The war on workers heads to Phoenix

I have no problem with collective bargining for unions,  however I do have a problem with public sector unions there should be none.  However we have them so they should be allowed to collectively bargin for better working conditions, higher pay and better benefits. The citizens of the city/state I should be allowed to vote on the union package.  I say this because as a tax payer I am paying the bill.  The other side of the coin is this you have politicains that promise the unions the moon to get their support during the  ellection after which they are negotating the package the union will get from the public bankroll.

Great jones, I want to have an initiative for every dollar that goes to defense contractors, and all corporate welfare.

Do these taxpayers think their consumer dollars are all that different?  The animus to tax supported workers is not based in reality.  I get better value from teachers and most public workers than I do from the drones of corporate where we get less for more.  In very few instances, mostly small and local businesses, is the customer either "right" or of primary concern.  We are profit sources, and the bigger they are, the less they have to care about how we feel.  They operate by market leverage and all the old Robber Baron Monopoly games, not by building excellent relationships with consumers based in superior value.  Controlling shelf space is what matters in supermarkets, and a good reason why small and local, farm to table, has a chance to supplant the current petro-subsidized food system.

Notice, however, it is not competition among the biggies that has led us to any hope for change.  It is the failed model we have been subsidizing that keeps local competition from taking off.  We would need to change public policy to foster local and fresh, but the food giants continue to get their entitlements and make local producers go through the hoops.

Food may be the most vulnerable point in the industrial, economy of scale model.  Until quality replaces cheap and disposable, Walmart will have its subsidiaries in China produce crap for China export and our cheap.  China is not producing cheap crap for its own consumption, btw.

We all should be buying from the local shops and markets before going to moa mart or other big corporations.  we should also hold the politicians feet to the fire when they do the wrong thing,  like bailing out the banks and subsidizing companies that would fail without it, let the market or the consumer decide who wins and who loses. this should apply to all forms of welfare there should be none, Not one dollar of federal money should be used to support any type of welfare be it corporate of otherwise.   

we should also limit the federal government to the 18 jobs listed in the constitution all other sistuations should be up to the state, county, or city to decide.

As far as defence contractors go as part of the bid process the citizens of the country should be allowed to see what is being charged and what is being purchased for that money so we as a people can get the best product for the money we are spending.  a way to limit some of this until we get the say we should have is to outlaw, lobbying, insider trading and other forms of government coruption force the government to live under the same rules as the rest of us.

Nice wish list.....Good luck on getting any of it done.

it is easy to get it done we the people just have to elect conservatives or Libertarians like ron paul,  get rid of the marxists like obama, cut off the federal tit and all be will be right with the country again. 

the U.S.A. ran with little to no government control compared to things now until 1930's or the first 150 plus years we should be able to handle it again.  but than again a lot of progressives like Obama do not think the U.S. was a great country until after 1979.   

I wouldn't call it a war on workers. I'd call it a war on the many. Afterall, most earn the bulk of their living with a wage/salary. 

Too often, people think of "workers" as hamburger flippers or ditch diggers...and eliminate themselves because they don't fit their self-defined "worker" category..The many are being picked off a few at a time

It's a war on the many by a very few. .

Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease".

So true.  I often wonder why we spend so much time talking about the top 400 and the bottom 150 million.  That means there's another 150 million unaccounted for.  I often wonder how much that "middle" 150 million's net worth is as compared to the other two categories.

Does Jones think that Romney's safety net is strong and sufficient, or does he really think that we do not need to care for those who fall through the cracks for a number of reasons?  I don't get the anger and resentment at having to help the homeless and hungry.  I recognize that there are people who lack a vocational sense or whose spiritual deficiencies could make them into lazy bums willing to live on the backs of others.  I don't think there are a lot of them, and I refuse to lump a lot of others who are not able to make it into that lazy bum, welfare queen or call it what you will excuse for not caring.

For me, it is national security and defense to insure that there are no homeless people, no hungry people and nobody who has to turn to crime to live.  I believe that when we invest in education, healthcare, housing and other basic needs like food availability, we are insuring our own interest in living in a good society.  We also eliminate the resentment of those on the short end of the stick and get educated, healthy, housed and fed fellow citizens.  We will get far better results from generosity than from resentment fed austerity and punishments.  We could save what we spend on prison costs alone.

Yes, we should help the poor and the homeless but individuals should do that because it is the right thing to do, not at the end of the government gun.  

Investment in health care, education, housing and other social needs should be done on a local level in your city or state, not by the federal government.  The Federal government does not have the knowledge, flexibility or the constitutional authority to put plans in place that will benefit all states and all cities.  What is good for California is not good in Kansas and so on. 

The progressives keep trying these social plans that have been proven to not work,  a modern day example would be Greece. 

The progressives say the rich are not paying their fair share when we have 47 percent of the working population that pay zero in federal income taxes.  We have a large portion of those 47 percent that get more money back in refunds than they pay into the system. I have no problem with giving them back they money that they have paid in if they are below a poverty line. however we need to stop giving them some of mine while telling me I am not paying my fair share. 

I consider the progressive income tax (2nd pillar of communism) to be a federal punishment.  I have no problem paying Federal taxes as long as it only goes to cover the 18 jobs listes in the U.S. constitution nothing more and nothing less. 

Well, if wealth keeps being shoved to the top, you'll probably end up with 99% paying no taxes.

Telling the destitute to  pay taxes and then switch to eating cake because they can't afford bread doesn't work out very well. I recall a few heads rolling over that sort of thing.

If you want a large proportion of the population paying taxes...raise their incomes so they can afford to do so without making a choice of starving or living under  bridge.

The nation creates nearly $160,000 per year for each family of four. It's a pity nearly 1/2 don't receive enough of that to pay taxes without going hungry. It will be even worse when 99% don't receive enough income out of that to pay taxes without going hungry.

We're working on it. Poverty rates are increasing annually.

Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease".

Gott stop voting in those Globalist politicians just cuz they have a "D" by their names.

Raising the minimum wage does nothing to help with poverty, it does cause inflation to go up.

Let me explain: the government raises the minimum wage to say 10 dollars an hour, all the companies that have minimum wage employees raise the cost of their products and services to cover this new cost. As all of the companies do this all of the products in the country now cost more which puts the minimum wage employee right back where he started from fighting to barely get by.  The other side effect is that some of the jobs that are minimum wage jobs are not worth 10 dollars and hour so the company will be forced to lay off workers giving their duties to another minimum wage employee.  so now the employees that are left have to work harder to be in the same posisition they were before the government got invovled. 

It should also be noted that a cerain amount of inflation is not associated with an unhealthy economy. Prices go up, but people have more money to buy things with. 

It should also be noted that employers are not forced to lay off workers.  If they need the employees to satisfy the increased aggregate demand that is created by raising the minimum wage, they can always adjust their profits.  It's simply a choice that they make. 

Employers can be forced to lay off employees, when the government raises taxes on the company or they raise minimum wage to the point that the company can no longer afford to keep the same number of employees they have no choice but to lay off employees or go out of business. 

government rule change, more cost to company, company choice is now go out of busines or lay off employees.  government forced the issue government created the issue. 

Not even close.  Very few businesses live that close to closing.  A conservative caller to the Ed Schultz show a few months back put it nicely in a nut shell.  When confronted with a possible increase in taxes on his million dollar company he said that he would have to either cut wages to his workers or lay people off or both if his taxes were to increase because he was making about 500 grand a year and there was no way in hell that he would lower his personal income by 50 thousand dollars. 

His lower income of 450 thousand dollars wouldn't even come close to jeopardizing his business.  It's all about greed and it always will be.  Keep drinking the koolaide though!

Thing is, I've been a worker all of my life and I've never felt that anyone was waging war on me. How have I escaped the "war on workers" for all of these years? Where is the war and how did I miss it?

Hey! Look at this! The minimum wage gets raised, and, within days, the unemployment rate drops to 8.3%, after 5 straight months drops.

Didn't President Obama campaign on getting the unemployment rate down to 7%? He probably won't get it there because of right-wing obstruction (everybody knows who is causing the drag on the economy) but getting it into the 7s is going to look awfully good in November.

Do you have proof that the minumum wage increase reduced unemployment? I doubt that 5 days is enough to prove any trend.

Suppose you are a swimming pool manager and you have five high school students working concessions. The Students are working for $8.00 per hour and bringing in $9.00/hr to the business. Minumum wage is suddenly raised to $10 dollars per and you are now losing money. What do you do?

That's easy.  You raise your prices like everybody else does.  Or you can the regular students and you bring in the foreign exchange students who will work for half that price.