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02/20/2011

Wisconsin, home of the 40 hour work week, unemployment compensation and worker's compensation to name a few

If there were ever a lesson on "How to peacefully protest a governmental decision" it's on display right now in Madison, Wisconsin and it has been all week. It's something our democracy can be proud of. For those that don't understand that taking to the streets is a last and usually, final, resort and in most places on the globe, ends very badly, I ask you, what do you stand for?

I saw a woman interviewed that called the 50 to 60 thousand people in the street "Babies that insisted on getting their own way." She said she had a small business and why should public employees get such extravagant  benefits when she had to pay though the nose? To her I ask, what would the average salary be if for the last 40 to 50 years it would have kept up with the cost of living since 1960 when 35% of the work force was unionized? Maybe if she understood the numbers and how the middle class has been sucking hind teat for the last 50 years, she'd be on the anti-Republican Governor Scott Walker and anti-Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald side.

In 1960, again when union membership was in the 35% range, according to the 1960 Bureau of Census, Department of Commerce the average wage was 5600 dollars. If, according to Tom's inflation calculator, the wages in 1960, under the cumulative inflation rate (CPI-U annual average), which is one way of averaging yearly rates, would be today 41,906.

Using the option feature on Tom's calculator, under the, US medical cost inflation heading, if wages went up at the same rate as medical expense since 1960, the average wage today would be 101,120.

If you want to take the next logical step and average those two out, the average wage, in order to keep up with inflation since 1960 would be, 71,513. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. and Mrs. Average Tea Party, because my bet is you don't make anything near that. 
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Many believe there's a greater motivation behind Governor Walker's plan and it's something that the republicans have relentlessly pursued; the complete annihilation of the unions. The Union has offered to acquiesce to parts of the Walker's plan: for nearly all state, local and school employees to pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care premiums but they aren't willing to budge on the collective bargaining issue. 
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The financial part of Walker's plan could be sealed right now but that's the smokescreen issue behind which his true intentions lie. It's all or nothing because anything less than all the marbles won't assure the future collapse of the Wisconsin union and if they can beat Wisconsin, they believe, unions across the country will begin to fall like dominoes.

Since our right wing Supreme Court has ruled in the Citizens United decision that corporations can give unlimited campaign contributions anonymously to politicians, the influx of campaign money to republicans has  increased exponentially according to BlueNC, a community-driven website, promoting progressive values and critical thinking that rely's on community members for contributions, content, criticism and collaboration.


* Spending by outside groups jumped to $294.2 million in the 2010 election cycle, a nearly four-fold increase from the $68.9 million spent in 2006, the last mid-terms. Nearly half of that ($138.5 million) came from just 10 groups, with the biggest share by far benefiting Republicans.

* In 60 out of 75 congressional races, the candidate benefiting most from outside spending won the race -- a remarkable 80 percent win rate.

* The source of the money flooding into elections after Citizens United largely hidden: Because many of the independent groups aren't required to disclose their donors, barely a third -- 34 percent -- of the groups reported which people and groups gave them money.
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 The only competition to the huge amounts being donated by corporate interests are the largest unions. They are the only ones big enough to compete. It naturally follows; kill the unions and you have won the class war completely, totally and inexorably.

For now, the Governor is retractable in his stance to eliminate collective bargaining for most civil service employees who, mostly, belong to Wisconsin's AFSCME:


Maybe the woman I quoted doesn't care that rationality bespeaks a different reality than hers, maybe she's like the tea party people that show up and echo the things that they've heard from Fox News or from Limbaugh or from Sharron Angles, or from Sarah Palin or from Michele Bachmann or Ann Coulter, they, tea party people, only want to cut government spending until they see  that they too have a dog in the fight, that it's not some ideological, mythical dog, it's one having its teeth and claws sharpened right now and it's being trained to attack them as well.   Gene

09:19 | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this

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