Bob, Frank, I was merely making a passing joke on the way Christine
described her being both the part of the demonstration and an external
observer with the camera.
I realize that social and economic pressure is high in your country,
although specifics vary with areas, etc. We have very similar issues
here as well, although they are somewhat different in specifics, which I
cannot possibly give, because I don't follow on this, mostly because I
don't really understand all the details and all the nuances.
If you (either of you) want to discuss it further, I reckon we can do it
off the list, for obvious reasons.
Boris
On 2/27/2011 4:56 PM, frank theriault wrote:
On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Bob Sullivan<rf.sulli...@gmail.com> wrote:
Boris,
No armed revolts here, but many unhappy people.
The perception is that public employees - teachers, police,& firemen
are retiring at 2/3 or 3/4 of annual salary as paid by the state government.
Most people are not covered by such pensions and have seen their
retirement 'nest egg' fall by 50% or more in the financial crisis.
(Falling home prices vs fixed mortgage loans have wiped out homes as assets.)
So the 'have-nots' now resent the union deals and see pensions
as something they will pay increased taxes to cover in the future.
<snip>
These people (the unionized public employees) perform important
functions in our society, and for the most part deserve their salaries
and other benefits. They unionized and made their deals when times
were good, and one can't blame them for holding on to them as best
they can.
I don't know about Chicago or elsewhere in the US, but here there has
been an ongoing attack on unionized public sector workers for some
time. Since government can't simply wipe out contracts already made,
they now have things like hiring freezes, hire loads of part time
employees (who aren't unionized) or contract out lots of work (which
studies show often don't save money in the long run). Services are
being trimmed and shut down to the detriment of those who can least
afford it. But hey, it saves tax payers' money, so that's okay,
right?
Funny, but I don't see mass protests about how much CEOs and
executives at car companies or banks make - or what their pension
plans are worth. I'd bet it's a lot more than what the average cop or
teacher makes. How many billions of government dollars went into
bailing out those two industries?
cheers,
frank
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