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Comments
Must be nice living in the only bit of the state that is prospering due to our HORRIBLE Legislature and Governor. Although you have a bankrupt city Vallejo, caused by the PE Unions. I just need to buy some rose colored glasses or move out while I can still afford to. I see too many people lined up at our Food Bank each week to believe our state is not in the toilet. And that is in an Upscale neighborhood. I would hate living down with the masses of poverty we have.
From the map fintail posted we are near the bottom of the states on most factors. 38th out of 50 states is not a statistic to brag about.
http://assetsandopportunity.org/scorecard/
We have no trickle down. The Limo Liberals in the state distribute it to those that will vote for them. And we have a fraud filled welfare safety net here. Of course we have the highest population of welfare recipients. Many states have better assistance programs for those impacted by our HORRIBLE economy. Bottom line why pull the wagon for low pay when you can get in and ride with more cash in your pocket.
http://b-i.forbesimg.com/theapothecary/files/2013/09/Welfare-v-work-2.png
If CA is so bad (and no doubt it is the further south you go), pull up stakes and move to a low wage/low amenity/low regulation area that you seem to desire. You've already got 1.5 of the 3 right at home. I bet you won't be any happier.
The class warfare is not a simple one. It is state government against small businesses. It is the Rich and Poor against the middle class private sector. It is the environmentalist against common sense solutions. It is Union workers vs non union workers. It is liberalism against conservatism.
I personally am in a sweet spot. Decent income and a home I can afford. It is what is going on around me that is troublesome. Uncontrolled taxes, regulations and the masses being incited by the government to attack those that are more successful than they are. Finding the perfect location is not possible. If I should find it I will not let anyone know. I don't want it ruined by too many people moving there.
I think the CAL legislature is doing great--an example for the country. Very progressive legislation, problems being addressed and solved.
The country will have to follow California, as we will dominate economically, population-wise, agriculturally, and in intellectual property. California is the future of America, like it or not.
Yes, but San Jose and San Diego voters decide to cut pensions. That's not the fault of real estate I don't think. Seems to me the union pensions ARE an issue in the state. The public employee unions are a monopoly, which is why they're getting away with their level of benefits. Any private company with exorbitant unions has either failed or moved offshore - or the unions have found a way to acquiesce to save themselves.
The cars work, the trains don't crash, so what is everyone's problem here?
Everyone operates in their own self-interest. There's no one to blame.
No doubt there can be too much regulation, too much taxes, etc. But there also reaches a point there there can be not enough. How, and at what cost "success" is established might need to be examined, too.
There's no perfect place.
Well it's scapegoating in the sense that it's becoming more irrelevant, as private-sector unions are not a big issue anymore. The difference between a Steve Jobs and a UAW is that Steve revolutionized multiple industries, created the most valuable company in the world, and changed the lives of hundreds of millions of people for the better. Conversely, the UAW (along with the inept D3 management), helped nearly destroy an industry and cost the US billions of dollars. I'd say Steve warrants a positive magazine cover more than the UAW.
So why does Obama and the Democrats continue to blame Bush for everything? He did sign off on the biggest Christmas present ever given to an incoming President to spend with TARP. Which he was able to Pay back the UAW and other campaign contributors with.
Bashing the UAW is justified, as part of the problem with the Domestic automakers inability to compete without government handouts.
Bashing the PE Unions is my right as a tax payer being raped by most of them in this state. I know you don't agree. I don't think you understand what the public employees are doing to the cities and state with 1000s of retirees knocking down $100,000 plus per year. Then you think the worst legislature in the USA is a good one. We are totally and diametrically opposed in our ideologies. Never will agree with each other.
Just as a question. If our progressive legislature is so great, why did they use substandard Chinese materials to rebuild the Oakland Bay bridge? That killed a lot of American jobs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/global/26bridge.html?pagewanted=all&_- r=0
I think we are more divided that before the Civil war. This is the most divisive President and to a lessor extent Congress in our history.
Around here they are still reliving the copper miner's strike in 1913 but the last "bloody" union strike was back in 1922.
The last UAW strike was in '07 against GM and lasted two days. (All per wiki).
Absolutely, making the UAW some sort of labor heros is crazy. Yes they stood up to repressive corporate bullies in the 1930s. By the 1950s & 60s the UAW and several other unions became the bullies. They did as much as anything to make off shoring a good option. The UAW leaders were too stupid to realize after NAFTA that setting up shop in Mexico was the logical way to get around their competition killing work rules. I don't think UAW wages were enough to push the D3 to Mexico and elsewhere. It was Federal Pension rules and old agreements on pensions with gold plated HC plans that was draining the coffers. The media never talks about the $29 billion we donated to the UAW pension funds.
Union members in general have a false sense of entitlement. The last few years we have seen that spread to the general population. They believe if they don't have a job it is the tax payers duty to support them. Like it is some RIGHT in the Constitution. Or that every job should pay a living wage.
I see gangs of teens attacking people randomly and killing them in our cities. That is more than enough bloodshed for me. Drive by shootings are common place. The people are divided worse than ever in this country. Rioting is squashed by tank driving swat teams in our cities. That stops the riots before they get started. Could be why the Homeland Security is stocking up on Ammo. We drove past so many new complexes on this trip built by Homeland security. Some of the yards had 100s of armored vehicles. Maybe the Feds are just buying hundreds of useless vehicles to keep the UAW working.
Hm, wonder just how many Facebook friends the UAW has...none? 14,000 likes.
Growing up in the "deep" South, we considered Kentucky to be a border state, but perhaps the firewall/dike/Maginot Line is cracking a bit more.
"Workers at the automotive supplier Faurecia Interior Systems Inc. plant in Louisville, Ky., have elected to join the UAW.
A majority vote by the 172 workers at the plant gives them a union voice, the UAW said today in a statement."
Faurecia plant in Louisville joins UAW (Automotive News)
Same site says that Bob King is going to be replaced . Looks like King's term is up in nine months and he's too old to run again. So I guess he's trying to make the South his legacy.
I don't see that as a big deal with Ford having a UAW plant there. Not sure the Card Check thing is actually legal. Another one of Obama's executive orders that goes against existing laws. At least the workers have a choice in KY. Unlike non RTW states.
Speaking of KY, we just looked at a beautiful 10 acres with a 5 acre stocked lake. A great ranch style home. It may be our new location to get away from the repressive prison CA is becoming. KY has some great benefits for retired people that CA does not have.
That's a highly arguable statement, to say the least. To my mind, that's just another way of painting one dog white and the other green and saying they are two different species of animal.
There's nothing to say that without the UAW, your very nice Chevrolet might have performed like a Trabant, nor can you say that an iPad is equivalent to the discovery of penicillin.
I also think that too many Americans confuse what politicians and business leaders or union leaders SAY and what they actually DO. If we paid more attention to what they actually DO, we'd have a better sense of where they actually sit on the spectrum of left/right, or conservative/liberal or visionary/greedhead.
In my opinion, when the smoke and BS are all cleared away, most people operate as centrist and most people operate in their own interests, or the interests of their family and business intimates.
You can't be screaming that union labor is too high and then be screaming when bids are taken from non-union companies.
Please do, we need a few more folks to fight the good fight in the Bluegrass State!!!
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Check out the Big South Fork area - the river is nice.
One person (Steve Jobs in this case) clearly built a huge industry and added a lot of value to the world.
The UAW may have been beneficial in the early days, but it's behaviors in the last 20-30 years weren't so good. While some workers were benefitted in the short to medium term, in aggregate their actions nearly destroyed an industry and drove lots of jobs offshore that probably would have stayed here. Certainly the jobs that are growing here are in the south where the union isn't so powerful.
Talk about going over the top! I don't see where any "ramblings" recently have been "hate-filled". I tend to reserve the word "hate" for truly awful things rather than throwing it around willy-nilly when somebody disagrees. Stating of opinions is what these boards are for.
One can cast a scapegoat into any demonic form one wishes, but the social and economic fabric of the country, and the world, is far more complex than such notions IMO.
I think GM could have run itself into the ground if it had FREE labor....seriously.
Indeed. No matter the labor, when the middle and upper leaders are, as a group, so inept, it doesn't matter. Maybe some more middle managers and consultants will solve the problem.
The south, where reverse socialism wins jobs. Darn those liberals to heck.
We'll just have to agree to disagree. I see a big difference in the "admirability" of Jobs vs. the UAW.
I think GM could have run itself into the ground if it had FREE labor....seriously.
Well, you may have a point there...
Well of course the jobs don't go offshore without management making that decision. But you have to ask yourselves what contributed to making that decision? Lots of labor problems, possibility of wild strikes whenever the company starts to get profitable, extremely high labor domestic labor costs... it's not hard to see what helped drive that decision, unless one is being careless or intentionally deceptive.
The UAW built that.
Show me an iPad that won't be a useless pile of obsolete electronic junk in a couple of years.
Labor issues/abuses contribute to those problems for sure, as well as monumentally poor managerial strategy and decision making - of which the big 2.5 has endless guilt. It seems only one side is ever taken to task. Must be more of the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" line of thought which proves that what the American public doesn't know (or want to admit) is what makes them the American public.
Well, I can show you a circa 1964 Lafayette short wave radio set that still works, at least until one of the tubes die and I can't get a replacement for it. No UAW there!
OMG. A blast from the past. Layfayette. I actually bought and built a Heath stereo receiver amplifier. But I remember looking at Layfayette items.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
You don't think any of those things would have existed if it wasn't for the auto workers being unionized?
This is where you and I see things differently. It seems you see the treachery in the corporate environment. Ignoring obvious examples like the big banks, most companies operate within a set of rules passed by the governments. I expect those governments to set reasonable rules that look out for their respective countries. I don't fault companies for maximizing their profits legally and within the rules. That is what they are supposed to do. But what our government is *supposed to do* is look out for the people. That is where they have failed.
So in your example above, while you see treacherous companies, I see shoddy rules. And if the government takes payola to bend the rules to the will of the companies, then I see that as an abdication of the government's duty, whereas you appear to see it as treachery on the part of those companies.
The role of the companies is to make money, which is what they are trying to do. The role of the governments (in democratic or pseudo-democratic societies) is to look out for the people, which is what has failed in this case.
Just two different ways of looking at things.
The value of something to be positive, or to enrich humanity, isn't always measured by the longevity of individual items. If that were the case, then we should dump all cars made after 1990 and go back to the muscle cars of the '60's and '70's!
Show me an iPad that won't be a useless pile of obsolete electronic junk in a couple of years.
The UAW built what someone else designed. They are not as valuable as robots are now in manufacturing. Without men like Ford, Daimler & Benz there would be no need for auto workers. Workers are NOTHING without inventors and entrpreneurs. Put a 100 UAW workers in a rubber room and what do you have at the end of the day. NOTHING but 100 over paid autoworkers.
The iPhones & iPads you are making fun of are making more money for Apple than all the cars built by the UAW are making for the D3. Consumer electronics is a far bigger industry than automotive.
And it's all being made for the wealthy management of Apple and Wall Street funds. On the backs of $1.00 day workers in plants in China. Little investors will lose money in Apple; they don't know when to buy in and sell out. It's like going to the casinos which have been popular in the Midwest for a few years and just opened in Ohio: the house wins.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I cut @2.5 acres in less than 90 minutes with my Cub Enforcer that has just a 54 inch deck. A 60 inch Scag, Grasshopper, or Dixie Chopper would probably let him mow 10 acres an less than 5 hours, easy...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Do you have those things to mow around or is it a straight area like cutting a farm field with nothing to slow your pace?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Just disc it and put in pea plants.
We gave up most consumer electronics to cheap foreign labor in the 1950s. I do not believe you could build a big enough factory to satisfy the demand for consumer electronics in this country. Factories with 250,000 workers are just not in our mindset. When a new factory is needed in China it is built in a matter of weeks. Here you would not have a permit for at least a year in most states. By the time all the red tape was done the need would be passed. Not to mention finding 250k people all ready to work 12 hour shifts 6 days a week for MW. You will not see consumer electronics manufactured in the USA. Just too much competition from foreign companies. Heck Samsung is bigger than Apple and would really wipe out a company trying to make electronics with our Union labor.
If I hire someone to shoot someone, and they do it, we are both guilty of a crime, not only the one who pulls the trigger.