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Biden: "Unions Built The Middle Class In America"
You didn't build that... Unions did. Vice President Joe Biden gave a 'rousing' Labor Day speech this morning explaining that "Unions did, in fact, build the middle-class... and that built The United States of America as we know it."
Seems like the policies since the crash have not been helping...
FACT: There is a record divergence between the exuberant 'rich' and crushed 'middle class'
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Thank God the Govt and teachers unions are doing great.
Otherwise we would be in deep shit.
Someone has to be able to afford Starbucks.
When the shortage of teachers reach the point where the only ones that will take the job as the countries whipping boy is high school dropouts maybe then the expensive and time consuming teaching profesion will gains some respect.
According to the OECD the US ranks 3rd in the world in per student expenditures K-12 and 1st in post-secondary. What we get for that:
http://www.businessinsider.com/pisa-rankings-2013-12
And you're wondering why the teaching profession and their gold digging union reps don't get any respect?
So why didn't you post evidence that its teachers who are at fault or is just complaining about salaries all you got. Another more for me and less for them a-hole argument. Go ahead and drive teachers salaries lower and celerbate the product that it produces and the qualifications of those producing it. What's surpirising is at these salary rates teachers are dropping out of the profession and students are not choosing it as a career. Good job with the blame game.
Let's go back to the good old days when the teachers were young ladies who just graduated from HS and stayed on until they got married.
Army,
Nothing to do with fault but I see your empathy-touchy-feely-hopey-changey meter is pegged. This was a pointer to emotion free arithmetic, specifically ROI.
More math: K-12 public school teacher salaries average close to $70,000 in the top richest counties in the US (I'm a resident of one) - Montgomery, Loudon, and Fairfax. They constitute the trough that rings DC. All 3 counties vote consistently Dem (i.e., mo and mo gubermint).
Something like 95% of teacher union campaign contributions go to Dem candidates. Property taxes pay these union dues. I'm an independent that loathes both parties, hence my property taxes are being used to fund governance I find repugnant.
Nice little feedback cycle that puts the student first until you look at results. Reminds me of Tammany Hall.
Well when the Republican party stops trying to destroy the middle class then maybe they'll get more money from teachers union. Just saying.
And what of the responsibility of the Democrat party? Look again at the graph Tyler offers at the top of this article. Those are the effects of fundamental transformation, while the most the Republicans could do was attempt to step on the brakes. Or, do you suffer from Booosh Derangement Syndrome?
Teachers average below 1k on their SATS
And channelling wealth to the top 1% has worked better?
So long as it keeps trickling down. The US has the richest poor people on the planet. Too bad no amount of income redistribution can sustain this. Once the progressives destroy what's left of the productive tax base and Uncle Sugar can no longer auto credit EBT cards look for the beginning of SH-ingTF.
"The US has the richest poor people on the planet." That's false. The bottom 20% of the poor in Europe, Japan, and Canada are far better off than the bottom 20% of Americans. This is the kind of baseless shit-can arguments you hear from right wing nuts.
Cite?
Unsustainable once we decided it was ok to sell out the sovereignty of the USA by offshoring all our jobs.
The truth is that unions DID have much to do with building America and the middle class. We need them back and we need to become protectionists if we want the middle class back.
I do realize that most here would want families to starve before paying another dollar to an employee. You would think the curent economic and political situation suits them just fine, but all they do is bitch, bitch, bitch about the governemnt actions. Americans are their own worst enemy in that aspect.
The Great American dream now means resorting to ripping others off for their time and energy in order to succeed.
Peter Pan I feel sorry for you, because you are so badly educated..
Why is there so much debt?
If unions promoted a craft or a skill set as part of their existence, then there might be an argument for their continued existence. Otherwise they are just fucking political parasites.
All four of my European grandparents landed on these shores in the 1910's, two cabinet makers, a highly skilled seamstress who could create dress patterns from a designer's pencil sketch and skilled chef. Each of them was forced to work in a "Union Shop" were the drooling scumbag next to them got paid the same for doing 10% of the work they could.
"Otherwise they are just fucking political parasites."
Yea not like corporations.
Fortunately, Barack Hussein has evil corporations in his cross hairs. If you still aren't clear as to how he is fundamentally transforming America, it is explained below. And if you voted for fundamentally transforming the country, here is what you voted for:
http://www.dsausa.org/about_dsa
The nugget:
"As we are unlikely to see an immediate end to capitalism tomorrow, DSA fights for reforms today that will weaken the power of corporations and increase the power of working people."
In one sentence, the moronic irony, that weakening companies that provide jobs will be good for working people. Fundamental transformation indeed!
"Barack Hussein has evil corporations in his cross hairs. " The guy that bailout Wall St. has coporations in the cross hair? Where you've been?
Are you an economic patriot like Jack Lew, our current Treasury Secretary? You really ought to read his bio and catch up.
Wow. For a minute there, I thought I was still on the last article, the one with quotes from Chairman Mao.
No crazier than a Ron Paul speech when he’s soliciting donations.
If you accomplish a percent of what Ron Paul has in his life you'll be lucky.
But Donating to a statemen is a little different than donating to a VP dbag..
Ron Paul has never gone on a rant insisting that the USA carpet bomb Syria.
Free markets build economies, crony capitalism destroys them, i.e. countries.
Plese show us all where a free market ever existed?
Good point. Ever since the Supreme Court interpretation of the Commerce Clause, it's been going badly for free markets and free enterprise.
Why confine the search to the US? How about in the history of civilization?
Show us where a democracy existed.
Billy,
The correct term is crony socialism, which seeks to undermine capitalism.
Yes, USA built by 8% of the workers. Yes. Good ol' shotgun Joe. What would the ratings be without him?
LOL yea and public unions, which even FDR was against, DESTROYED America. Congrats you ignorant fuck!
Who needs wicked Capitalist when slaves, unions and government have built everything?
Capitalist seek inequality and democracy seek equality. The country is supposed to belong to the people not corporations.
That equality you likely have in mind...the delusional equality of outcomes sort, right?
Ah, no. Its about fairness not equal outcomes. Nobody wants special treatment just fair treatment. Simple huh?
So, you're for a flat tax where everyone pays the same percentage income tax...the definition of fairness. Or, are you talking about the Marxist version, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need,"?
Selling additional Obummercare exemptions and promising “access”?
Cash in the bank is being stolen by the federal reserve. Over 5 trillion has been lost over the last 10 years via zirp. Add in inflation, another banker goal and the middle class is being screwed. I doubt joe will tell the real truth.
As "we" know it.
But we, he means him and the power structure of people who get them elected. When politicians use first person plural pronouns, they're talking about themselves and the immediate people around them.
Besides, I thought we built this city on rock and roll.
FACT: There is a record divergence between the exuberant 'rich' and crushed 'middle class'
That's only a fact if you discount/ignore all human history prior to roughly the early-to-mid 1900s (and only in the most prosperous countries). The middle class has expanded from about 5% of the population to about 50% thanks to cheap oil and cheaper credit, food surplus, and then population surplus, but now it's mean-reversion time, bitchez.
A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
This made me laugh. Nobody gives a flying fuck about the middle class. It reminds me of my siblings. My older sister the wealthy one, me the hard working intelligent unrewarded one, and my brother the one who gets the hand outs.
Fact is nobody cares about these people. This world is just a sad joke just like this speech.
Union people lied to you growing up. The nice old ladies in the teacher's union told you how special you were and how much they cared. Truth is all they really cared about was their pension and standing in the community. They never knew how tough life was. They were sheltered and so were you.
Life is tough. No one save your mommy and maybe your SO gives one shit about you at the end of the day. You were raised in a fantasy bubble. Sorry, there is no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or tooth fairy.
Life is tough but fighting for fairness is the foundation of jurisprudence and a democratic governemnt.
"Life is hard; its harder when you're stupid."
...from the film (and novel) "The Friends of Eddie Coyle", a gangster movie of sorts, so be aware parallels to the union-Democrat party tie-up.
Coming from a middle class union guy this message has a lot of weight. (NOT)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/01/japan-toilet-paper-earthquake_n...
This would have been a better topic for Beye-Den.
"You didn't build that... Unions did. Vice President Joe Biden"
Yeah, like in Detroit where unions have turned to sh.t everything they've touched.
Biden is an idiot, BUT as unionization has disappeared, so has the middle class.
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/union11.png
Unions did give rise to the middle class and neo-liberalism destroyed both.
Unionization disappeared because unionized industries couldn't adapt to new technologies thanks to union resistance.
Jared Bernstein? For real? You know that guy isn't even an economst right? He majored in Fine Arts and Social Work! Try getting a real economist the next time you want to make a point about economics...
perhaps that's backwards. Middle class gave rise to unions. As middle class is disappearing so are unions.
If unions gave rise to middle class, then why is the middle class disappearing? Why don't the unions just step up and restore it?
Oil, more precisely oil availability per person and excellent eroei, gave rise to the middle class. This occurred with a world population of 1 billion.
Dramatically lower eroei (due to mindless exploitation) and explosive population growth worldwide are the underlying causes of lifestyle degradation and social stratification. Add in the belief and promotion of endless growth on a finite planet and we are guaranteed future civil and national wars.
over populations always reach a tipping point followed by dramatic population reductions. When? I don't know. Black Swans are not predictable nor time-able. Otherwise they wouldn't be Black Swans. While tumultuous and destructive, hurricanes are generally predictable. Civil and societal implosion cannot be predicted; it will be much more destructive.
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. They were given authority over one-fourth of the earth to kill people using wars, famines, plagues, and with the living creatures of the earth.
If people want to know what life was like for workers in pre union America look at Fox Conn in China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8GQNJ0WJb4
Power concedes nothing without a demand- Frederick Douglass.
damn right milli. most people have no idea how they came to be working 8 hours a day. it didn't happen out of the beneficience of the ruling elites.
Eight hour days are for pussies.
Your right. We should spend the limited time we have on hour working as much as humanly possible at often trivial and meaningless tasks and meetings inside of a company.
Thanks. Corporations have no problem exposing workers to carcinogens like asbestos, unsafe working conditions, long hours, low wages and lack of healthcare. They love an unlimited supply of workers and most of all desperation. Then they use the media to villify unions as scroungers as they lobby Congress for tax breaks.
BTW, fuck biden. My support of Unions has nothing to do with that asshat.
I wonder how many stock jockeys here have broken a sweat for 12 hours a day for a menial wage in recent memory...
Fightclub, bitchez.
I worked as a union carpenter for over 20+ years in the trenches. What most dipshits don't get is unions are PRIVATELY OWNED COMPANIES...they are not by the people for the people (wake the fuck up). They make their money by taking it out of other peoples fucking paychecks. Safe working conditions you say? LMFAO. I've had buddies die on jobsites cause of crazy unsafe shit that went unfixed for months at a time. And lets not even start talking about how unions employ illegals by stealing Social Security numbers. I could go on for hours.
Two words that best describe unions, Corruption and Nepotism.
So, what your telling me is that it is better to have no bargaining power at all. Brilliant.
You're a dick. Please don't bash me in the head with a union made brick, but you have no bargaining power within a union. You march lockstep (goose step) with what ever music they blair at you. Fucking communist self serving money and vote gathering machines. Unions aren't what they used to be.
You NAILED it. I worked in the trades for over 20 years and what you say rings true.
"Safe working conditions you say? LMFAO. I've had buddies die on jobsites cause of crazy unsafe shit that went unfixed for months at a time."
Nobody called OSHA? Oh wait, of course not then you couldn't blame the tiny fraction of dues for the above average wages and benefits you recieved. You just wanted higher pay without paying anything for it. I get it now. A Right To Work State who's workers can enjoy union scale wages, benefits and representation and skip out on any expense for it. And they call the poor freeloaders.
"Working 8 hours a day"? Many people are lucky if they can get a job at all. Thank the Unions.
Checkout Bangladesh for some real insight as to the benevlence of our friendly offshoring corporations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTy2ykKBxIY
The Triangle Fire revisted.
Exactly. Thanks for posting the truth.
Yup and nothing will change because this is the lowest overall cost of textile production in the world. That is what globalization is truly about. Those who try to changes things in Bangadelesh will be marginalized and co-opted. If necessary, beaten and/or killed.
If you want to know what a policeman was like before the Police Unions became criminally powerful gangs, watch "The Andy Griffith Show".
Yes a fictional TV show is the standard. Is that you Opie?
No it's real. I know, I grew up in that America.
But we have Barney Fife in the WH.
And Gomer Pyle right there with him.
Yeah, but the Criminal Police Syndicates are the real deal.
What a crock of Liberal propaganda and bullshit that fat slob is dishing out. Just one example, he says out of 400,000 workers in 2010, there were 18 suicides but that is actually a very small number, only 4.5 per 100,000. As a reference, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and many other western nations have 3 to 4 as many suicides per 100,000. Foxconn looks like a very nice place to work and a whole lot better than many USA factories assuming an American can even GET a job in America.
So what you're implying is that labor protection laws have progressed greatly that you can't find examples and need to reference 3rd world countries with weak labor laws like the US had 50 years ago to make your point across of unions are needed.
Union PAC money built the Democratic Party.
If a corporation can be a person, can a union be a person?
A union IS a corporation. Punder that.
No. One person would be an onion.
PACs didn't even exist until FECA was passed in '71. Historical knowledge on here is appauling bad. Americans who yell and scream about Americans who don't 'now anything' yet these same idiots usually don't even know about how gov't functions at its most basic levels and basic American history.
Well, we lost old Biden and Obama to the virtual world when they started doing "selfies" and this year I could not even stomach watching the correspondents' dinner at what they were making fun of was really serious. They had to drag old Sebelius out there too, and they are so far in the virtual world themselves, they don't realiize how others see them, like stupid.
This plays real well does it not after the video with Biden driving a Ferrari at the correspondent's dinner kind of shoving inequality in our faces? He's ending up being just another Algo Duped bone head and the "Sebelius Syndrome" continues to grow. We lost our White House CTO who is actually a smart guy and his new job is to help find folks with some smarts for the government. Well, he can start with the SEC who's CIO is leaving next month and while he's at it, find a replacement for old digital Illit Mary Jo White...
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/todd-park-us-cto-leaving-his-post...
Biden like so many today suffers from "The Grays" where he's out of touch with the real world, just like Obama and it's scary indeed. Take a look at what the VA is trying to do with a follow up study with quantitated numbers in reviewing the Phoenix hospital. "We can't conclude anyone really died".. it's a bunch of crap as those are virtual values and politics and meanwhile the rest of us that live in the "real" world, like the doctor whistle blowers there, know that people died. There's an image on this link that shows the amount of medical administrators compared to the number of doctors out there, staggering. There's some of the big cost in health care.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/va-inspector-general-takes-virtua...
Biden is just one more "Dupee" that thinks he's into understanding technology because he can use an Ipad:)
Personal freedom, individual liberty, laissez-faire capitalism, restricted government, unrestrained and unregulated ingenuity, creativity, and imagination in business, and a gold backed currency are the things that built America and made her great. All the things that Biden and people like Biden stand for are what destroyed America.
fark off Biden, you are a traitor to the American people. How's your sons venture in Ukraine doing? Your as corrupt as they come.
Amazing that the unions have not taken a position against free range immigration as it drives down the income of the union members. Guess that just reflects the corrupt union management that would rather have more members than taking care of its membership.
I saw that years ago in the cement industry where the work rules were geared to hiring more but paying less to existing members.
Just tell you how many heads are full of concrete.
Fucking pie mouth is the man-in-lieu of a CIC's insurance policy and nothing more.
Joe blow--errr joe blew who ??
Supporting a strong dollar policy would help save the Middle Class, Joe.
Maybe the anti-union piss-pots can look to Bangladesh to inspire Americans workers to shed these rotten notions of human rights in the work place. Just watch how great it is for our offshoring coporations and the near perfect world they have created for there workers. I mean its only been 100 years since the Triangle Waistshirt fire. Memeories are short.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTy2ykKBxIY
If you aren't intelligent enough to know the difference between 'their' and 'there' why should I pay any attention to you dumbazz?
What are these short thingys, "Memeories"?
And why the apples to toilet paper comparison with Bangladesh? Try to focus. We are all discussing the Hair Club for Men VP pandering to union management to get out the vote and campaign contributions here in Amerika. How does Bangladesh justify organized labor in the US any more than it justifies organized crime...but I repeat myself.
Congress should unionize!
Those impotent fucks should form their own Local Legislative Union; bargaining power would be restored between the branches of government and Obama would be forced to "come to the table'. Should the executive branch fail to adequately address the issues then it's time to strike- would the AFGE, GWU, NFFE,or SEIU dare to cross the line?
Shut the mother down there is no "government shut down" stigma if it's a job action.
er.... on second thought ........
He sounds like it is something to be proud off. Detroit
Hey Dirty Joe? You're 50 plus years out of step. Nearly all union membership is within the various local, state, and federal gov't employee ranks. One of the most atrocious EO's ever signed by a President; John (Drug addict) Kennedy.
So that's why they have been infiltrated and dismantled. NOTHING FOR YOU!!! MIDDLE CLASS!!! MOAR FOR THE MASTERS!!! ARRRRGGGHHH!!!
Archmere Called,, they want their diploma back.
The unions are willing collaborators in their own demise. Having devoured their own benefactors or banished them to foreign lands. The unions invented outsourcing, something quite opposite to building america.
Joe Biden remembers the middle class and the unions! Has he been smoking Crack?
oh thats right election season.
You missed the Obama labor speech. Basically: hope good, cynics bad.
No mention of Change?
Has Biden got a UnionPay credit card from Communist China?No,kind of doubt it.He's a New York banking whore for the elite at MasterCard and Visa.Ripping everyone off for at least 24% interest.These guys will stand up and lie about anything to stay in power.Unions might have built the country but Communist China helped the fascists in The WhiteHouse finance all their stupid wars for a few decades and now has over 4 trillion of U.S. debt.Washington financed by staunch communists in China!These assholes sold out the American worker and all their jobs have gone overseas.A national debt closing in on 20 trillion.What drugs are these guys on?It must be bad acid.
My father was a small businessman until he turned 47 yrs old, and then he went to work for Union Carbide (as a member of a union). I believed he never regretted making that decision. I recall as a young boy of around 7-8 years old, I was sitting on the couch with my parents watching Walter Chronkite comment on something political on some Sunday afternoon. He mentioned the words Republican and Democrat, etc. Being a child, I didn't understand what the man was actually talking about. When the program went to a commercial, I turned to my father and asked him "Dad, what do the words Republican and Democrat mean?" Without hesitation, he responded: "A Republican is somebody who has all the money, and a Democrat is somebody who doesn't have any money." My old man told me that in the mid-60's... and it still holds true; over 50 years later.
Should not teach a kid loser philosophy.
Find work you like, master it. Excel. Believing that work and effort are to be avoided at all cost is a dead end.
The rich vote dem , or haven't you heard
My dad, the business owner, always told me he would rather be dead that demoRat. He taught me that demorats are those who would take from you what you worked for, to give to those who would vote like good little serfs.
Still holds true, over 5o years later.
IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT I AM PAYING, GROW SOME BALLS AND START YOUR OWN DAMN COMPANY YOU EFFING COWARD.
Your punkass, self-righteous, holier-than-thou pontifications are illustrative of someone who firmly believes their own shit don't stink. Have a wonderful day.
"and it still holds true; over 50 years later." Perhaps many democratic voters don't have moneyvote democrati but their so-called leaders will sell them out in a New York minute just like republican politicians.
Watch how fast the next 'free trade' agreement passes
Between Elizabeth letting us know that the gov't built that business, and Biden telling us that unions built this country - no wonder there is only economic growth as far as the eye can see!
What the fuck does that asshole know about building anything other than a statist utopia... Fucking worthless piece of shit! :P
He doesn't know anything about that either. he just says what they tell him to.
Aren't many of the TBTF banks headquartered in Delaware? And Biden's from Delaware, too, right?
Unions have devolved into self-sustaining, organized protection rackets. Police, firefighter, and teachers unions are all examples of this.
I worked as a temp at a UAW union facility during university. Fuck, I made $20 per hour, and it was the most brain dead work that I have ever had! This took place in the early 90's! Fuck unions! Sure, they served a purpose, then like most humans they abused their position and fucked future workers! I had people try and maim and kill me in that position! Fuck them! Fuck Biden and his pea sized brain!
Font and page size are fucked on this site,
Both political parties will enthusiastically become bipartisan and pass the next not-so-free trade agreement effectively sentencing millions more american workers to low wage, no benefit jobs while they propgandize loudly the tired lie about helping American workers.
Shotgun Joe sez: build her up then tear her down.
Just fire a shotgun at the door!
Unions built the US..
And then they got greedy, and lazy and wanted nothing less than $50/hr and medical and 367 days of paid vacation a year or else we will strike!
Fuck them, although i hear Sanjay in India thinks US unions are great.
thats b/c it takes $50/hour to have a one-breadwinner household and actually save money/pay off the mortgage/educate the kids.
now govenment unions, well thats just being repetitive.
unfortunately the bogeyman of 'unions' barely exists, who the hell in in a union anymore?? 1-2% of the workforce? the rest of us have no power. employees are disposable.
there used to be a balance in the US of employers and employees, made possible by unions in the early 20th century and I think a sense of 'we live here together inthe this society' born out of WW2. today workers are worked so much they have no time to even come up for air to look for other work or better themselves, or even raise thier kids.
CEOs etc, even of small companies that make 100x times their average worker, should be shunned, shamed and boycotted (not made illegal--the power is with the pocketbook, not the legal system)
(Raises hand)...... Mr. Biden.....does destroying the currency, increasing taxes, using regulation to enrich your cronies and stiffle competition, encouraging armed conflict, bombing the middle east, and spying on your citizens help the middle class?
I love unions they did such a good job in running up the price of autos and demanding excessive compensation that the whole auto industry basically crashed and had to be bailed out. Oh and by the way only union members were made whole when companies retirements had to be slashed. Yes Unions are great! That's why a new silverado, basically an s10 on steroids cost $40,000 and is mosty plastic. Got off the GM band wagon and won't go back.
Actually, Plugs, the post-WWII GI Bill built the middle class.
They went on to do real things, and I don't mean having 5 guys do a 2-man truck unloading job, with a 2 hour delay for the shop steward to show up.
Physics tells us that our universe has 19 dimensions. Joe Bidens speach writer and puppet master do not live in the same set of dimensions that we do. Please Joe Biden, go to Detroit and tell us how unions made that city what it is today.
Unions helped build America as we know it - can't argue that. They did help in the early days but after WWII when the US had the only economy left standing, unions switched to robbing employees, extortion of employers, payoffs to politicians, and self enrichment to union leaders. So yes, that is America as we know it today...
Yes, it's true. And middle class was FUN!! I know, I was there! Ironic that a guy who's helped to bust up those unions, via globalistan, would make that statement. Wonder what kind of prescription drugs he's on?
Fuck me! Biden (the Moron) Spews one thing while the Black Dumb Ass reads the opposite. What is this? "Tales from the Dark Side?"
Buffoon Biden!