Wrestlin' in Wisconsin

BillRM wrote:

The government now is controlling wealth now so there is hardly a need to restoration the problem is that the control now being used to take wealth away from the middle class with government help and move it to the upper class.

Your thought processes are as flawed as your grammar.

Are you advocating the restoration of "government control of wealth"? as in

I suggest you study the history and real consequences of past attempts by governments to deal with external competition by such methods. The results weren't what was intended - disaster was the usual result.

Plutocracy Now: What Wisconsin Is Really About
How screwing unions screws the entire middle class.
By Kevin Drum


IN 2008, A LIBERAL Democrat was elected president. Landslide votes gave Democrats huge congressional majorities. Eight years of war and scandal and George W. Bush had stigmatized the Republican Party almost beyond redemption. A global financial crisis had discredited the disciples of free-market fundamentalism, and Americans were ready for serious change.

Or so it seemed. But two years later, Wall Street is back to earning record profits, and conservatives are triumphant. To understand why this happened, it's not enough to examine polls and tea parties and the makeup of Barack Obama's economic team. You have to understand how we fell so short, and what we rightfully should have expected from Obama's election. And you have to understand two crucial things about American politics.

The first is this: Income inequality has grown dramatically since the mid-'70s—far more in the US than in most advanced countries—and the gap is only partly related to college grads outperforming high-school grads. Rather, the bulk of our growing inequality has been a product of skyrocketing incomes among the richest 1 percent and—even more dramatically—among the top 0.1 percent. It has, in other words, been CEOs and Wall Street traders at the very tippy-top who are hoovering up vast sums of money from everyone, even those who by ordinary standards are pretty well off.

Second, American politicians don't care much about voters with moderate incomes. Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels studied the voting behavior of US senators in the early '90s and discovered that they respond far more to the desires of high-income groups than to anyone else. By itself, that's not a surprise. He also found that Republicans don't respond at all to the desires of voters with modest incomes. Maybe that's not a surprise, either. But this should be: Bartels found that Democratic senators don't respond to the desires of these voters, either. At all.

I agree with your thesis; without a middle class, a country is not economically healthy

I agree with your thesis; without a middle class, a country is not economically healthy.

Lots of confusion on these points. The Wisconsin law under such scrutiny would indeed limit the bargaining power of public employee unions in negotiating work rules only - but would leave the rest intact

You do need a large stakeholders class to keep a stable society and that is being reduce year after year in the US.

Quote:

Lots of confusion on these points. The Wisconsin law under such scrutiny would indeed limit the bargaining power of public employee unions in negotiating work rules only - but would leave the rest intact

It seems you are the one that is confused george.

The proposed change eliminates unions completely for some employees and restricts others so they can only bargain for wages up to the cost of living. They can no longer bargain for work rules, vacations, or retirement benefits.

I guess we would have to rate your claims about the bill as "pants on fire."

It's not only our kids who lose, it's also "us." The higher cost of oil will effect the cost of almost everything else in our lives. That's called inflation. Whether it hits us now or later, the national debt and higher cost of "everything else" will impact all of us. Even the recent increase in gas prices resulted in less use of vehicles by Americans. If and when gas hits $5/gallon, it's going to have an impact we are not prepared for.

Tell that to the people who's still filling their gas tanks. $4/gallon gas was predicted several months ago. It's here; at least in California. I do use premium gas in my car.

Warren Buffett recently said that the US is already in a recession and I totally agree with him.

Buffett added that it is “perhaps not in the sense that economists would define it” with two consecutive quarters of negative growth, “but the people are already feeling the effects,” said Buffett. ”It will be deeper and last longer than many think.”

There are 3 main reasons behind this recession:

* Demand pull inflation due to rising oil and food prices (the main thrust behind the recession)

When people spend more money on food and oil, they will have to spend less on other consumerable goods.

Take a look at the consumer confidence survey:

* Cost push inflation affecting the transport, courier and airline industry due to rising oil prices

Many stocks in these industries are already trading near their 52 week lows while they continue to absorb the high costs of oil.

American Airlines (AMR) is at $6.32. Its 52 week low is $6.00 while its 52 week high is $29.32.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) is at $5.50. Its 52 week low is $5.37 while its 52 week high is $21.80.

Federal Express (FDX) is at $86.83. Its 52 week low is $80.00 while its 52 week high is $119.10.

* Aftermath of the sub-prime crisis and the ensuing credit crunch

Although many analysts believe that the credit crunch is easing, they are still taking write downs and I believe that it will continue for some time

It seems that an economic slowdown during the 2nd half of 2008 seems increasing likely.

This bill limits the right to collectively bargain for all
employees who are not public safety employees (general employees) to the subject of
base wages. In addition, unless a referendum authorizes a greater increase, any
general employee who is part of a collective bargaining unit is limited to bargaining
over a percentage of total base wages increase that is no greater than the percentage
change in the consumer price index.

Under current law, University of Wisconsin (UW) System employees,
employees of the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority, and certain home care and
child care providers have the right to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and
conditions of employment. This bill eliminates the rights of these employees to
collectively bargain.

Barack,"I owe these guys", Obama and his leftist buddies ignored the American people and they got "shellacked" in the 2010 elections if they continue their ways they will lose even more in 2012.

Sorry the reason that Obama got shellacked was that he was not able to fixed the mess that Bush let the country economic in during his 8 years in less then two years.

With a secondary reason being that the mouth breathing tea parties types do tend to vote more in off years elections then the more sane population.