I saw this on the news feed. Couldn’t resist posting it. Washington Post columnist, EJ Dionne, is arguing for MORE government. It’s a very pointed, nasty attack against us. Amazing how both the Republicans and the democrats hate the Tea Party. Good, I hope we scare the living hell out of them.
I finally saw a news report that tells the story about public sector unions. In Wisconsin, the average union member is making just shy of $60,000, plus benefits and pension. The average private sector worker si making a bit under $40,000, and the benefits are scrappy and the pension is usually a poorly funded 401(k). My family has both professionals (lawyers, a professor, people with multiple advanced degrees), and some old-time California working stiffs (a couple of retired firemen, a retired teacher, and a county manager). One of those firemen has been drawing his pension for more years than he served, and he was never in harm’s way. He was a captain. Me? I did what Ronald Reagan and later Newt said we should all strive to do: made it through school, continued to learn and grow, made it on my own. Well, I’m just barely holding my own in this economic $&%^ storm, and if we get hit with inflation and then need to plunge into a deeper recession to bleed it out–I was there in the Seventies and early Eighties for that party–man, that is really going to hurt. To then have a bunch of public sector unions, backed by the president and hardcore Marxists like Trumka of the AFL-CIO telling me that those people deserve a gravy train, well, go to hell.
No one is saying we’re going to cheat old people. Hell, I doubt Social Security will be around when I’m old enough, but I’m getting old enough that I sure would like that check someday. But Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, and we’re having a National Bernie Madoff Moment.
I’ve got nothing against firemen. You’re not allowed to complain. They have great PR. But the little fire station near my home? It’s a rare day you hear the sirens for the big truck, and it’s been a long time since there’s been any kind of fire around here. What i do see? The firemen crank up the big truck and drive it to the local grocery store, a great PR move. And then they hit on all the MILFs at the grocery store. Well, most of them do. Some of them are probably wanting to hit the bath house, but that’s another issue.
You go to the high desert towns on the edge of Greater LA, or into some of the tiny towns in more rural parts of California and you’ll find plenty of these guys, retired and living pretty well. You can justify their pensions and say they’re helping keep these small towns alive, a form of wealth transfer from LA and San Francisco and San Diego to the hinterlands.
But it needs to be dialed back, guys. Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) wants to clip everyone in the state by at least 7 percent. So every state worker takes a small hit. Apparently that would be enough to balance the budget, or close enough for hand grenades. And the unions are fighting mad. Firemen, sheriffs, cops, nurses, prison guards, local, county and state workers of all kinds, should they be allowed to dictate to everyone else? They provide useful services–the nurses and cops most of all, if you ask me–but they are OVERHEAD, a cost of doing business. They DO NOT generate wealth, and if you stop generating wealth, your society dies.
Hey, guys. The rest of us have been taking it in the shorts for several YEARS now. Maybe time for you to pony up? We can’t afford you right now.
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