Nobody in my family ever belonged to a union. Maybe one uncle did because he was a tool die maker; I don't know. It didn't matter because it didn't affect me. Now what happens in the broader spectrum in our society affects me because I don't have to keep up such a frantic pace to survive and have more time to reflect.
Some of you throw out your degrees in economics. Fine. I had one course in college, and it wasn't my strong suit. Therefore I fall back on my common sense and my moral convictions. Fat cats whose employees suffered under them are going to have a lot to answer for.
Unions gave blue collar people better wages so they could produce children with hope, see a way out of the cycle they were trapped in, help their kids go to college.
Everything isn't as black and white in the real world as some of you would have it. You only seem to care about what affects you. If you work at Wal Mart and are happy there, I have no problem with it if you are able to stay off the government handouts and have a decent standard of living. Most people who work there and millions of others like them in other jobs live from hand to mouth. Few of them don't worry about making the mortgage payment because they have little hope of ever owning a house unless they get one from another government-assistance program. They do worry about making rent and rent deposits. Low wages also contribute to crime. Why should you work hard to educate yourself when you can cook up some meth, get busted and go through the revolving door of our sham prison system?
I would rather Wal Mart reform itself without a union, but it is going to take some kind of external pressure for the working poor in America to be able to make a living wage whether the rest of you think they are worth a living wage or not.
If going union is the only way, I will help them get one going as much as I am able to do so.
All you people who are so maliciously criticizing me are only doing so because you seem to care only for your own welfare and the hell with the poor f****** who never had some of the opportunities most of you white people have had. This board is mostly white folks, including a few furriners, and a sprinkling of blacks and hispanics. It do make a difference when it comes time to vote. Do Republican politicians care if people make a living wage? They talk the talk, but do they really walk the walk?
Republicans are going to end up losing bigtime if these kinds of attitudes prevail. Compassionate conversatism my ass. Time, world events, and economics are not on their side.
Some of you seem positively gleeful in thinking you have made such a fool of me. Your getting your thrill for the day, now two or three days running at my expense makes you sadists in my book.
If we're sadists you are a masochist - and a racist one to boot.
You saw what happened in Canada when the union bullied it's way into a Walmart - Walmart did the right thing and shut down. Was that fair to the majority opf employees that did not want the union, probably not - but those who pushed for the union were warned and they got what they deserved.
You go on and on complaining about the working poor - yet you seek to destroy a company that helps them to afford the necessities of life through lower prices. Bring in the union and prices will rise and more of your precious working poor will be out of jobs....your logic is twisted through your emotional and irrational dislike of Walmart. which probably explains why economics is not your strong suit.
Where I live the starting hourly awage at Walmart is about $9 - the equivalent job at any other retailer in this region starts at about $6.50, with far less chance of advancement or benefits for those who want it than at Walmart. where is the outcry against those retailers, or is it only Walmart because they are bigger?
Grow up and open your eyes to the reality of the real world.
And no, I do not work at Walmart, nor does any of my family, nor do I own stock. I'm just a consumer who is a realist.
I'd suggest you move to a socialist nation, they will take care of you without you having to put in much effort. Your whining is pathetic and your logic is twisted. Further more, all unions are corrupt and anyone fighting them is fine in my book. Unions destroyed most of the manufacturing in the northern states decades ago and more than did their share in driving manufacturing overseas. If you wish not to acknowledge the facts, that's fine, but to think I care what a whining leftist says, you are truly mistaken. It is not the government's job to give you a standard of living you wish to have, you have to work for it.
Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm shocked.
Seriously. Buy low, sell high. Learn that and you'll get at least a B-. Hell, they've given out Nobel prizes for less.
Accept the fact that you are a socialist.
You are not going to change the meaning of the word "conservative" just because you don't like the "S" word.
Here's a simple equation for you, sister.
Pro-union = Bolshevik
PS, Aliska. EVERYONE, no matter their station in life has UNLIMITED OPPORTUNITY in this great nation, OK?
I'm 18 years old and Black. I grew up in what you'd call "da 'hood". I didn't have much of anything growing up. My dad is im prison for manslaughetr and my mom is a hoe and a crackhead. My grandma raised me most of my life. But you know what? Through her I learned how to cook and a lifelong love of cooking and food preparation was born inside me. I've nurtured my dream of becoming a chef for as long as I can remember.
So I worked hard and paid attention and actually LEARNED something in awful inner city public schools, including a high school that could have been the shooting location for "Cooley High".
I also immediately got a job at 16 in a restaurant, willing to learn the business from the ground up. In less than 2 years I worked my way from doing scut work to being a line cook and sous chef. I've been accepted to one of the top ten culinary arts schools in the country and I have enough saved to pay for most oif my first year. I also applied for several scholarships through the James Beard Foundation and they tell me I'll probably get one. Even if I have to go into debt with student loans I will because its an investment in my future that will repay itself many times over.
Now If I can do it and bring myself this far in life why do you insist on demeaning people who are perfectly capable of doing the same for themselves by conferring upon them the "victim status" that you liberals, (yes, I said YOU liberals, for you've yet to present any proof you're REALLY a conservative, but plenty pf proof to the contrary.)
No, I don't know everything about Economics except for the authors I've listed for you and A. Pole to read. I do know that capitalism has given more opportunity to more people than any other system ever devised by man.
But I DO know that while there's no sin or disgrace in being born poor, there sure is remaining so.
That line should read "...that you liberals insist on conferring to others unwilling to rise above their present circumstances."
My bad.
First this: "It didn't matter because it didn't affect me. Now what happens in the broader spectrum in our society affects me because I don't have to keep up such a frantic pace to survive and have more time to reflect."
Then this: "All you people who are so maliciously criticizing me are only doing so because you seem to care only for your own welfare.."
So, it is acceptable that you are self motivated but we aren't supposed to be self motivated. How does it feel to be so hypocritical?