To: axial who wrote (108401 ) 2/17/2010 12:40:31 PM From: suanny 8 Recommendations Read Replies (4) | Respond to To my knowledge union contracts have changed little over the last 30yrs.,mostly due to cpi increases and sharing payment for medical benefits,which is normal in todays job market.At times public employees are given time off benefits in lieu of a cost of living increase as a cost saving remedy when viewed from outside as overly generous amount of time off.People sometimes point out public employees doing little or nothing on the job are usually taking about the mayor's brother in law and I'm sure things are not much different in the private workplace.As far as power is concerned large private sector union wielded some political power;but,public unions very little, except in the few cases like Mish cited in his argument.Whatever power unions had has been consistently eroded for the last 30yrs..Passage of the trade bills of the 90s should be proof of that in that it was a disaster for the unions and I believe for all Americans.I never did buy the argument that opening the chinese market would benefit the US,ie;how can I benefit trying to sell to a person making a dollar a day,at the same time giving tax benefits to corporations to invest in factories in China.Now people who made that argument say to reverse those treaties would be protectionism, which they say caused the great depression.From my point of view the US has been on a down hill spiral ever since those treaties were signed,only covered up by long running bubbles in the stock market,real estate,and debt over all.I cannot understand how someone can watch the congress consistently pass bills that a majority of the public are not in favor of,ie,the bail outs and the trade bills and needless regulations see no conspiracy and at the same time point to public employees,whose salary benefit packages may be out of line with the mainstream due the circumstances, many of which stem from the difficulty of unwinding contracts which are in place,and say they used their huge political power to bring this country down.Most people accept the fact that globalization is inevitable,this acceptance was sold by the people who benefited and had the real POWER to drive through the trade bills to everyone elses disadvantage.The US has been circling the bowl ever since and masked over by the bubbles, without them people would have realized Ross Perot was right immediately.The people who had the power to ram through the trade bills destroyed this country,despite the delayed effect due to the cover up by bubble economies,public employees have no real power to effect anything which could destroy America.
