[FrankR]

"whats the total after you add in fica, unemployment, health, worker comp, pension, health ...etc etc etc? "

Exactly...the "landed" cost.

It's amazing how all the unions vote for democrats and socialism [read: sameness], but yet they want to make a salary far above the minium wage, and even the average pay most Americans get.

Analyze how the unions operate, and you'll see what the democrats/socialists want our society to be like...a few fat-cat union bosses keeping the rest of us at the same level, no matter how hard we try, how ambitious we are, or how hard we work...the lazy and shiftless among us will get the same rewards as those who work hard...that's socialism.

[EDINVA]

How do we even calculate the damage the unions have done long-term to personal industry? What about incentive?

Why should Worker A do more than Worker B when he knows full well that his salary is set by what he does and how long he’s done it, not by how well he does it or how much more or less of it he may do.

The teachers unions keep killing off ‘merit pay’ that would offer higher salaries to the better teachers, providing an incentive for teachers to improve the quality of their work. Can’t have that. We all have to stay equally mediocre.

I am proud of the GOP Senators who stood their ground against the auto bailout. It reminds me of President Reagan with the Air Traffic Controllers. The unions and some of their members develop a mindset of entitlement to whatever it is they want, or they will pick up their marbles and go home. Maybe it’s time they do go home.