Richard94611

There you go again, Dave. You say you are not "bashing unions," but the next thing you say is that unions are corrupt. Heh ? Sounds like bashing to me. At least Trump, when he contradicts himself, usually does it a few sedntences apart.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

Using that logic the mega rich are corrupt like the Republicans they partner with. I'm not bashing Republicans I used to be one.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

Just thought of something--Cut the pay and pensions of all senators and congressmen. They'll get rich from Lobbiest money anyway. Then we should tax that money by 75% .They won't work for us so maybe we should work on them

Super Dave Loc: Realville, USA

You act as if you don't know the difference in a union and a union worker. It's that feigned stupidity or is it real?

PeterS

Do that and you only encourage the mega wealthy to run for office. How many more Trumps do you think we need.

PeterS

>>snip<<

Teamsters members in Minnesota are waiting for the next shoe to drop in a union scandal that has removed the top leadership from Blaine-based Teamsters Local 120.

A report by the Washington, D.C.-based Independent Review Board (IRB) alleged widespread corruption by the union's top leaders, including Secretary Treasurer Brad Slawson, and his son, President Brad Slawson, Jr.

"There is evidence that the Secretary Treasurer and President are corrupt and incompetent, the Local is engaged in financial malpractice and not being conducted in the best interests of the members," according to a report to International Brotherhood of Teamsters president James Hoffa.

>>end<<

I am pointing this out only because it was the officials who were corrupt not the unions. The proof is that these officials were removed and the corruption cleaned up. If it was the unions that were corrupt this clean up never would have happened. Corruption of union officials shouldn't detract from the benefit gained by those who belong to unions. My mother was a single parent with 5 children and without a union job she never would have been able to support us. There wouldn't have been a middle class in this country if not for unions. Union wages put upwards pressure on all wages meaning that even those who weren't in unions benefited from their existence. It's been the destruction of unions in this country that has brought about the downwards spiral in wage growth--since there was no upwards pressure on wages provided by unions there has been no reason for business to give raises to their workers--the sure as hell weren't going to quit when so many would be more then willing to take their jobs...

PeterS

And you don't seem to know the difference between a corrupt union official and a corrupt union. Are you feigning the same stupidity or are you trying to start something new...

Voice of Reason Loc: Earth

That is pretty much the exact response I expected to get from you. You seem like a reasonable, normal, ethical person and I thought you'd treat your employees right.

However, you seem to think you're the only ethical employer out there, and everybody else is trying to screw their employees. Hence the need for government intervention.

Why do you assume that all or most other employers are less ethical (and practical) than you?



I think it depends on the union and the industry. What AO described is not isolated in many industries...it's the norm. I spent the majority of my career in the aerospace industry and unions there, for the most part, are exactly as AO described. Nobody with any experience in the auto industry disputes that the unions are responsible for the collapse of Detroit. Even you agree that public service unions, such as those that represent DOT employees, desperately need reform...



I am not familiar with the longshoremen, mill workers, or carpenters unions. In fact, I didn't even know that they have apprenticeship programs. I fully support those.

You make your living doing this stuff and I have, at best, a glancing knowledge of of the tradesman's unions so I will naturally defer to your superior knowledge and expertise.



Of course those on government assistance are a burden.

But, wait a minute...earlier you said you understand that 'not every worker is possessing the sk**ls for a Union job'. I certainly don't want those unsk**led, unmotivated, uneducated, untrainable laggards to be the ones building our nation's critical infrastructure!



As an employer and businessman, you certainly know that one way to increase profit (and the ability to pay your workers) is to reduce costs. Cutting your taxes would reduce your costs and allow you to give your employees a raise without reducing your profits. You don't know how much you pay towards taxes, nobody does because there are so many hidden and indirect taxes coupled with the direct ones, but they are most likely your largest expense.

As for health insurance, Obamacare needs to be repealed and replaced. Allowing health insurance companies to compete across state lines would help. Frivolous lawsuits are responsible for a significant portion of the high cost of healthcare and can be easily fixed simply by adopting a loser pays system for lawsuits. If the government stopped forcing health insurers to cover elective procedures that special-interest groups demand and get, like sex-change operations and treatments, that would lower costs.

We, as a society, need to rid ourselves of the liberal media-pushed notion that you are nobody if you don't have a college degree. Not everybody is college material and there's nothing wrong with that. If you don't have a degree it doesn't necessarily follow that you're an ignorant knuckle-d**gging rube, despite what the liberal media proclaims. We need to expand trade schools and apprenticeship programs and give tradespeople the respect they deserve.

Right now, due to the relatively recent advancements made in drilling and fracking techniques, we should be experiencing the biggest economic boom in our history. However, thanks to the EPA's onerous rules coupled with the Obama administration's lack of permitting, we're not taking advantage of our own enormous oil and natural gas resources. If we allow our people to harvest those resources we'll have an abundance of cheap energy without sending our money to the middle east. That would fuel (pun intended) an economic expansion like we've never seen before.

We also need to end Obama's war on coal. Most people don't realize that you can't make steel without coal, so he's also waging a war on American steel. We need to be developing our resources and expanding our capabilities, not shooting ourselves in the foot.

Lastly, we need to rethink our welfare system. If able-bodied men and women weren't able to live a life of leisure and luxury without working I think you'd be surprised at how many of them would suddenly find a job. Just as most people on unemployment are unable to find work until the unemployment insurance runs out, but then magically do. I'm not saying let them starve, I'm saying make getting government benefits less pleasant and profitable than working for a living. If you live in such a poor area, then certainly you know that most 'poor' people don't have money for food or housing, but they always have plenty for booze, cigarettes and recreational drugs. I keep hearing about the 'heroin epidemic' in this country. How many of those junkies do you suppose are employed and self-supporting? Why are hard-working American taxpayers being forced to pay for their fixes?

Along those same lines, any parent who won't even feed, clothe and house themselves, let alone their kids, is by definition an unfit parent. The liberal notion that kids are always better off living with their natural parents is psychobabble BS. They are nothing but a bad influence on the kids and a perpetuation of the welfare culture. After a certain amount of time on welfare the kids should be removed from the bad influence and raised properly in foster homes or orphanages.

knightrider

Remember when Hillary ask Trump about his TAX’s, Trump said according to the written tax laws I was legal to do what I did.

Trump’s Question to Hillary why haven’t you changed the tax laws?

I fell there should be a flat tax for every one. For instance say 10 percent of $50,000.00 per year income equals $5,000.00 per year in taxes for every one no if, ands or buts about it!

knightrider

PeterS And you don't seem to know the difference between a corrupt union official and a corrupt union. Are you feigning the same stupidity or are you trying to start something new...

Rankin file lost when the E Board convinced them to go FAST TRACK! Sure they still let you v**e, but the E BOARD had already oked every thing.

Our union president left our work place of $40,000.00 per year and went to the NATIONAL for $120,000.00 better health care, retirement ALL ON THE BACKS OF THE DUE PAYERS!

UNION MEMBER for 40 years but not 100 percent union, work hours and safety yes! I'm smart enough to know it’s the consumers that pay wages, if wages get out of hand consumers go elsewhere!

Voice of Reason Loc: Earth

Union wages put upward pressure on all wages because they cause the price of all goods and services to rise, making raises for everybody necessary. So yeah, everybody's income goes up, but the standard of living lowers, or at best remains the same.

Look at Venezuela. Everybody there is making so much money they've stopped counting it, they just weigh it. Of course, a loaf of bread costs more money than a person can carry...

Voice of Reason Loc: Earth

If you use the 'quote reply' button it makes it easier for everybody to know who you're responding to.

Richard94611

How about just reducing their pay to the minimum wage, and making it so they only get paid for days they actually work in Congress ?

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

Sounded good though.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

They don't seem to be worth much more than that. Funny how they keep getting re elected.