“Business leaders claim that American workers don’t want or need unions anymore.” Only in the USA can the news media publish a sentence like that with a straight face. “Cheetahs claim that gazelles don’t need to run fast anymore.” “Baseball team claims its opponents don’t need to wear baseball gloves anymore.” “Debate team claims the other team doesn’t need to be allowed to debate any more.”
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True that. I’ve spent plenty of time in Northern Europe. The US is not really a modern democracy. We’re not modern and certainly not democratic.
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Melania’s on the other thread…
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(Sultry voice)
Hey @discobot. What are you wearing?
Pervert!
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I live in a so-called “right-to-work” state. I meet people who seem to believe that corporations were created by God and unions were created by Satan. These are often people who benefit (or only think they benefit) from low-wage labor, so arguments about unions improving workers lives fall on deaf ears.
The line I have been most successful with – at least in terms of getting them to acknowledge unions’ right to exist – is this:
Owners band together as corporations in order to increase their power in the marketplace, including their power when negotiating with workers.
Shouldn’t workers be allowed to band together to increase their negotiating power, just like owners do?
It normally elicits a “Well, yes, but…” – but at least it starts with a “yes.”
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True, but at a price. Josh said it in one of his Edblogs regarding singlepayer health care and other social benefits – you don’t get a Northern European style social safety net without Northern European levels of taxation. And it can’t be done just by taxing the wealthy and corporations and leaving the middle class alone.
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I believe you meant “right-to-work-for-less” state.
It’s much the same here in Tennessee.
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So? The Europeans keep electing democratic Socialists. The Swedes Norwegians and Danes I’ve met in 4 visits to Scandinavia who pay a 50% tax rate are cool with that. We should be so lucky.
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Single-payer that would replace the current system would result in a family of four paying about $3500 more in taxes each year----in exchange for no longer paying $28,166 (on average) for the current set-up.
Add in the elimination of Medicare taxes and the savings are even bigger for a family of four.
It would also eliminate medical bankruptcy.
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No one should have to go through medical bankruptcy. Mine was in 1998 after both my wife and son were hospitalized for bipolar disorder .
Their illness was stressful enough without the financial disaster.
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Plus ça change …
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Hey, if I could flip a magic switch and convert us to a Northern European taxation and social safety net system, I would do it in a heartbeat. It’s selling the middle class on the idea of raising taxes when they’ve been programmed for so many years that taxes = evil that’s the problem here.
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These discussions are so important. They should continue and spread throughout the country. The more talk, the more depth (we’re liberals) and the greater sense of collective power.
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The greatest trick anti-union lobbying pulled was to get people to ask “why do they still have good benefits?” instead of “why don’t I have good benefits?”
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It’s been reported that the House legislation essentially negates states’ right-to-work laws and constitutional provisions. There are several Democrat Senators representing those states, some of whom would be committing professional suicide if they voted to undo right-to-work. Since it only takes one of those senators to kill the bill, that provision will be coming out.
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But he neeeeeds his support yacht so his girlfriend can land her helicopter.
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