Are The Wild Teacher Protests In Wisconsin A Prelude To The Economic Riots Coming To America?

The Economic Collapse ^ | 02/19/2011 | Michael Snyder

[SeekAndFind]

Have you seen video of the teacher protests that are going on in Wisconsin? We haven't seen anything like this in America in quite some time. If you haven't seen video of the protests yet, some very good raw footage is posted below. On the one hand it is good to see Americans coming together and standing up for what they believe in, but on the other hand what these teachers are freaking out about shows just how much America has changed. These teachers are not protesting for liberty, freedom or to change the government. Rather, they are protesting because they want things to remain the same. They simply don't want anyone to mess with their pay. Well, the truth is that none of us ever wants to experience a pay cut. It is not a lot of fun. But sadly, states like Wisconsin are so broke that they have to find cuts somewhere. Someone is going to have to make a sacrifice. The teachers in Wisconsin just want to make sure that it is not them.

In the United States today, state and local governments are facing unprecedented budget crunches. Tax revenues are way down and expenses are way up. State and local government debt has reached at an all-time high of 22 percent of U.S. GDP, and many state and local governments are teetering on the brink of insolvency.

States like Wisconsin have to do something or else they will collapse financially. Wisconsin is facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit (which for that state is huge), and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans in the legislature are attempting to make some tough cuts.

In particular, they want public employees to pay a little more towards their health care premiums and pension programs. In fact, what the Republicans are proposing would still leave Wisconsin public employees contributing far less to health care and pensions than their private sector counterparts.

U.S. Representative Paul Ryan recently appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program and described what Governor Scott Walker is asking the teachers to do....

Scott and I are very close friends. We e-mail each other quite a bit... He's basically saying that state workers which have extremely generous benefits packages relative to their private sector counterparts, they contribute next to nothing to their pensions, very, very little in their health care packages.

He's asking that they contribute about 12 percent for their health care premiums, which is about half of the private sector average, and about 5.6 percent to their pensions. It's not asking a lot. It's still about half of what private sector pensions do and health care packages do.

So he's basically saying "I want you public workers half of what your private sector counterparts do" and he's getting riots. It's like Cairo has moved to Madison these days.

These proposed changes have caused a massive uproar in Wisconsin. Just check out the following raw video footage from the last few days....

But this is what we have come to as a nation. Almost everyone agrees that reducing government debt is a good thing "in theory", but whenever anyone starts to put forward some specific proposals to cut government spending it makes those that will be affected by the cuts extremely upset.

Just look at what is happening with the federal government. Republicans and Democrats are both frothing at the mouth over extremely small budget cuts that have been proposed. Virtually none of our national politicians are even willing to discuss budget cuts that would actually make a serious dent in our budget deficits.

But we have got to do something. Spending by the U.S. government is spinning wildly out of control. Back in 1970, the U.S. government only spent about 200 billion dollars for the whole year. Well, this year the federal government is going to spend somewhere around 3.6 trillion dollars, and Barack Obama's newest budget proposal calls for U.S. government spending to increase to 5.6 trillion dollars by the year 2021. If the government continues to spend money at such a rapid pace it is going to completely wipe out our entire economic system....

But it is not just the U.S. government that is spending like a drunken sailor. Most of our state governments are complete financial disaster zones at this point as well.

As I have written about previously, the state of Illinois is such a financial disaster zone that it is hard to even describe. According to 60 Minutes, the state of Illinois is six months behind on their bill payments. 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Croft asked Illinois state Comptroller Dan Hynes how many people and organizations are waiting to be paid by the state, and this is how Hynes responded....

"It's fair to say that there are tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people waiting to be paid by the state."

Something has got to be done about our national addiction to debt.

Government spending has to be dramatically cut. All of us are going to have to make sacrifices. We simply cannot continue to spend far, far, far more than we bring in.

But we are Americans - we do not like to make sacrifices.

Our founding fathers warned us about this. They warned that when the American people figured out that they could vote themselves money out of the U.S. Treasury it would greatly endanger our republic.

Unfortunately that is exactly what is happening today. The vast majority of government spending on both the national and state levels consists of direct payments to individuals of one sort or another.

The American people have become addicted to the bread crumbs that they receive from the hand of their master.

This is not what our republic was supposed to look like.

As the U.S. economy continues to decline, we are going to see a lot more riots like we have seen in Wisconsin. Once the American people realize that the "good times" are over, all hell is going to break loose.

Already the anger and the frustration of the American people is starting to boil over. Unfortunately, that anger and frustration is focused in 1000 different directions. The ruling elite and the establishment media are constantly encouraging us to hate one another. I recently wrote about this phenomenon in an article on another website....

The truth is that the "establishment" is constantly trying to divide us and get us fighting with one another. They pit the Republicans against the Democrats (even as though control both sides). They pit one race against another. They pit one gender against another. We are told that the rich are against the poor, the north is against the south, urban is against rural and that there are even "generational battles" going on. Frustration and hate are rapidly growing in the United States today, and a lot of that frustration and hate is unfortunately aimed at the targets that the mainstream media has programmed all of us to hate. Meanwhile, those at the top of the pyramid who are controlling the whole game love it when we are divided because we can never become united and challenge their control.

Unfortunately, America is more divided today than ever. Our extreme affluence has kept the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted from disappearing so far, but once our affluence is gone all of the hate and frustration in society is going to come bubbling to the surface and it is going to be horrifying to behold.

Once the economic collapse happens, most Americans are not going to take it sitting down. Most Americans are going to want someone to blame. Most Americans are going to want to lash out somehow.

America today is like a big, fat spoiled baby that is about to have its favorite pacifier permanently taken away. America is going to whine and cry and complain like there is no tomorrow.

For decades the financial "gloom and doomers" have been warning about what would happen to this country if we didn't get our house in order, but nobody wanted to listen. Everyone just kept piling up more debt as if it would never be a problem.

Well, now our entire country is covered in red ink. Large numbers of state and local governments across the country are on the verge of defaulting on their debts, and they are hoping that the federal government will bail them out. The federal government has already accumulated the biggest pile of debt the world has ever seen and continues to behave as if we can just keep borrowing and spending massive amounts of money forever.

There is no way out of this nightmare under the current system. Taxing people more is not going to solve our problems. Taxing people less is not going to solve our problems.

We have gotten to the point where it is inevitable that the debt bubble that we have created is going to burst. Our politicians can try to delay it for a while, but in the end the whole house of cards is going to come crashing down.

When the U.S. economy does totally collapse, it is going to make the riots that we have seen in Egypt and throughout the Middle East this year seem tame by comparison.

What we are witnessing right now in Wisconsin are just the "birth pains". The American people don't want to "tighten their belts". In fact, most Americans have absolutely no idea what "hard times" would even look like. When things go from bad to worse we are going to see temper tantrums in this country like we have never seen before.

So get ready. Unless there is some kind of dramatic transformation in this country, in the years ahead we are going to see some horrific economic riots.

It would be nice if we had a brighter future to look forward to, but we don't do ourselves any favors by living in denial.

[PaleoBob]

This nation would be the perfect place for people who HAVE high-paying jobs with health coverage and lavish pensions to lauch “economic” riots while the ever-expanding base of unemployed and under-employed sat it out. This kind of “rioting” is PERFECT for round-the-clock coverage on Comedy Central.

[kabar]

So he's basically saying "I want you public workers half of what your private sector counterparts do" and he's getting riots. It's like Cairo has moved to Madison these days.

A more proper analogy would be Greece where the bureaucrats took to the streets demanding their stuff even if it meant the entire country went down the toliet. Let them eat cake.

[Loyal Buckeye]

I’m hopeful that when Ohio’s turn comes, collective bargaining will be dumped quickly. The Republicans have huge majorities in both houses and John Kasich as governor. There is nothing that the unions can do to stop the proposed legislation in Ohio.

[PaleoBob]

Fire their behinds if they are not back to work by Monday.

---

And firing them and shutting down the indoctrination camps (um, the schools) for just the rest of this year will go a LONG way toward fixing the budget nightmare there.

[MarDav]

Wisconsin represents the rumblings of things to come, folks. This is going to happen everywhere...

I remember when the spit started to hit the fan in the run-up to the 2008 election. There was talk of some secret meeting of congress. Closed doors, hush-hush. And, apparently, what went on in there was enough to cause a whole lot of congress folk to come out of that meeting with a “thousand yard stare” on their faces.

I don’t believe for a minute that we’ve been told how bad it really is (still). Why not? I believe if we knew, there would be such an outcry against our leaders...such an outrage at the way they’ve ruined things in this country...there would be a demand for trials and hangings (and I’m not kidding!) Think about Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the democrat party and the wild fantasy ride they’ve taken us all on over the past 40 years. They (and some of their dem ancestors before them) have detroyed everything that made America good. The Tea Party has shown us the beginnings, but [I feel] if we really knew all the nuts and bolts of things, we’d be on our way to Washington with more than picket signs.

All the posturing going on right now is, in my view, an attempt to keep the lid on things. They are trying to figure out a way (and, sadly, I think both sides are tyring to figure out their own way) how to salvage something from this mess. But there is simply no more money. If you or I borrowed up to our eyeballs to pay off debt only to fall further and further behind because your salary is frozen, your assets no longer produce profits, and the cost of everything has gone up, guess what happens? You reach the point where it’s all for naught. I believe America IS at such a point. It’s too late. And I believe when it all goes down (and soon...I believe it is coming very soon. Some time this year...)...when it all goes down, we are going to see this country torn apart.

I hope I’m wrong, but I believe we are in the last days of America.

[SECURE AMERICA]

The teachers who HAVE JOBS at the EXPENSE of thousands of TAXPAYER citizens who DO NOT HAVE JOBS better get smart real quick.
You dont want to be out on the street demonstrating to take more from the taxpayers. You may not like the consequences

[kingu]

It is like people are surprised that the unions are rioting just like the public employees of Greece did during the austerity budget debates. Over and over again the columnists predicted that we would see this come to the United States, and while those writers were mocked, because this is the USA, and we don’t do that here...

At the first sign of moderation, asking public employees to pay just half of what the average private employee pays towards health care, and half of what the average private employee pays towards retirement, you’ve four days of effective strikes in many school districts, riotous behavior at the state capital, and more promised for the future.

Personally, I think that when you’re acting so bad that Jesse Jackson has to get on a plane and fly up to join you, that it’s beyond ‘time out’ and right onto the point of expulsion. Fire any teacher who doesn’t show for work on Monday. I’m sure qualified teachers who are unemployed across the United States would fly there and start working before the end of the week. That is, if it wasn’t even more union thugs who’d actually do the hiring, and they’d probably give preference to the teachers who were previously fired for not showing up. A revolving door of benefits and increased wages.

[grey_whiskers]

That New Yorker cover is the most VILE misrepresentation I have ever seen!

...I could never IMAGINE Michelle's hips being that svelte!

[MsLady]

I can tell you exactly who will riot. Those in the inner cities who don’t have a clue as to how to take care of themselves and have always lived off someone else’s blood sweat and tears. And these union thugs. My guess is that’s pretty much going to be your rioters MO.

[killermosquito]

Review records for people who are unemployed. Those with any teaching experience/credentials should be hired to replace those on an illegal strike.

[Individual Rights in NJ]

Couldn't agree more!

I am turning 30 shortly, I believe I was part of LITERALLY the last generation to grow up in a free country, the real USA. It is gone now. At least my future kids are lucky that I'll actually be willing to raise them in whatever place is the most free on earth at that time that'll have us. I hope it is here, but it is not looking that way.

[WesternCulture]

In general, governments can always find better ways of dealing with deficits than cutting wages.

Getting rid of unnecessary red tape and firing bureaucrats is the best way to go.

I live in Sweden, so I guess I have a broader experience of large governments wasting tax payer's money than most members of this forum, but America of today is not that very different from Scandinavia in this regard.

In most countries, if not all, people are being brainwashed into believing in the idea of the ever-growing nanny-state.

We need teachers, firemen, police officers etc., yes, but why should governments like the American/Swedish/German ones rob hard working people of their money in order to finance “foreign aid” which mostly end up on Swiss bank accounts? And that's just one out of thousands of examples of how our governments are wasting our money - resources which could be used for much better purposes like research, education, infrastructural improvements or invading Iran.

[OldDeckHand]

"Union gatherings are top down"

Then, would you say "insurgency" or "rebellion" are better words?

[MsLady]

The problem here is you are seeing this on tv. Looks like there are millions, but, there aren’t. About 12% of American’s are in a union. They remind me of a puffer fish. You know, they puff themselves up to make them look bigger then they really are.

[MarDav]

And what was it Obama did for a living before becoming the [false] messiah?

I looked at the screen last night and saw the folks in Wisconsin and couldn’t help but think that Obama had reached the acme of his profession: rabble-rouser. This is all he can do. This is all he’s ever been any good at: stirring up trouble on the streets, step back and derive power from the menacing mob as he goes in behind the doors to wrest concessions from the intimidated.

He tried to stir things up with the Cambridge Cop incident. He tried to stir things up with the healthcare vote (his minions, the black congress folk who heard racist taunts on their march up the steps to vote). He tried to stir things up in Arizona with, first, the opposition to Arizone immigration law and, then, the rally...er...wake...er...keg party...er...whatever for the victims of the Arizona shooting.

The man is nothing more than a skinny Al Sharpton with better grammar skills.

[Mygirlsmom]

I can see it now. I sit down at my favorite restaurant and order a filet-medium rare.

A bit later, the owner sheepishly approaches me and says, "I'm very sorry, and I realize you're paying a very high price for your steak. But my cooks have decided it's their right to collectively decide what they are going to prepare. They have decided on grilled cheese.

Apparently, it's all the rage in the new cooking schools. In fact, they have a "new and improved" method of preparation, where the cheese is on the outside and the bread inside. I'm not sure I can see how that will work, but they were very upset that I questioned them since they say they are educated professionals.

Oh, and you table of 8 over there? I've been told by my cooks that it's too hard to serve 8 people all at once. You are going to be split into smaller table sizes. Enjoy your meal - you're paying for it!"

[Individual Rights in NJ]

good point.

[EBH]

I think that was President Bush’s meaning behind what he said in 2008 about the free market system... he had to destroy it in order to save it.

The American people though backed the wrong horse that November.

[dynoman]

The debt bubble is proof a service/entertainment economy is not sustainable. That question was open when our manufacturing sector was strong, but as new wealth production through manufacturing went down the remaining service/entertainment economy just racked up the debt.

We need to unchain and feed the goose (the economic sectors that generate new wealth) so it will lay golden eggs again - it's hasn't been getting enough feed to even poop when the majority of our capital is is getting sprayed at the service/entertainment sectors - outside the true capitalistic economic engine.

Most people are flat out brain dead about how a true capitalistic economic engine runs. Gotta put the fuel through it to produce economic power. A service/entertainment economy does not produce economic power, a true capitalistic economy produces enough economic power it can afford the service/entertainment sectors. But service/entertainment type sectors cannot, nor will ever be able to, survive on their own.

[MsLady]

If the unions in Wisconsin won't negotiate start firing. I'm sure there are plenty of people that have been looking for jobs for a long time that would be happy to take those jobs with the benefits Scott Walker is offering.

These selfish union babies don't give a rats pattooty about this Country. They only care about themselves.

Pray for Scott Walker and the other people in office who are trying to keep us from going under.