This article was originally published by Charles Hugh Smith at his blog Of Two Minds.
Editor’s Note: The “recovery” since the near-total financial disaster at the end of the Bush era has been nothing more than smoke and mirrors, with the entire market hanging by the thread of Federal Reserve intervention and QE programs that issue free money to the biggest banks. During that time, wealth has consolidated greatly into the hands of a few, entitlements have extended to larger-than-ever-before groups of people and real jobs have disappeared, along with the middle class.
The idea of fixing the underlying issues revolving around jobs by producing more degree holders (floated mainly by student loans) is, of course, absurd and misses the point, if not the elephant in the room. It’s all an illusion…
Income, Education and Inequality in the “Recovery”: Prepare to be Surprised
By Charles Hugh Smith
Note to the higher education industry: issuing diplomas doesn’t magically create new jobs in the real world.
By virtually any standard, wealth inequality has soared to historic levels in the six years of “recovery” since the Great Recession of 2008-09. Economist Emmanuel Saez, who has long collaborated with Thomas Piketty, described the recent extremes of wealth inequality in a recent paper Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States, which provides an in-depth look at the widening gulf between the top 1% and the bottom 90% from 2009 to 2012.
Here is a chart of the top 10% share of income, based on their research (the note in red marking the beginning of financialization in 1982 is my own):
As author David Cay Johnston noted in an insightful review of Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Trickle-Up economics: “The top 1 percent of Americans raked in 95 cents out of every dollar of increased income from 2009, when the Great Recession officially ended, through 2012. Almost a third of the entire national increase went to just 16,000 households, the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent, Piketty and Saez’s analysis of IRS data shows.”
We would naturally expect those with the highest incomes to have fared best in the past six years and those at the bottom to have fared the worst financially–but this not entirely true. Most income analyses, it turns out, do not factor in government-funded social welfare transfers, tax credits and entitlements. Once these sources of income are added, the bottom 90% saw no decline in income at all from 2007 to 2011, while the top 1% suffered a 27% decline and the top 5% took a 7% hit.
“Pretax income for the middle class and poor dropped substantially from 2007 to 2011 – about 10 percent for most groups. Yet including taxes and transfers, incomes fared better: Average income for the bottom fifth of earners rose 2.6 percent, to $24,100, and the average for the middle fifth fell only 2 percent, to $59,000. Such stagnation is hardly good news, but it’s a lot better than a large decline.”
Taxes on higher-income households have risen on several fronts: a new tax on high-earners to fund ObamaCare, for example, and a higher tax bracket for the highest-income households.
Social welfare transfers and tax credits/cuts did what they were supposed to do–cushion the blow of recession for lower-income households and transfer more of the tax burden to higher income households. Yes, there are endless debates around the issues of taxes: for example, if most of the benefits of the Bush-era tax cuts flowed to the top income earners, then recent tax increases for the top income bracket are clawbacks rather than new taxes.
The chart accompanying the article clearly shows less educated workers suffered larger wage declines than their more educated peers. The year-over-year data shows something else: “Some commentators are under the false impression that wage inequality is a simple consequence of employers’ demand for increased skills and education—often thought to be driven by advances in technology. But new data from 2014 shows that even college educated workers and workers with advanced degrees are not in demand enough to see their wages rise.”
In other words, wages are declining even in fields where advanced degrees are supposed to inoculate the highly educated from declines in earnings. This is not entirely surprising to anyone who has first-hand knowledge of the tremendous glut in workers with advanced degrees, but it does drive a stake in the heart of the argument that the solution to income inequality is more education.
ironically, all that minting another 5 million Masters degrees, MBAs, law degrees and PhDs will do is increase the oversupply of highly educated workers and thereby exacerbate the decline in wages paid to these workers.
As I often note, issuing diplomas doesn’t magically create new jobs in the real world.
I know that I do not feel wealthier…
Wealth isn’t how much money is in ones bank account or in ones mattress, it’s really how one feels about ones self; ones own self worth, either as a credit or debit to society.
Besides, “Feeling” wealthy is totally subjective, e.g. a new survey of millionaires finds more than one-quarter of them say they don’t feel wealthy, but they would if they had an extra $5 million.
Try feeling good about yourself with no money.
Ok? You can probably do it.
NOW… try feeling good about yourself with no money and a wife and kids.
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
So tired of all this “think happy thoughts and you’ll magically be King of the World” bullshit.
“try feeling good about yourself with no money and a wife and kids.”
UGHHH , I will never as long as i live EVER forget the look of disappointment on my five year old daughters face on christmas morning 2009.
“Daddy , is santa mad at me?
Still tears me up .
Aint nothing worse than being broke .
One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes – Part 3
“In the previous installments of this series, we discussed the hidden and often unspoken crisis brewing within the employment market, as well as in personal debt.
The primary consequence being a collapse in overall consumer demand, something which we are at this very moment witnessing in the macro-picture of the fiscal situation around the world.
Lack of real production and lack of sustainable employment options result in a lack of savings, an over-dependency on debt and welfare, the destruction of grass-roots entrepreneurship, a conflated and disingenuous representation of gross domestic product, and ultimately an economic system devoid of structural integrity — a hollow shell of a system, vulnerable to even the slightest shocks.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-20/one-last-look-real-economy-it-implodes-part-3
“Try feeling good about yourself with no money.”
“Ok? You can probably do it.”
“NOW… try feeling good about yourself with no money and a wife and kids.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.
So tired of all this “think happy thoughts and you’ll magically be King of the World” bullshit.”
I have experienced times in my life, when I was in my early 20’s when I didn’t have money for food. I didn’t like the experience. I said to myself “I’ve got to keep my priorities straight, no senseless spending”, But it wasn’t until I was just over 30 that I really learned my lesson in that department. Too many unsustainable, tangible assets. Now that is when I finally got it right. No buying on credit, i.e. if I can’t buy it with what’s in my wallet, “it” stays on the shelf.
Paying with cash is a clean deal and purchasing sustainable assets is a way to be more efficient with ones resources.
Now I don’t know what your particular situation is, TheGuy, but you obviously sound like you are in a bind, or have been at one time or another. No one likes to be in a bind, I can vouch for that. But if you’re not feeling good that you have no money, while raising a family, one might ask “How did you get in this bind?” and “Who is responsible for this discomfort you may be feeling?”
What I have learned in the school of hard knocks is that I create my own reality. If I’m living sustainable, within my means, keeping things simple, treating others with respect, then there is a very good chance that “magically” good things come back to me. Do I expect good things? No, I just keep filling the space of the moment up with the desire and action to optimize my time most effectively for myself and those I am around. And since the time of my earlier challenges in life, I’ve been very fortunate. One of the most important keys to my personal success has been utilizing just what you are tired of and think is bullshit: “Thinking happy thoughts.”
If the happy thoughts aren’t there, then there is no foundation for success, i.e. sadness begets sadness and vice versa. I’m sorry that you might not have money now and you have a family to support. But that was ultimately your personal choice whether you have the courage to admit that or not. There are circumstances that make it appear that someone else is to blame for our hardships, e.g. losing a job or getting sick at the most unopportune time, just when the bills are mounting up, but one has to ask oneself, “was I, am i, living sustainably? Were my numerous, rather large bills caused by my overstepping my financial capabilities?”
If one is in financial difficulties and they are spending time on the internet, like blogs like this, then one has to question “are they doing everything humanly possible to rectify their predicament?” 90 plus million Americans are on entitlements. Do they need to be? Well, maybe some, but what happens when that unsustainable lifestyle is no longer supported by a bankrupt government?
Bottom line is: There is plenty of work out there and legal money to be generated if one is creative. flexible, fearless and bold, even if one is bedridden. But the key for it to work is “being happy”. When that is not part of the equation, what rises to the surface is an endless cycle of chronic: Blaming, Complaining, Whining, Demanding that incrementally breaks down ones ability to succeed in satisfying desires.
Whether one likes it or not, everyone has to take responsibility for the world they consciously, or unconsciously, create around them. It’s not any one else’s fault but their own, if life is a bitch for them. As one sows, so shall one reap is a principle of life that works for or against oneself, depending on what one puts out.
EA – you are absolutely correct, thought I suspect your words and wisdom will fall on a lot of deaf ears here. Accountability is most people’s weak spot, but when one finally “owns up” to their life circumstances, they will empower themselves to CHANGE everything for the better, because if one has CREATED their life experiences, then they can CREATE a NEW AND BETTER life. Plain and simple.
EA, excellent post and I couldn’t agree more. I’ve never had a credit card or any type of loan. Income level has always been too low to qualify for them, but that’s OK. I don’t want them or need them. I’ve always lived within my means. I’ve always bought my vehicles for cash from private owners. Don’t want or need a stinking car note. So I can get more preps at one time being debt-free than I would be able to if I were in some kind of debt. Being debt-free is awesome. Being in debt is one type of stress I refuse to have in my life.
This life of tribulation will seem like a split second when you get to eternity. I have next to nothing but I have a strong christian woman and a beautiful baby girl. I will not dwell on this world, or the things in it. And I do feel rich.
You’re blessed by GOD Dunjin. Be at peace.
Euro, it’s always the Pollyanna morons with money who tell folks about the rainbows and butterfiles coming out their asses. Look at Maslow’s Heirarchy of needs. Money is involved in all of them to get to the top which is “Self-actualization” otherwise known as happiness. Self-worth, my ass. How wealthy you feel about your bank account, and your personal self-worth are 2 entirely different things.
The 666 speaks volumes …
So does the Pollyanna…..just sayin.
Foxglove, here’s another thing you and I agree on. I feel good about myself regardless of what’s in my pocket. I never listen to those morons either. Take care.
Brave, I think you and I wind up in the same place philosophically, we just take different routes to get there. We probably have more in common than not. 🙂
Foxglove, if true, than that’s good to hear. I never go around trying to make enemies, but I’ll stand my ground when confronted by one. I never let anyone have their own way with me.
eppe, you are. Take a REAL GOOD look. For starters you woke up this morning “this side of the turf”. May the Father bless you and yours real good.
1% will eventually have 99% of the wealth.
Should we call this model a failure ?
And those 1% also want the power- get it by using
money in the political system.
Debt in the many trillions- put that burden on the 1% not
the 99%.
I just have to laugh every time I hear someone on FOX or CNBC
say “let the free market decide”
there is NO free market
ALL of it is heavily manipulated
along related lines
wanna know how a lot of cities stay afloat financially ?
and where big banks get most of their “profits” ?
read it and weep
this is what this country has come to
David Graeber: Ferguson and the Criminalization of American Life
http://www.anarchistnews.org/content/david-graeber-ferguson-and-criminalization-american-life
Ain’t been one for years, LMAO!
“the top 1% suffered a 27% decline and the top 5% took a 7% hit.”
27% out of around 100 BILLION, and 7% out of several hundred MILLION —oh please, go cry me a river! I wonder what it would be like, to be so poor that I couldn’t afford to buy that small country I wanted…
Satori:
Following your link to ‘Anarchist News’ I found this statement interesting:
“Most financial institutions themselves now acquire the majority of their profits by PENALIZING members of the general public by ‘rule breaking’. According to a report by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau–overdraft and insufficient funds made up 61% of bank profits from consumer checking accounts and in 2009 JP Morgan Chase, the biggest bank in America, reported 71 % of its listed profits derived from fees and penalties.
Put another way, that means the profitability of American banks is based on KNOWINGLY CREATING RULES SO COMPLICATED THAT THEY KNOW A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THEIR CUSTOMERS WONT BE ABLE TO FOLLOW THEM AND THEN PUNISSHING THEM FOR FAILING TO DO SO.”
________________
Now, Satori, I understand that anarchists are writing the articles at that site; so their intention is to inflame their readers about any subject they come up with.
While I do not support our banking institutions at all, I also do not support the last sentence in capitols above written in the article by anarchists.
I always understood what fees were involved in my personal checking account (none) and I also knew if I wrote an insufficient funds check on money NOT in my account I would have to pay the piper.
If the percentages written in this article about the revenue collected on fees and overdrafts is true, then I suggest that a huge number of our population have no business opening a checking account.
Most people do not have a salary so big that a personal checking account would take a genius to keep straight. I would suggest that it shows just how damned dumb a huge percent of our population really is.
Back in the 80’s I had a checking account. On payday, I deposited my check and then wrote my checks. The bank, however, decided to post my checks BEFORE posting my deposit. It cost me $35 for a .02 deficiency. My money was already in my bank before I paid my bills. The bank was pretty arrogant about MY mistake.
Banking law says they are to post credits BEFORE debits, posted on the same day. They took $34.98 from me. Times that by how many millions of accounts? What a racket.
BofA had another little trick. They’d charge you a fixed fee for each overdraft. If you wrote, say, ten checks that added up to an overdraft, they’d post the largest check first, so that the six or eight smaller ones would all bounce. Viola! Multiple overdraft charges, whereas if they’d posted the smaller ones first, you’d have had only one. BofA has to be the most evil of the ten biggest US banks.
And its’ president isn’t even Jewish!) http://about.bankofamerica.com/en-us/our-story/our-team.html
Old Coach. I completely agree. They ripped us off one time too many and we finally cut the cord. Wish we had done it sooner.
Under socialism the PTB eventually run out of money as Margret Thatcher so astutely noted.
Under the New World Order the PTB just transfer that money to Multinational Corporations and the Investment Class.
Death to the New World Order. Its totally Constitutional. 🙂
durangokidd says:
“Under socialism the PTB eventually run out of money…”
LMAO!
Not when those socialists (American) have a printing press and a military to enforce compliance to it’s will.
The “money” will only “run out” when heads roll, and there is a complete reset of Western society.
The State must go!
And along with it… the Statist!!
YMWW: Yes I will survive until my natural time comes. I have skills and a weapon for every personality.
When SHTF there will be two kinds of people: Predators and Prey. The Predators will discover that I am not easy prey.
As long as I live there will be at least one American who believes in the America my Fore Fathers EXPLORED and founded.
USA!!! USA!!! USA!!! 🙂
THE JADE HELM 15 DRILL IS A MARTIAL LAW, CIVIL WAR and “RED LIST” EXTRACTION DRILL
18 Mar, 2015 by Dave Hodges
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2015/03/18/the-jade-helm-15-drill-is-a-martial-law-civil-war-and-red-list-extraction-drill/
“It’s a hard rain, gonna fall”.
Bob Dylan
Where have all the jobs gone? Where are the manufacturing plants? NOT ASSEMBLY PLANTS! Has off shoring become a problem. What has driven the industrial base away. Government intervention? Environment Legislation? How about the unions.
On the other side most students think they are going to land good paying jobs and a good portion of them have no practical. That is they can read a book but can not apply the working end. Then there are those who think a Master’s degree in basket weaving entitles them to an engineering position at the top of the company.
So besides having your school loans and other bills. Don’t forget about Taxes, Inflation and the Low Paying job you have so you can eat.
It’s not getting better either.
Jobs for morons have dried up, it’s true. Jobs for skilled and educated people have not so much. But the kids coming out of college today are a disaster. For 8-10 years before I retired I had to hire STEM types for my employer. Kids from, say, U of M would come in wanting a starting salary bigger than mine, but they couldn’t engineer a route to the men’s room. Some of my best team members were HS grads who had gone to work instead of to college. THEY actually learned something useful.
Manufacturing, BTW, is alive and well. My employer is the world leading supplier of a certain type of quality control equipment for discrete parts manufacturing, and from 1993 to this day they have never had a year when US sales didn’t exceed the previous year. Not one.
I feel wealthier since paying off my $500 a month credit card debt.
Holy Capitol One, Batman! I should think so.
just another example
that government can’t be trusted
World Health Organisation ‘intentionally delayed declaring Ebola emergency’
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201…a-epidemic-who
$$$ and politics trump science and the best interests of the public EVERY time
and this wont be the last time this sort of thing happens
I work at a manufacturing plant. I do the bean counting for the head accountant. We manufacture band saw blades for cutting wood and metal. Also make some round saws for metals, but all the wood rounds come from our sister plant in Canada.
We keep growing. We just hired three more people. I just got another raise. The wood mills still are getting logs and they still need to cut them up into lumber.
Whether or not house’s are selling, someone is sure enough still building them!
Not every manufacturing job is gone yet!
Damn sure good to know, thanks.
“Pacific Hoe, Saw and Knife” was a plant similar to what you do, in Portland Oregon. I worked there for a minute in the 1990’s. I noticed they went under a few years ago. Apparently, the need/demand for saw blades in the Pacific Northwest went down significantly.
I hope this does not double post, my computer froze…
Not So Sixpack. Pack Hoe made an inferior product, did not handle their money well, spent a lot on freebies for the millwrights, too much time schmoozin customers and did not deliver quality goods. Simonds is the biggest producer of band saw blades in the US and we are second and only one fifth their size! We got some of those Pack Hoe customers. AND the pacific Northwest is NOT the biggest demand for blades. Over 3/4ths of what we make goes to the southern mills and to our ware house there. The yellow pine business is thriving there. Most mills in NW have been cut back due to mud slide dangers, environmental impact statements, and the owls etc…
Wood grows faster in the warmer climates. That is not to say we still have some mills going strong.
They are even still logging the Red woods.
P.S.
I remember the biggest reason they went out of business now.
They tried under selling everyone else to get the blade contracts and at the end of the year found out they undersold themselves into poverty! They weren’t making a profit. Out employer is going on 20 years this year and he has a good business head. Even if he is a bi-polar bully…I don’t have to work in the shop.
Thanks for the info there, later…As I said, I only worked there for “a minute”, which was more like 3 weeks, only worked there until the Carpenter’s union called me out on another job. “Pac Hoe” paid minimum wage to feed the teeth for those huge timber blades into a grinder for sharpening—no-brainer, busy work at best.
I was ever so glad to get back to swinging a hammer for a decent wage… 🙂
Right !!! See my Comment ID: 3351845 above.
No. The problem is called “net energy”.
Too much of the economy is now being sucked into the drilling and production of unconventional oil.
This means that cuts are made by way of offshoring for cheaper labor and less energy use countries to enable the unconventional oil to be drilled and brought to market.
You could also call it demand destruction whereby those that cannot afford to pay also don’t get to play anymore. Countries like Greece, Yemen, Egypt and Syria get thrown under the bus when their domestic energy sources dry up and they have no way to pay for imports to run the economy.
It is a worldwide deflationary collapse that has nothing to do with college degrees or subprime auto loans. They are just bubbles covering up the collapse. Curing those problems will only throw others out of work.
There is no solution…it is the collapse of industrial civilization.
Better get your eats and drinks lined up. Billions will be liquidated in the coming years.
Countries will get thrown under the bus. We can see this happening right now. The world will break down into a tier one group (Nordics, Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland etc.), tier 2 (US, France, China etc.) and the crap tier, the rest of the world. More and more they will just become dysfunctional hell holes of factional infighting, civil wars, crime gangs, etc. Look at Libya, Ukraine, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, etc. On the plus side, there will be epic ways to make money in drugs, weapons and the sex trade. Enjoy!
I read somewhere, that we ended up going to war in the Middle east, because leaders there were going to NATIONALIZE their petroleum resources, thus, ending the free profit margins for foreign (Western) corporations. Several of those leaders were ousted in coups, and at least one was publicly executed…coincidence???
Make that 2 were publicly executed…
If memory serves, all the Middle East countries had nationalized their oil production by 1970. Can you cite any one of them that had not?
I think the article I read was on Muanmar Gaddafi (sp?), and as I recall, it said the west was trying to oust him because of his policies on his country’s resources, namely, using their oil resources to their own country’s advantage.
I also recall an article on Latin American countries, where countries like Venezuela nationalized their oil and made it onto the west’s hit list immediately. I recall Cuba was similarly involved in nationalization of their resources, when Castro made the west’s hit list.
You can do your own research as you see fit. I just recall interesting bits and pieces of the thousands of articles Ive read over the years.
Even if my recollection is flawed, can anyone now take a look at those countries we demonize the most, and add up their natural resources and what they chose to do with them, and make a case that western corporate profits are NOT at the forefront of that demonization policy?
There are many articles written that support this view. Have fun researching if you’re truly curious.
Following the trail – Prescott Bush, GW’s grandfather, made his money financing Bill Paley, founder of CBS. GW’s father, GHW Bush, got deeply involved in the Mexican oil industry, but then Mexico nationalized him out of it. He was, to say the least, pissed off. And that’s why he went into politics, having been shown that Government power was the way to make money.
This is what happens when you have 20 million illegal aliens sucking up labor at depressed prices.
Yes, and no…….A lot of those “good jobs” Americans are always bitching about are not that at all. Just how much do you think you would be paying for produce in your grocery store if it weren’t for illegal aliens cultivating, picking and packing it? And don’t tell me they are taking jobs from Americans – Americans won’t do those agro jobs because they 1. think those jobs are beneath them and 2. are too fucking lazy to bust their asses in 100 degree heat for 12 hours a day. White guys won’t do landscaping, painting, carpentry, drywalling etc. You can’t find any white guys that either don’t have jailhouse jewelry around their ankles or can pass a drug test or who are actually willing to work. So give the illegal aliens stealing jobs a rest. Look in the mirror and ask what you are willing to do for a buck and how hard are you willing to work for it. Maybe YOU are the problem with being unemployable……
Good to see there’s another person that understands.
molon labe
Um, make that “American won’t to those jobs for the shit wages that employers want to pay”. Ask any white union framing carpenter, or roofer, or yes, landscapers. Legal workers have to be paid enough to pay their taxes. And the employer has to cover workmans’ comp insurance, unemployment insurance, FICA, etc., etc., etc.
I lease my pasture ($1 a year for 11 acres) to a local farmer who runs grass-fed beef. He has NO illegal workers. All his guys are born and bred Americans. And he still makes a good living. Greed drives the hiring of illegals, just as it did 150 years ago when Peabody imported Irish laborers for his mines.
Discussion phase is over. There is time to love and time to kill. I know the phase that I am ready for.
Si’ Even if its an unfortunate one. So be it. They crossed the line. Their funeral.
SV, If I need it will you lend me a hand?
PO’d P…By all mean and that would be my pleasure.
I would lend you a hand, but I only have two, which is just enough for myself…sorry.
LOL.
bloodbath
100,000 Layoffs And Counting: Is This The New Normal?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-20/100000-layoffs-and-counting-new-normal
Off Topic, but hey I’m good at that. Just wanted to say, I have always tried to resist technology when possible, but I must say the search engines on these computers are great. Nothing like faceing what appears to be a daunting task and then to go on line and find a method that is absolutely simple. I’m sure most already know this, but if you have a problem just do an online search and in most cases there will be an answer. I guess back to the old ways after the grid is down. Trekker Out.
Wouldn’t hurt my feelins’ none.
I really like having access to mega-unlimited-information at my finger tips, without walking all over pulling books from shelves…but I could live without it.
we had a 2008 recovery?
really?
BWAAAHAHAHA
keep drinking that kosher cool-aid suckers, you’ll be just fine working as life-long tax debt slaves for the zio-neocon jewman.
Wahh you bunch of Obamaite commies. This is nothing more than the result of a free market economy. If you do not like your lot in life, pull yourself up by the bootstraps and stop blaming the elite for you short comings.
D&C. I’m glad your in the mix. Keep ’em coming.
D and C, STFU calling us commies. You’re at the wrong site for that. Go to the MSM sites. they are all full of commies.
If this is a “recovery”, I’d hate to see a recession.
The more you do the less $ you make the less you do the more$ you make. Nobody can tell me this is a lie. I used to work like an asshole. Now I do nothing and get paid more. This is really inequality but no one will talk about it. The backbone of every company gets dogged while the stupidvisors go home early with a bigger check and they do nothing especially now a days. My company has been through two managers in two years. It’s the only place I’ve ever seen work like this the help has to kill someone or steal something to get fired. Managers get canned or quit due to pressure. This is the right way to run a business. If the company has problems it’s always the managers fault. That’s equality IMHO. Yes it’s a union job. I’ve heard people say they don’t like unions because of dues. Im fine paying $60 a month to get time and a half after 8 and free top shelf medical insurance for my whole family. Oh and my 3 weeks vacation 5 sick and 3 personal days off plus time and a half for working on contracted holidays. You non union people are nuts to complain about dues. I have a problem with the manager the next morning my Stewart and business agent and me are in the office with the manager and problem magically solved. For the non union worker your FIRED. Oh and they didn’t like your attitude either. I tell my boss go fuck yourself. It pays to be a teamster. I wouldn’t do it any other way. If you like to struggle without representation go for it to save $60. I’ve heard guys have files as thick as phone books. Fuck your employer if they don’t provide for you they are like a deadbeat parent. The unions are not all good but if your contract is good they can’t be beat. Support your brothers and sisters in labor it is the struggle of the common man. I never had ANY success working non union. Can’t speak for everyone though.
United you’re strong.
Unions are a way for shit to float. I have seen lazy ass union mofos run a ton of great small and medium size businesses in the ground. Any great employee worth having can find a good living because they want to and have the motivation. Unions had their place a hundred years ago. Now, not at all. Their place is to supportfolks like you who take pride in sitting on your useless ass while underlings do the work.
Foxglove, there goes another one we agree on. When unions first started, they had the best intentions toward the average worker. When the unions were clean and honest, everything was OK. But once they became corrupted by the mob and Democratic party, that was all she wrote. The union organizers of a century ago wouldn’t recognize the unions today. I see shit floating all the time, union and non-union. I’ve never been in a union in my whole life and do pretty good for myself because I work for what I want and need. I’ve developed good work skills and habits over the years and go the extra mile for my employer. I’ve paid a lot of dues and blood, sweat, and tears to get where I’m at today. Being a valuable commodity aka a damned good, hard-working person does eventually pay certain dividends.
Brave, I am an entrepreneur. Business IS my business. Small businesses are the backbone of the American dream. Anyone who has guts enough to risk everything and throw the dice to start and grow a business is to be applauded. About 95% of the popiulation doesn’t have the balls to do it. So when I see entitled Union shitheads and toolbags going on ad nauseum about “their rights” and “their United brotherhood” I wanna puke. All that shit is PURE and very real Communist Karl Marx bullshit. It is as anti American way of life as it gets. Bottom line – if you want decent pay and benefits as a worker bee, QUALIFY YOURSELF TO DESERVE IT! Don’t sit on your ass and whine. Work your way up, educate yourself, make yourself that great employee. That’s how it is done. It isn’t hard for people who aren’t lazy…
“The Government cannot be trusted”
You can say that again when most politicians are all taking bribes from jewish owned interntional bankers or are being blackmailed by these bankers that often uses child sex recording to keep the puppets in place.
NO DIRT, NO PLAY, NO RISE IN THE RANKS AS A POLITICIAN
Things will only change when we rise up and hang the scum and take control back for our lives but don’t let me stop you if you want to go nd talk to these pedophiles to try and strike a deal.
Gas went up 70 cents in just one week here in northern Illinois. They claim it’s a refinery problem. In a few weeks the refineries have to switch over to the “summer blend”. In metro areas the gas formula changes to appease the EPA. The gas prices go up then.
Belsen was a gas!
Bank error in their favor. With control of 4 sides and all the get out of jail free cards I would start a new game of Monopoly right about now.