Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance
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Heh, I thought I was the only one from this blog watching his videos. :) He needs to put batteries in his smoke detector, cuz you can hear it chirping the low battery warning in the background in many of the videos. I used to listen to a radio show years ago that took calls from teenagers, and the host used to make fun of the dumb callers whose smoke detector chirped and they didn't even know it was going anymore, as they'd just zoned it out over time. Guess you can lump Dick Morris in that category too. :D
See "My Party Should Respect Secret Union Ballets" by George McGovern himself in the Wall Street Journal of August 8 2008 page A-13-. As a liberal among liberals, even he recognized how outrageous this breach of confidentiality was for the individual worker.
steve roth at angry bear has a short new study on unions & state GDP/capita:http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/Hzoh/~3/Z0jJmFmwTL4/do-unions-kill-prosperity-not-so-much.html
"steve roth at angry bear has a short new study on unions & state GDP/capita"...Thanks for this rjs...Per his usual style the 'angry commie' puts up a posting where he hoses himself again...Funny thing about those 'blue' states with strong union presence are by and large the same states that can't pay their bills...
As opposed to businesses that intimidate those that want unions, yet are too afraid to let you know they're wanting to know how to intimidate? juandos said...Southern Theft.
Wisconsin schools have saved millions of dollars after Scott Walker decertified teachers unions. Now the unions can no longer force school districts to purchase overpriced insurance plans. Many districts have drafted new work rules that reward teachers for merit instead of seniority. The future looks bright in Wisconsin for a more cost effective educational system that produces graduates who are better equipped to compete in the world marketplace. As a result, a “recall Walker” plan is doomed to failure.
Unions fight for the rights of unions, not of workers. Businesses should be free to say they don't want you to join a union and why, but they can't anymore. That isn't right.
Oh nos. With a strengthened bargaining position this could mean more money in the pockets of the people that actually do the work and less in the pockets of Wall St investors and other major owners. Maybe one or two less mansions for the Wal-Mart heirs. What a disaster that would be. We need to keep Wal-Mart employees on Medicaid and on food stamps. Bunch of parasites. The people that deserve the money aren't the ones that do the work, but the ones that sit by their poolside collecting checks based on the profits generated by others.
Jon - you are right, everyone would be better off if Walmart raised its prices, opened fewer stores and stopped offering healthcare to more workers.
And Jon, Wal-Mart could also get rid of the low priced high quality imported goods and instead offer only union produced planned obsolescence products.
Jon: "The people that deserve the money aren't the ones that do the work, but the ones that sit by their poolside collecting checks based on the profits generated by others."Great sarcasm, Mr. Marx!
"As opposed to businesses that intimidate those that want unions, yet are too afraid to let you know they're wanting to know how to intimidate?"...So what are you saying sethstorm? That people who want unions but fear that a few cross words from business will make life hard on them are to gutless to follow through on their desires for unionization?
jon whines: "Bunch of parasites. The people that deserve the money aren't the ones that do the work, but the ones that sit by their poolside collecting checks based on the profits generated by others"....Well jon if conditions are so abysmal for Walmart employees then why are they working there? Why don't they find a job (getting paid what they're actually worth) somewhere else?
This has nothing to do with Wal-Mart having low prices or importing goods. This is about workers negotiating wages. Whether Wal-Mart has high prices or low prices the workers still need to negotiate their wages. Keeping them weak is key.So when Wal-Mart wants to buy paper towels they go to suppliers and point out that they are going to buy a lot of them, so they want a favorable price. That's fine when rich people do it.When poor people join together and do the same, that is they try to negotiate a favorable wage by using their collective power, that's outrageous. We want to do everything we can to prevent that, because if there's anything that's obvious in this country today it's this. People that make money by owning things, like the Walton family which literally does nothing in terms of the productivity of Wal-Mart, these poor people just aren't getting a large enough share of the revenue generated. Poor workers are atomized at Wal-Mart and aren't using their bulk power in the way that Wal-Mart does, for the benefit of the non-working owners. For workers to do what Wal-Mart themselves does would mean more money in the pockets of the poor workers and obviously that's the last thing we need. More for the rich.Weird Al gets it if you guys don't.
Why don't they find a job (getting paid what they're actually worth) somewhere else?You're right, they have choices. They can work at Wal-Mart, where they literally are forced to work off the clock in order to maximize profits, or they can starve. That's called freedom.It's not unusual for Wal-Mart managers to make clear that the work needs to get done and no overtime will be paid. But if the worker won't do it the manager has a stack of applications and is prepared to play one starving worker off of another to find the lowest common denominator. It's very important that we approach business this way because there's probably a Walton heir sitting in his mansion and he needs one more ivory back scratcher.
What's unfortunate is that this Wal-Mart worker, folding clothes off the clock and not getting paid overtime, now has kids at home that don't have a parent. This also cuts into the time the parent needs to get in the food stamp line. But that's OK, because free markets are sacrosanct.Until it comes time for the cops to come in and crack skulls because people are protesting. Or protect the property of the Wal-Mart heirs. Or when subsidies are granted to Wal-Mart to encourage them to come to town, whether that means tax holidays or grants. Things that the mom and pop shops aren't given. That's when we need nanny state. To further the interests of the Walton family and Wall St investors. Free markets are for the weak and poor.
Unions are their own punishment. Unless they have strong free-market competition (and even then, not always), unions put their employers out of business, thus kill their own jobs. Autos, steel, rubber, glass, airlines, shipping, rail - all have been crippled or ruined by unions. Unions are now doing to government and K-12 schools what they did to industries.
unions put their employers out of business, thus kill their own jobs.That's why Haiti is such a great place to live and pro union Germany is such a nightmare.
All you have to do to decide where you want to be on the union issue, and many others, is ask yourself, “Am I a consumer? Do I want more selection, higher quality and lower prices?" If not, then let’s have expensive union labor, trade barriers, and small inefficient family farms. What do those things have in common? They make goods and services more expensive, often with lower quality.
jon continues to avoid the realities: "They can work at Wal-Mart, where they literally are forced to work off the clock in order to maximize profits, or they can starve"...Forced?!?! At gun point? Under the lash? Chained to the store floor?So these Walmart workers are so useless, so devoid of any other job skills they'll starve if they don't work at Walmart?!?!Sounds to me that Walmart is doing them a favor...BTW I always turn to Al Yankovic for deep, insightful, and well reasoned opinions on matters of economy and heck, just life in general...
Jon, stop trying to legislate morality. Just because YOU think that Walmart doesn't pay enough, why should anyone else care? The people that work there clearly think they pay enough, or they would quit. The people that shop there clearly think they are not charging too little for their goods. You, on the other hand, want to make grand proclamations from nowhere and denounce what other people are productively doing. If you had your way, fewer people would have jobs they WANT. Sell tyrany somewhere else, we will have none of it.
Jon said - That's why Haiti is such a great place to live and pro union Germany is such a nightmare.East Germany had the strongest labor unions, and they were much better than West Germany, right? Better working conditions, etc. Cuba has labor unions too. So does Greece.Tyrants beware!!!
Does Dick Morris think it's outrageous that Republicans blocked all appointments to the NRLB?I'm just curious, because this is the board that enforces the law of the land. The Wagner Act says that a company has to negotiate with a union if that's what the workers want and they can fight with them, but there are certain things they can't do, like threaten to move simply because of unionization. That's the law. The NRLB enforces that law. Under Republicans, we make no bones about it. Republicans are lawless. We torture who we want to torture, and as far as the Wagner Act, we just don't enforce it. Free reign for corporations. The laws don't apply.So if you try and unionize and the company threatens to shut the plant down simply because you tried to get together and negotiate as a group and there's no NRLB, well then the company can violate the law with impunity. Republicans don't want the laws of our nation enforced. They want more for owners, less for workers.If you don't like the Wagner Act, then repeal it. What you don't do is just say you won't enforce it. That's lawlessness. Of course that's what corporations want. Lawlessness for them. But not for you. You download a song and they want you in prison (helps the for profit prison complex, which Republicans love). But when they break the law, no consequences.Free markets for the poor and weak. Laws and prisons for the laws and the weak. For corporations and the rich it's nanny state and laws don't apply. If Morris wants to be angry why isn't he angry about that? We all know why of course. He serves the lawless corporations that want nanny state for them, free markets for normal people.
Marko, it's not about what I think Wal-Mart should pay people. It's about giving people the right to negotiate in the same way Wal-Mart does. Why is it fine for Wal-Mart to use their collective purchasing power to get a good rate on paper towels, but if people try and use their collective power to get a good wage rate everyone acts like it's a nightmare? Does the Walton family not have enough money? Is Wall St so poor? Are workers at Wal-Mart making an outrageous amount of money? The opposite is the case. Wal-Mart workers are full time and still on food stamps and Medicaid. Why be so concerned about the Walton family?At least the guy at Wal-Mart working is folding clothes and cleaning the bathroom. What are the Walton children doing? Nothing that brings value to anybody. Nothing productive at all. They just collect the checks. So I'm not going to get upset about people forming a union. If Wal-Mart should do it as part of a free market system, why shouldn't workers?And no, I don't see that unions meant anything in East Germany. That was really state capitalism. The state owned the means of production, not the workers. The workers were in no position to negotiate. That's what a union is about.As far as Cuba, I'm not sure if they are unionized, but they're not doing too badly when you consider that they've been subjected to a 50 years terrorist onslaught by the world's most powerful nation. Despite that they aren't Haiti, which has been unable to escape a forced right wing economic model. No tariffs, no regulations, no taxation, no government intervention. World Bank officials run the place. When they tried to elect a leftist he was just ousted in a US backed coup so right wing policies could continue.
Thanks for the chuckles, Jon.As always, you don't disappoint. If you only realized how silly you sound.
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Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan.
Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
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