Unions, while born of socialism, had their place as a check and balance against corporations who were more interested in taking advantage of the working class. While not the best of form, they had their place in raising social standards. Their failure was simply they lost sight of truly fair and honest treatment of the workers in general.
Today the unions are gone and we have corporations who really don’t give two hoots about the share holders. As long as a few of them hold 51% of the stock, they can vote themselves multi-million dollar bonuses on companies that are going bankrupted. While people complain about this, these corporate raiders are not interested in helping the workers raise their standards as Henry Ford did.
I wouldn’t be so keen on “lagging behind Europe when it comes to job security, vacation time, and benefits.” I talked to a number of Europeans about their benefits. They told me that while its nice that they have the security of knowing they have health care and income security, the price they pay for that is a significantly lower life style. Many I talked to lamented they couldn’t afford to travel or do anything simply because the government took most of their money.
This country has a lot of problems that it doesn’t seem to want to face. We keep sending billions of dollars overseas for poverty while homeless vets beg for spare change in subway stations. We have a war going on 6,000 miles away to keep us safe from terrorists all the while we have illegal immigrants sneaking across our borders. We have companies posting $250 million dollar deficits and they award their board $70 million for doing a great job.
I don’t wish to sound gloomy (not doing a very good job, am I). I’m convince much of this, with the rise in hurricanes, droughts, etc. is simpling heralding in the end times. Of course people said this before-but then I wasn't around to correct them. ;O)
Many Excellent points.
Thanks.
However, gotta watch out for those END TIMERS . . . they are . . . a . . . passionate lot.