NEWS JUNKIE POST
Apr 13, 2010 at 12:23 amIs A Wage Freeze For Working Families Fair?
Freezing wages of working families is the wrong way to try and to spread the liability of the economy “built” over the last thirty years, that has resulted in looming budget shortfalls for many state governments.
To resolve the budget deficit states have to raise taxes or lower spending they don’t have the federal budgets continuing deficit option, this is the simple truth. These actions according to studies by the Economic Policy Institute will “depress consumer action, cause job losses ( the majority of which will be in the private sector) and in general create a drag on the economy.”
“Spending cuts would be particularly harmful to the economy, not only do they deprive individuals of needed public services like health care, transportation, education, and safety, they also fall disproportionally on the backs of low-income individuals, who respond by cutting their own consumer spending.”
“As a result, each dollar of spending reduction by state and local governments leads to $1.41 in lost economic activity.”
Without state and local budget relief, current and future shortfalls will cause millions of job losses and likely contribute to a drawn-down and painful recovery.
The states early suggestions are for a wage freeze for union workers. Looking through the lens of the last decade would this be wise? I’m sure some will ask why they should bear a 4% wage increase for union workers in the cost of services while they can barely make their mortgage. I think they should unionize and help take back control of all of our economic futures.
When, as an all to typical example, AIG has been kept afloat by more than $170 billion in federal assistance since September 2008. That works out to about $1,500 for every household in the nation. But AIG, the insurer that has nearly brought down the global financial market, paid out more than $500 million in salaries of senior employees, as it was being bailed out.
The good news is I hear we’re expecting a boom in home demolition for the next few years, go get a sledgehammer…
“Too big to fail” is a term we’ve heard of late. If it’s true our economy is only as strong as its weakest link, how about watching for those “too little to fail?”
Setting the embittered class conflict aside, so many of these bad economic habits that erode the foundation of our GDP would have been severely curbed if unions had been able to bargain more effectively for working America’s interest. The argument I usually get from anti-labor interest is animosity, not reason. They are so fervently opposed to unions, because they work so well. Their not perfect but they do more for working families than any administration can ever do. And in turn build a solid Main Street economy that can even weather Wall Street excesses.