Posted on 02/18/2018 3:44:54 AM PST by buckalfa
PATCO learned the hard way: You’re Fired!
I agree teachers are underpaid, but that’s their own fault since it is their unions and school systems that spend far more on administration (buildings, admin staff, etc) than is spent on school buildings, teacher salaries, and learning materials. They all desire to move up to the admin buildings.
True story: Election 2000. Held at a new high school the school system begged money to build as “absolutely necessary”. 1996 we voted in the bond for it.
AS we stood in line to vote in 2000, everyone, I mean everyone, commented on the polished granite in that school. Millions were spend on a lavish facility. That 1996 bond was supposed to buy multiple high schools and it built just that one.
We voted down the next few school bond issues.
I now tend to believe that what's happened is that union employees (public or private) have just maintained the wages and benefits that used to be the norm for most private sector workers, too.
What's happened in the interim is that we have allowed our industry to be hollowed out by "free trade" and excessive immigration (both legal and illegal) combined with the dominance of the financial sector have redirected more of the national income from labor to capital.
Fix the underlying economic problems and the rest go away: everyone makes more money, job security increases, the tax base expands and public services can be adequately funded while deficits decrease.
Just like it was from '45 to '75 when our economy was protected and immigration was minimal.
What I found weird is that these are native West Virginians. Yes, there are A LOT of out of state folks flocking to WV, but the ones I’ve met are conservative like us. Many West Virginians seem like an oxymoron to me. They’re self sufficient - heating their homes with wood, owning chickens and so on. Yet, they’ll gladly live off of government handouts at the same time. The cashiers around here dread the first of the month.
It’s going to be interesting to see what Justice does here.
Remember he changed from Republican-to-Rat-to-Republican. He’s primarily an opportunist! He wants to run against Shelly Moore Capito for he Senate seat.
What’s the issue - PEIA going broke? Too little coming in, too much going out?
I am originally from WV, retiring back there in a year
The story of PEIA is the old one of offering a Cadillac benefits package in exchange for lower working pay. As more retirees hit the plan the actuarial health of the plan started to go down hill 30 years ago. Of course the state kept kicking the can down the road until now. Think of this as a precursor to the uproar that will happen when means testing is applied to Medicare and Social Security. It needs done, will the politicians have the courage?
“Protect you from what, exactly?”
The real world.
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