Idiots on parade. Hey dumbshits, you make more money than most of the people paying for your lifestyle and pension. You have a great thing going, and you're pissing it all away for nothing. LMAO [video=youtube;E1LeqQbf4Rs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1LeqQbf4Rs&feature=player_embedded#at=68[/video]
You really don't know what you're talking about. Local levies have nothing to do with state-level collective bargaining/retirement packages.
That's not true at all. You will draw SS and it will probably be the biggest chunk of your retirement package unless your business is really rockin'. If the voters were really saying enough is enough they would halve all politician pay. These are the overpaid crooks who ran the debt up. Unions are the scapegoats.
Local levies ultimately control staff levels and the continued existence of the district. Good teachers, like good anything else, don't come cheap. Either pay them well because you value them or fire them all and don't complain about the lack of good schools. The option of paying them crappy and having crappy teachers seems self-defeating and more expensive in the long run. Can't have your cake and eat it too.
At some point, will you just accept your own ignorance and stop posting in this thread? It's clear that you have no idea how private sector taxpayers set up their own retirements. A large part of mine has been based in the stock market (I was young, and took some risks), and thankfully, I've had the brains subsequently to make gains and protect those gains. If my retirement was based primarily on my SS payments, I may as well just shoot myself now. Which brings up another question. Why shouldn't people without the means that I have be able to place a small percentage of their mandated SS tax into a private account?
Duh. State contracts ultimately control the benefits and retirements packages of these teachers. That was my point. Try to focus, Pops.
Either way works for your goal, which is no taxes, which means no government services like schools. Your vote can shut down the schools. No schools, no employees, no retirement packages. Duh. Or the governor's plan. Shitty package, shitty employees, shitty schools, stupid populace. So you want your world to be filled with morons?
Because it's a fool's play. Like trading gold bullion for beanie babies. You likely lost 40%-70% of what you thought was going to be your stock market retirement package during the last few years, but this is a message board so go ahead and claim you were the guy who saw it all coming and pulled it out in time.
Didn't you just say this earlier? Aren't you suggesting that the world is already filled with morons?
Have you seen the market lately? I'm not old like you, and I don't depend on mutual funds/PERs to fund my retirement plans. At what point do you just quit trying in this thread?
The big difference is that in Egypt, it is private citizens protesting the government for being corrupt. In Wisconsin, it is public workers protesting their bosses, and by proxy, the private citizens who pay for their salaries. Salaries that are well above the average private sector worker's salary, I'll add.
I don't think so, PapaG. The AUSTERITY required to bring fiscal sanity back to govt. economics is sure to cause many more protests like this one. This is the tip of the iceberg.
I understand this, and Sug's comments in this thread show how entrenched the public union members' sense of entitlement is in their belief system. That said, the few public opinion polls being released show that people in WI handily support the governor over the moochers. If the opposite were the case, I really believe that the results would lead every newscast tonight. I just don't see this as that big of a deal. The moochers need to be held accountable for their mooching, and taxpayers in some states are starting to understand the basic economic principle of a system where the public employees make more money and have better benefits than their private sector bosses.
Calling the govt. employees moochers is a bit over the top. That there are so many govt. jobs is absurd, but it's not the employees' fault - other than voting for candidates who grow the govt. payrolls. Unions have declined in popularity rather steadily for at least the past decade. It's not uncommon for members of one union to show solidarity with members of another.
I don't think I have come out in favor of the protests in any post in this thread, nor have I shown an "entrenched" position. I said that I really have no control over what I get paid or the power to truly negotiate that on a personal level. I have also said that when you get hired there are certain promises made in both public and private employment. Those promises being benefits such as healthcare, disability insurance, retirement plans, etc. When I am told that my contributions will be matched, I assume they will be. When I am told that I am going to receive a certain benefit, I assume that the promise will be met. This has been true in my work for both the private and public sector. My father was a captain in the Army and he to had certain benefits that were promised to him. Things like the G.I. Bill, vet benefits, etc. My friends who are police officers, postal carriers, and firefighters are in the same boat. We all face the reality that those promises will not be met at the federal and state level. We all serve our state and country with pride, but at the end of the day we face the impact of a struggling economy. There are a lot of reasons for this, the private sector's greed in terms of real estate is one of the primary causes of our current plight. Banks, mortgage companies, and the government(elected officials funded by PRIVATE corporations) made sure to fix the system in their favor hence destroying the economy. You can attempt to pass the blame to teachers as much as you like, but the reality is that there is a shared responsibility when it comes to the totality of the problem. This is where my main issue is with people like you who like to point and scream like a child and say "they did it mommy, they ruined everything!" The truth is that the majority of flaws in the government are there as a result of greed from the private sector. If you honestly believe that the public unions have nearly as much powers as big oil, banks, and real-estate you are fucking nuts. Look at any major piece of legislation and you will see the finger prints of the private sector lawyers all over them. It's not like the teachers unions has any say in GWB's No Child-Left Behind Act, it was written primarily by the testing companies and textbook companies. There were actual parts of the bill that rewarded those companies by putting their tests, books, and programs in place in the even that a school/district did not meet their pre-determined benchmarks. As a result you have had billions being poured into these PRIVATE company coffers into programs that suck and have shown no real meaningful gains for students. These are private companies that are mooching off the system, not me. Another example of this is the military, my father had the honor of serving his nation, and even found himself in the PRIVATE sector working for a defense contractor. If you are looking for someone to target, I suggest you start there. The shit that goes down in that private/public sector orgy would make a Roman ruler blush. The fact remains that we are in an age of corporatist power backed by both parties, and well protected by the last four presidents. Obama is no better than Bush or Clinton, in fact he is better by evidence of the record profits recently reported. Cry all you want about my PERS, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the other shit the PRIVATE sector has written into law to mooch off the schools, states, and federal budgets.
