February 27, 2011

Those evil unions

I posted this on twitter, but had to cut it down. Like the question posted yesterday concerning why a small tax increase on the rich is socialism, but asking the middle class to give up 14% of their pay or benefits is considered "doing your part," this:
A unionized public employee, a Tea Partier and a CEO are at a table with
a dozen cookies in the middle; the CEO swiftly grabs 11 cookies while saying to the Tea Partier, "Watch that Union guy, he wants part of your cookie!"

This is an age old question, of course. The elite and powerful have always played workers against slaves, or against Indians, or against other workers. Bacon's Rebellion comes to mind, as does the white power structure's response to black populism in the 1880s. Here we have the extremely and obscenely wealthy (Koch brothers) dividing workers against each other. Non-union workers are being told that unions are cheating them and taking their jobs. Plus those union guys are costing you more. Private sector workers are told that government workers are all lazy and cheating us. Private workers are all hard working entrepreneurs instead of parasites on society.

Meanwhile, of course, while that misdirect goes on, the Koch brothers and other obscenely wealthy corporate owners avoid paying taxes, and work like hell to cut the wages of anyone they can--of workers, that is, not of the elite.

As I mused to SOF the other day, this is a declared war on the Middle class. But unlike other wars, in this one, the victim of the attack includes a huge section that is cheering the war on.

2 comments:

leighton said...

Sorry to post this link in two different threads, but I found this very heartening, and I'm planning to bring it up at the next local Drinking Liberally event. This is the sort of thing that really should be bipartisan.

Monk-in-Training said...

This is a cute little phrase, but I think it gives the ability to see how things are going in our country. Many people simply don't realize just how much money is being sucked out of the economy and into the highest 2or 3 percent of the population.

Almighty God You teach us by reason that all the riches of the world are made by You for our common use, and that by nature not one of them belongs to one human being more than to another; direct us, we pray, in obedience to Your will, that all things may serve all people, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. - St. Anselm of Canterbury