If a UAW member is making 75% more money than their non-unionized counterparts, especially today, that's news to me. Union leadership, sure, but I'm talking about the guys in the trenches.

 

A few nations over there have privatized their postal service (wouldn't that be interesting here since the US Postal Service is bleeding red ink). Some are even experimenting with more privatization of their health care systems (like the UK), and selling off infrastructure to private enterprises (Germany). Right-leaning parties have recently won elections at unprecidented levels over there.

Granted, things are still very much public-oriented compared to the US....

 

If, and ONLY If, said tax is used solely for the purpose of infrastructure projects and maintenance then I'm cool with it. It would have a direct effect on everything from transportation costs to jobs, more projects = more jobs!

 

If you give the govt more tax revenue they will just use it to help pay for entitlement spending thus robbing from the roads and infrastructure as mentioned by others. Not to mention once you get a tax added you can almost never get it repealed. Just look at the phone tax that was to pay for the Spanish American War, everybody was still paying it on their phone bills until about 8 years ago they finally repealed it. Only took 100 years after the reason they created it to remove it, lol! All govt does is grow, just look at the housing prices in the country, down almost everywhere, the only place they were up was around DC since they are still hiring. I hate to use the Matrix analogy but govt is basically a virus, it has to feed of it's citizens to survive and it constantly wants to grow.

 

Like that would happen...

 

Pardon me for the simple redneck thought but.... The last think our drunk Gov't needs is more alcohol (tax revenue)

 

I'm always curious how far somebody is willing to go to kill a union, especially when you see "marxist" combined with union. Looks like alot of hate to me.

I had forgotten alot of the rank and file in the auto industry at least have taken some pay cuts due to trouble in the industry.

Now as a thought experiment;

Imagine being able to drive down pay to minimum wage with no benefits, that would allow the US auto industry to become pretty darn competitive on a global scale possibly increasing imports because the industry could offer more features in thier vehicle at a better price and at home cheaper but equal to or better contented vehicles could provide a double edge sword by driving out imports.

One could always argue that the workers wouldn't be worth a crap, but people are funny things, I've met alot of people who even in a crap job are sufficently motivated to do a passable job simpy because there are no other options and keeping crap job is better than no job at all.

I think I've cited the example before of a flag company in my AO that forces thier employees to work during an unpaid lunch break, to a local SubWay that after 40 hours does not pay their employees any additional money.

To even my workplace when I gave being a department manager a spin, I've variously eleminated paid and unpaid breaks to make sure I meet my time commitments, scheduled people to work 6-7 days while keeping them under 40 hours of pay time in order to avoid overtime and meet my staffing commitments, even made them walk outside during bad weather in order to use the rest room when it was a door away for inventory control.

A little grumbling, no real complaints, and never got in trouble even though right next door in the same business other employees were not subject to that. It even helped to create a little us against them attitude to make that sort of stuff palatable.

but back to the discussion at hand I suppose, mzgp5x's vitriolic comment just got me wondering and wandering.

 

The problem people have with Unions is they are basically money funneling operations to the Democratic party and they have promoted a tolerance of low productivity with high reward. You shouldn't be forced to join a union in order to be able to work somewhere. If I was a conservative and wanted to work in those plants I would have to pay dues to the Union and that would then go to fund the people I am against running this country. Being forced to join something you don't want to in order to work should be illegal. Every state should be a right to work state.

 

As a business owner/executive I would always want to hire the best talent I could find at a salary/rate that fits my cost structure. If The Big Three suddenly waved a wand and said they were going to pay everyone at minimum wage and could actually do so, on the surface they'd be on easy street but I also don't feel that their vehicles would reflect a competitive level of quality. That may or may not be true in this particular case but I believe recent history has generally demonstrated it to be true. It certainly isn't always best for the bottom line to pay bottom of the barrel wages.

I 10000% agree with this. If I prefer to work for a lower wage and not pay dues and not receive the "benefits" that come along with it, that should be my right. We all know why states have no-right-to-work laws, because a mix of union and non-union labor weakens the bargaining power of the organized collective. Individual rights vs. "what is best for the group" is an age-old argument that won't be resolved anytime soon.

 

I don't think GM minds the pay, it is the lifetime benefits that guys get after 30 years that is killing them. A union guy can work from 18 years old until he is 48 then "retire" with a pension of about $30k per year plus full medical. Basically, GM, is keeping them on the payroll for another 30 years and getting nothing for it.

-Geoff

 

Yep, worked as an Engineer in the plant floor for decades+, and spoon fed tech info and coaching these Union people on systems install and routien t_shooting/ automation fixing. "Skilled" (not really) trades made double my salary. Also time and 2_time for OT where I got none.

Also, out of town for years livin out of a bag. Holidays and weekends continuous.

Also had the added bonus of training crack infested Union members on tech stuff as they destroyed factory floor hardware. Hey, no bid deal? Just wreck all the stuff... right?

Again... Marxist Unions and progressive mgt.

Quite a crappy job, but I was good @ installing robotic automation and t_shooting it.

Their loss. And, I'll take any union 4th gen up against my ride.
Fightin mad.
B.

 

Points or not, he's delussional and should do as Ford does and shut up. Maybe he's working another angle, like his own!

 

That won't stop them. That's exactly what happened to the social security trust. It wasn't suppose to be touched. That money was suppose to be set aside, that's why it was constructed as a "trust". The government found a way to the funds by writing it IOU's to the SS trust to the total of $3 Trillion. Now they don't want to pay the money back that you, me and everyone else put into the SS and Medicare trust funds. So I would never ever trust the government to do the right thing.

Amazing how they skew the nomenclature as well labeling SS and Medicare as an "entitlement". No SS and Medicare were retirement and health savings accounts "trusts" that we all paid into on every pay check we've ever received. Government should have never had to pay a dime to these trusts if they would have left the money alone and not stole it from the trusts to begin with.

Moreover the current taxes on fuel federal and state have been squandered on other projects other than road infrastructure. Texas has moved to not build any net new highways. All new highways would be privately funded (for profit) toll roads. Moreover we've actually sold some of our existing highways (infrastructure) to foreign entities so they could erect toll ways on these roads.

Never underestimate the governments ability to avoid the real hard decisions. Continue to tell you one thing via the media and behind closed doors and under "executive session" do just the opposite with you and I never hearing about it until the money has been squandered with no public assets to benefit the constituents.

Never vote for new taxes.

 

 

SS trust fund has treasury bonds in it. Those pay interest, cash doesn't.