you will have your answer as to WHO comes FIRST.  New Jersey got "no" as an answer, and we weren't even asking for job cuts!

Giving our child a safe and adequate environment from which to learn is certainly priority, but should it cost 71 Million dollars to do so?  It did for the residents of Sparta, N.J.  Not a new building, just an addition to the existing one.  This unnecessarily exuberant spending on construction is statewide.  Bids for construction are only accepted by union contractors, due to the PLA's or "Project Labor Agreements".  A "project labor agreement" forces the government to only accept bids and award construction projects from unionized contractors. Prior to the act, The National Labor Relations Act allowed contractors to choose to have union workers or not.  According to the *National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, 80 percent of contractors did not want to  unionize.  But, because of the majority of contractors choosing not to unionize, "Big Labor" influenced politicians to not allow this choice, and so the PLA was born.  In other words, if they are not unionized, they don't get the job. Union contracts usually end up with cost overruns, as they are much slower to finish the job.  What would be the benefit of expedience?  Naturally, this ends up giving the taxpayer nothing other than a higher price tag.

President Obama loves to "talk" about bringing jobs "home" or creating jobs. He does this without talking about how. Manufacturing has left the country, small businesses can't afford to operate, while larger ones were granted government aid without the result of job creation. While it appears to some people that government bailouts for unionized automobile companies would help job creation, it has only done so in China.  The solution here doesn't cost one tax dollar to Americans.  If the government placed high tariffs on imports, it would reward the labor of the diminishing number of manufacturing companies in America by giving them a fair market to compete in (hence real job creation).  A company should have been able to make its own financial decisions without the restraints of unions and also without the financial aid of government. If the business falters, than that is the consequence of operating a business poorly and perhaps would allow other home-based companies to prop up and compete.

The moral question to these points is, should we continue to reward bad behavior with tax dollars?  In the private sector these benefits hardly exist and these areas are efficient and prosperous.  For example, a doctor isn't getting paid time and a half when he is called in for an emergency at the hospital on Christmas Day.  But, if a public employee happens to get called in to work, they are.  Is their work more important than and ER doctor?  Many would say that it is their job that they agreed to take.  I agree with the public opinion that we should hold our law-enforcement and teachers with the same high esteem as we do our doctors and lawyers.  So, in that effort, let's be rid of unions altogether, lest we outsource our law-enforcement to private companies and municipal administration to India!  Let's reward the effective and productive, and not the defective and unproductive.  Perhaps then, we will get an opportunity to see how capitalism is really supposed to work.

*The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, is assisting thousands of employees in more than 300 cases nationwide.

Taken from http://www.bluestockingpatriot.blogspot.com/

Posted by carmpatriot on 11/23/09
Last updated 11/23/09

If there is ever a doubt that the Constitution is irrelevant today, now is the time to realize that it has never before been more relevant.  Our founding fathers new exactly what they were talking about when they said that a free market system is essential to preserving freedom.  However, there are few moments in our American history that this simple truth has been maintained by our presidents.  In our recent history, F.D.R. said that "True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence", but then passed "The New Deal", which was a direct contradiction of the idea of independence.  More recently, many were outraged by the bailouts given during the Bush administration, as it was George W. Bush said, "Economic freedom creates habbits of liberty'.

 Government has always felt the need to "bailout" whether it be its citizens or in recent events, banks and other private industries.  However, history will always remind us that this only prolongs the agony of the normal highs and lows of the economic cycle.  Nevermind the fact that we as a nation cannot afford it, but there is going to be a large price to pay not only for the money we are borrowing, but for the independence granted to us by our Constitution. 

 Here is a list of banks that got bailed out just last year.  Many people may recognize their credit card company/bank who just this year doubled their interest rate.  HSBC recently notified one loyal customer that her interest of 6.9% was to increase to a whopping 13.99% for no reason at all.  As a representative outsourced from Asia would tell me, "It is the rate the banks are forced to raise to".  We have borrowed money to tune of about 200 Billion dollars in order to save private banks. For what reason?  Has it increased lending?  Have our credit card interests rates been lowered?  Even foreign banks like HSBC benifited from AIG giving them about 3.5 million.  In fact, German and French banks were the big takers in this benefit.  Apparently, one year can bring about change toward a direction we were not necessarily on the course to take.

 Why would a free country do this?  Technically we are not free.  Well, not in the "free market" sense of the term.  Since 1913 our country has had to contend with the tax requirement called the Income Tax and The Federal Reserve.  Yes, all in one year.  "The Fed", as many like call them, illiminated the gold standard, determine whether interest rates go up or down, monetize the dollar and continue to debase the dollar-all with our blessings.  It is impossible to enter a discussion about financial freedom without first understanding what the Federal Reserve is.  In actuality, it gives the appearance that it is a central bank when it is in fact a banking cartel.  Whether you agree or disagree with the existance of "The Creature From Jeckyll Island", certainly we can agree that the actions of this supposed central bank should at least be transparent, should it not?  At least be open to the very people who pay the bills- the American people.  That is what H.R. 1207 "Audit The Federal Reserve Act", introduced in February 2009 is designed to do.  Perhaps February 2010 will bring us some clarity as to where exactly our money goes once it is in the hands of the Fed.  Certainly, a year can make a difference!

 Our Repulic works as long as we are awake to what is going on in our government.  Rep. Mel Watt's attempted to hijack the Audit the Fed bill yesterday morning, thankfully the Financial Services Committe rejected it due to the overwhelming constituency support, no doubt.  Represenatives like Watts is what is wrong with our governement, not the free republic system in which it is founded.  In fact, we can not merely rest on our laurels.  H.R. 1207 will be voted on as soon as the committee returns from Thanksgiving break.  Once it is then voted, we will know if it will be heard on the floor.  If financial freedom is what you are looking for, then it is impertive that you continue to contact congress representatives to support H.R. 1207 Audit the Fed today.  They must know that we are not sleeping at the wheel.  We are awake and we know that in order to truly be free, we need economic freedom.  Without this first essential step toward freedom, we are merely robbing Peter to pay Paul and that is a status quo that is unnacceptable.

from: http://bluestockingpatriot.blogspot.com -posted November 20, 2009