From: mike wilson
On 27/02/2011 15:40, Bob Sullivan 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.
>
> The percieved injustice of the situation complicates things.
> The public employee unions have been very successful negotiating with the
> politicians. And the politicians have hidden that success in future IOU's,
> not raising taxes to fund the future debts. The unions are often the
> most powerful supporters of politicians with loose purse strings,
> and the cycle continues.
You do know that about 2/3 of the highest grossing US companies and 68%
of foreign companies working in the US paid virtually no tax last year?
The injustice of the situation is radically different to the
perception. Many people outside the US are astonished at the way
turkeys keep voting for Christmas.
I think you mean how the "turkeys keep voting for Thanksgiving". That's
the national holiday in the U.S. most closely associated with turkey
dinners.
But I take your point.
A lot of it has to do with how elections in this country are now decided
by a tiny minority of "swing" voters - voters easily swayed by a last
minute advertising propaganda blitz.
Our last election cycle saw an incredible influx of corporate money
injected into campaigns as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's
"Citizens United" decision in January 2010.
Much of that corporate money in the 2010 election cycle went into
deceptive AstroTurf "grass roots" campaigns intended to hide the
financier's real agenda.
One of the purposes behind the current campaign of union busting is to
cut off financial resources going to opponents of corporation
domination. Expect to see the reintroduction of restrictive labor laws
that hamper union's ability to even attempt to counter corporate
campaign spending.
Also, expect the disparity in tax burdens between the elites and the
workers to get worse, not better.
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