Unions ...... Good Or Bad??

And we can't take in everybody else in the world when we can't support our own Country. We have all the Energy we need in our own Country, if we were allowed to use it to drive down the cost of production to bring back the manufactering jobs here. We could, should be an Energy exporter, instead of Still importing Oil from countries that want to destroy us. Yes it's about the Big Cats that control Finance and Politics, such as not allowing more pipelines, so the owners of the Rail Roads can make more $$ hauling Crude Oil Bomb Trains thru Chicago. We have so much oil in reserve right now that we have no place to store it, that we have a 5 year low of Oil drilling rigs working right now, it is nice to have low Fuel prices but the oil workers are out of jobs right now and also with lower wages for those still working. We are still importing oil from over Seas because we don't have enough of the light crude oil Refineries for the Oil we are now producing. Dosn't help that nobody wants an oil refinery in their back yard, politics, domestic and Foreign, Oil companies would rather pump less and charge more. We have a 1000 years of Natural Gas supplies.

It's a "New World order" Unions with or with out is not the problem, Inflation is when you have too much $$$ chasing to few commodities. What we have is too many workers chasing too few Jobs. Yes it looks like there is a driver shortage, but the fact is the companies are just taking advantage of cheap labor by not paying $ & Bennefits, and working conditions. As long as drivers keep getting burnt out and leave instead of making enough money and Bennefits to stay for the long haul, and there is a countinous supply of new drivers to take their place, then they don't care and I don't see it getting better.

This Country needs to make some Hard decisions to take care of our own People,,, The Problem being is most of the World is Messed up worse than we are, so everybody wants to come here, unless something changes, we won't be able to Fix our own Problems, let alone fix the World. Yes I've studied Milton Friedman.

"I don't have a problem at all with people that 'flip burgers' for a living. I have a problem with people that think it's worth $15hr."

Wow, so you would begrudge someone making a measly $30,000 a year, but give free pass to the ruling class who make that in a day. You do understand that humans were not put on this earth to be profit machines, we all owe it to each other to provide everyone with decent pay, no matter what that job may entail. Also, someone making this so over the top $30,000 would actually have very positive effects not just on the economy but the social fabric of the country. Crime would decline and GDP would increase. If I were in charge, I would eliminate all income tax on people that make less than $30,000 per year. If you like your country the way it is do nothing, but if you think things can be better, then join the fight to make things right.

P.S. The average profit margin for the top 200 companies is 7.5% ... and that is afterpaying the executives outrageous sums.

So a person with no skills and who refuses to even work a full-time job deserves $15 an hour? Do you even read the crap you post? You have to ask yourself 1 question. Can these people get a better paying full-time job? YES! They choose to work there because they don't want a real job so why should we reward them for being lazy?

Sam C. ... I'm in a happy thanksgiving kinda mood, so I will ignore your insults. If you would like to continue this discourse, let's do so in a positive manner.

I'm not sure that we can generalize and say that these people refuse to get a full-time job. We do not know what their challenges in life are, but I do know that some of them have no other choice. As to the question that they deserve or not $15 an hour, I am not the king to decide that, but what I do know is that after standing in line as a customer in a fast food joint for 5 minutes, I get a headache, not from the lack of service, but all the things that the workers have to deal with. So yes, the people that do this day in and day out do deserve a decent wage. Also, you realize that these people are at the bottom of the income scale, but you still want to deny them a fair wage? Think of all the positive benefits it would bring to the country as a whole to have them earn a decent income. And the good news in all of this is that it does not all have to be paid for by the business owner. Why can't the government eliminate income tax below $30,000 a year? That's $2,500 a month, this would more than kick-start the economy and herald in a revival of the middle class. While we are on the topic of who deserves what, do you think professional sports players deserve all that money? Oh, and before I go, any job that is not criminal is a "real job" ... shame on you for looking down on these folks.

Here's the problem with $15/hour. A truck driver (on an hourly salary) might start out at $14.95 per hour. A mechanic might start out at $13/hour. A warehouse worker might start out at $12.50.

Now if we start to pay every worker at $15/hour, what happens to the purchasing power of those that are making more than the minimum wage now?

Dave

"Now if we start to pay every worker at $15/hour, what happens to the purchasing power of those that are making more than the minimum wage now?"

Hi Dave D. ... I take it that you mean that the purchasing power of those making more than the minimum wage will decline? Assuming that inflation enters the picture, then yes, purchasing power will decline for everyone. But if you look at what happened in China, the only noticeable effect was on real estate prices. Also, the inflation argument is very weak as our current rock bottom interest rates illustrate. The Federal Reserve overnight rate has been sitting at 0-0.25% since 2008, and still no sign of inflation.

Everyone seems to know what will happen if we do this or that, but then nothing gets done. I say let's try eliminating income tax for a few years on those that earn under a certain amount and see what happens. A real life experiment. How about giving something back to the people instead of always trying to screw them over?

Hey Rob S, there is no "man" holding anyone back. We live in a free country where we make choices that determine our lives. Why is it when someone destroys their life it's always someone else's fault? I've got a better experiment, let's completely remove welfare from our country and force people to take care of themselves. How many of those fast food workers and complete welfare people would then finally get a real job in order to survive? I'm betting a lot. The problem is that they are to used to hand outs and now expect it. Why work hard when you can make an excuse for life and get someone else to take care of you?

Everyone seems to know what will happen if we do this or that, but then nothing gets done. I say let's try eliminating income tax for a few years on those that earn under a certain amount and see what happens. A real life experiment. How about giving something back to the people instead of always trying to screw them over?

I just had to point out the ignorance in this comment. Now Rob, you do realize that the bottom of the barrel don't pay income tax already. Right? I mean even you should have known that before you made that comment. Hell, not only do they not pay taxes, we give them money from people who do. Think about it, they pay 3000 in taxes through the year and get back 6000 at tax time. So they pay nothing plus get $

Well, at last we've gotten to the question of taxes and who pays what. That's a big part of why the rich are getting richer. But it also opens that can of worms of what we spend tax money for. In other words, that's pure politics, and when we go there, I'm out of the discussion. Call me jaded, but I've been down that path and it leads nowhere good. So yes, Brett, I admit at this point that I have no solutions, and I share your challenge for anyone else to come up with a real solution.