Ted - As I often do I agree with most of your post.
Taxing the rich...I've always disagreed with that narrative. That's the one point I disagree with Trump's tax plan, he says he wants to tax wealthy individuals at a higher rate than lower income brackets. Much less than currently, but if one person pays 10% they all should, period. The problem with Democrats and their tax the rich scheme is that they consider anyone making more than $200,000 to be wealthy. That includes most of the small business owners in the country, and small businesses account for most of the jobs. When you hit them with more taxes and regulations, they are forced to put all of their profits into paying taxes and complying with regulations, so they cannot expand, create new jobs, hire new people or give existing ones raises. This goes along with what you said, hit them with excessive taxes and they go somewhere else. I'm not disagreeing with what you posted, just expanding on it.
Badstrat - Unions have been a sore spot of mine for years. Originally, unions served a purpose. 14 year old kids were working in sweat shops under terrible conditions, up to 16 hours a day, no overtime, and even if you were an adult, you couldn't actually make a living. Unions gave employees something they could not get, leverage to get better hours, pay and conditions.
There was one big problem. The mafia was able to weasel its way into union leadership positions, and unions became hopelessly corrupt. As late as the 90's, officials from every union in the country had been convicted of embezzling. Jimmy Hoffa got his start as a mafia strong arm thug, breaking peoples' arms when they didn't pay the local loan shark. He was one of several who forced trucking companies to join the Teamsters Union by hijacking their trucks, beating drivers, bombing or setting trucks on fire and various other violent tactics. During Prohibition the mafia controlled the longshoremen, you couldn't unload a thing in New York Harbor without paying off the mob. They also got heavily involved in politics, donating large amounts of money to politicians usually for favors. Still do.
Everything you posted is true, many large companies eventually had no choice but shut down because of the high cost forced on them by unions. When you have a union going on strike for more money every time you turn around, cost to the consumer goes up, then when it becomes easy to move out of the country and get labor for $3 an hour versus $25 and hour, the decision is a no brainer.
I worked as a time keeper in a Houston refinery, all union except for the timekeepers. Why? They would have a friend punch the clock for them and get paid some $20 an hour while they sat at home, so the plant hired us to walk the plant every day and check every badge number in person. I watched people sit in an office in the dark and refuse to change a light bulb, "that's an electrician's job" they would tell me. It would take all day to get one to come change a simple light bulb. A millwright wouldn't touch it. I often wondered what they did at home when a bulb went out...most of them spent their days sitting in the shop playing cards, making over $20 an hour for it. And going on strike for more money at the drop of a hat.
I also had friends who had to work shut down jobs to rebuild plants that blew up, probably because an incompetent plant hand opened the wrong valve, and they had to bring baseball bats to come to work, when their job had nothing to do with the union. They weren't there to do the union workers' jobs, they were there to rebuild the damn plant.
I have to disagree with you about Wal Mart, I know what a bad company they are to work for. My sister worked there for 6 years, I begged her to leave the last 2 years. They were limited by store policy to 35 or 39 hours a week, so they were not considered full time. One supervisor, not her boss, would order her to work in a department she didn't belong, doing a job she was not supposed to do, when she told him she had to leave, she had her 35 hours in. He would throw a screaming fit and threaten to have her fired so she would go do it. Then she would get chewed out by the store manager for working overtime. That may have been just the one store, but the company wouldn't do a thing about any of it.
Their medical insurance was so expensive nobody but management could afford it. Management was also the only full time employees in the store. And they were all complete jerks. When she was ordered by the same guy to take a 32" TV down from the top shelf, by herself, and not her department, she fell with it and hurt her back, did some hospital time and 2 months off work. Wal Mart refused workman's comp, claiming she was not doing her job and was lying about it. Two other employees finally went to the workman's comp office and confirmed what actually happened, they had to pay workman's comp. The same guy was then even rougher on her.
Horrible company to work for and she was not the only one. About 6 months ago they announced they were dropping their insurance for all employees getting 30 hours or less, I'm betting they've now cut everyone to 30 hours but haven't confirmed it. That's the way they do business.
Vendors are kept to a strict schedule. Delivery trucks cannot show up 10 minutes early or 10 minutes late. Wal Mart will shut down their account for either. They don't set prices, Wal Mart does, you get it for what wally world will pay or you lose a huge contract.
When Sam Walton was alive it was a different story, when his kids took over it went to hell in a handbasket.
I've been using duckduckgo for searches, they claim they don't track you.
www.duckduckgo.com . Type in wal mart disability discrimination and look at the long list of disability discrimination cases. I was looking for a particular story and couldn't find it. Wal Mart has been convicted of more discrimination cases than any company in the country, one lawyer said he had never seen such disregard for the law. When I look through the list in that search, I see Boston, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Virginia, California, Texas, Illinois, Maryland and plenty other cities and states.
Who was next...oh yeah Robert Stone - Read my post. I said Clinton SIGNED the NAFTA act, I did not say he created it. I thought it was Bush who put it together but couldn't remember, but Clinton did sign it. He could have refused.
It may not have been due to NAFTA, but the outsourcing that resulted in "Made in China" stamped all over everything you buy got off to a roaring start while Clinton was in office. I was a machinist when he was elected, before he left I had to get out of that field because the machine shops in this area were completely dead. Manufacturing was long gone in 8 years. Taxes and regulations had a lot to do with it, along with unions. Maybe I was wrong about NAFTA causing it, but I'm sure it had a lot to do with the companies that have moved to Mexico...Fender guitars for example. Not all are made there, Japan and Korea got a good chunk too and the American factory is still in operation as far as I know.
As in Textiles, a few here and there survived, but not many. If you're working in a textile plant, good for you, it's one of very few left on this country.
Right now, I'm listening to it as I type, more small businesses last year went out of business than start ups. Again taxes and regulations. When all of your money is tied up paying taxes and trying to comply with regulations, you don't have the money to expand or create new jobs, in many cases your only choice is to shut down. Ask the coal miners in Kentucky, half of them are already out of business. That's 80% of the state's economy.
The whole thing boils down to government sticking its nose where it does not belong. Even if I was wrong about NAFTA, outsourcing took off like crazy while Clinton was in office. I watched the machine shop I worked for go from all the work we could handle to shut down completely because none could be had, that's why I originally moved to Lufkin. Laid off. I started in that shop working 7 days a week 12 hours a day. I was barely getting 40 hours when the shop shut down, often sweeping floors to have something to do. Now it's out of control, we're paying more for much lower quality, and the money is going overseas, jobs are gone. US corporations are holding around $2 trillion offshore, to avoid the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Civilians are paying far too much taxes, probably close to the world's highest. Government spending is out of control. Obama has implemented more regulations than any other president except for one year, Bush the year of 9-11.
As I've said before, politicians got us here, they won't get us out of this mess. Not one has ever done anything ahead of schedule or under budget. But I bet they would scream if their paychecks were 10 minutes late...Trump announced long ago he will not accept one. If we elect another career politician, this country is dead. If we manage to survive Obama...that still hasn't been proven.
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