See other Editorial Articles
Title: Cal Thomas: Unions, overregulation drove American Dream into a ditch
Source:
SacBee
URL Source: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/1920481.html
Published: Jun 5, 2009
Author: Cal Thomas
Post Date: 2009-06-05 16:06:01 by farmfriend
Keywords: None
Views: 1593
Comments: 137
By Cal Thomas America is asking you to call. Drive your Chevrolet through the USA America's the greatest land of all. Fifty years ago, those words set to music each week on NBC's "The Dinah Shore Show" reflected an America and an automobile industry that is no more. That time and that industry were laid to rest this week when General Motors filed for bankruptcy and the government effectively nationalized GM and Chrysler after wasting billions of our tax dollars on a failed bailout. Despite disclaimers from President Barack Obama that the government doesn't want to be in the car business, it is hard to see what it has bought with our tax dollars other than two of what used to be known as "the big three." Government by default or determination will choose the types of cars the companies it owns will make. Government will buy a lot of them because not enough customers will unless they are made offers they can't refuse, not by a car salesman in a loud sport coat, but by a government bureaucrat in a suit. It's difficult to let go of an American dream. When I was growing up, every kid wanted to drive his own car. Our frugal parents (who had just one car) would let us drive it, but with restrictions, including a set time to bring the car back in the same pristine condition in which we found it. A car was a rite of passage. It conveyed independence and status. Each September we salivated at the prospect of new models. There was always a big buildup and we'd go to the Chevy (or Ford) dealer early on the morning they were for sale. Sometimes they would be covered with sheets and a dramatic unveiling would take place. TV commercials would show parts of new models in a kind of striptease before their debut. Some believe the models between 1955 and 1959, especially the 1957 Chevy Bel Air and the 1958 Impala, are unsurpassed, though Ford devotees have their Mustangs and T-Birds. Pontiac's GTO and some Dodge and Plymouth models were also great. Chrysler had the Imperial, which resembled a boat with running lights, and the New Yorker for "old rich people." And then there was the one beyond our reach, but not beyond our dreams: the Cadillac. The song "Pink Cadillac" became a hit, in part because we saw Elvis in one. America's relationship with its cars has rightly been called a love affair. Though some have tried to replicate the smell of a new car in spray cans, there is nothing quite like the feeling of sinking into new faux leather and later, if you could afford it, the real thing. Much if not all of those thrills will be gone, thanks to greed by the unions, government overregulation and bad management. The customers, who once were always right, have been cheated. All one has to do is look at government-made cars to see they are about as attractive as government art, government architecture, or many other things government does poorly. The Skoda (when the Czechoslovakia communist party made them – they're nice now thanks to free-market capitalism) had its own jokes: "How much is a Skoda worth with a full tank of gas?" Answer: "Twice as much." East Germany's Trabant, a major polluter, was little more than a two-cycle engine encased in the thinnest veneer, and the old Soviet Union cars were about as appealing as a Siberian winter. These are the kinds of cars governments have produced. Obama says all of those laid-off autoworkers will have to "sacrifice" for the sake of their children and grandchildren. So much for their American Dream. If a Republican president had said that, he would have been denounced as insensitive and uncaring. Performance is sweeter Nothing can beat her Life is completer in a Chevy. Not anymore. Bye-bye Miss American Pie; drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry. This is the day GM died.Cal Thomas: Unions, overregulation drove American Dream into a ditch
Published: Friday, Jun. 5, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 19A See the USA in your Chevrolet
On a highway, or a road along the levee
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 73.
#2. To: farmfriend (#0)
Cal was not around when ...Henry Ford...had men shot for wanting a piece of the dream. By the way Cal, Ford like the Rockefellers et al, left BILLIONS behind to try and engineer a better society.
Why the hell is it always the unions fault and never management?
Ever try and get a teacher or a cop fired? The unions defend the indefensible.
Without unions, good or bad, there would never have been a middle class in America. True, unions protect the malingerers as well as the hard working employee. What is the alternative??? We would go back to child labor, and many of the elite of this country are well know for having made their fortunes from the backs of children.
Like child molesters and embezzlers. They have long outlived most of their usefulness. True, they are needed in some professions like mining and blasting where there is serious chance of injury, but most union members are Government employees these days. So tell me, with the vast majority (read: 90%+) of union members being Government employees, are they truly still needed to protect the IRS agent who just stole your house, the cop who planted a bag of weed on your child, and the teacher who was caught sleeping with your son?
Having once been a Union member and employed by the government, I have a little knowledge on that subject. In the olde days we had no union, needed none and then after 1960 there abouts, things changed, the government was setting all the rules and we had no recourse. It was for self protection that Unions came about.
Except the freedom to find a different job if you didn't like the one you had.
True... With that view, you surprise me. It is not a knowledgeable, self disciplined, well thought out position to abide. Public servants are just that, working at the will and whim of politicians and their minions. Long ago it was called the "spoils system", a system kept afloat by widespread corruption that used public money as their own private piggy bank. The people demanded change and a promise was made to civil servants, work for so many years and certain age, and you will receive a pension, in return we demand loyalty, we set your wages and working criteria. That left open the opportunity for mischief, in that one could work to near pension time and end up with nothing. Thus Unions.
We've seen the concept of "working for a living" (you know, for sustenance and prosperity throughout one's life) turned to dust. I've heard so-called "conservatives" lambasting workers who demand a decent retirement pension. If we respect the value of life and property, then we must be willing to compensate people for the portion of their lives they give up in work. To do otherwise is theft. And that's what we see now creeping upward from the poorer classes (who are often the ones to experience it) to the middle class.
"so called" conservatives? Why is a company required to give you a retirement system? Isn't that your own responsibility? Isn't that what 401Ks are for? Now if a company adds money into a retirement system as part of your wage package fine but to see this as something you are "owed" is ridiculous. Worse if we are talking about government. If a company can't get decent workers at the wage they are offering they will raise the pay. To force this with a union is wrong and to then close it to workers who don't want to join the unions compounds the wrong.
History is replete with volumes written about serfdom and slavery. Something most of us care not to envision.
Yet that is what government unions make of me, a slave. I can not put money away for my own retirement because I have to pay for your union coerced retirement. On top of that I'm supposed to believe that the unions were good by protecting you. Sorry, ain't gonna happen.
Until the advent of ...UNIONS...there was but a tiny middle class, very tiny. I can only say I did not enjoy working for 25 cents a day as a child. Oh Yes, I was eight years old and could quit if I did'nt like the pay and working conditions. Indeed. Capitalism and socialism are one and the same, the ruling elite own and operate both to their advantage.
Buggy whips were useful in their day as well.
Farm... Your analogies seem to not hold water.
The managed trade, open borders crowd uses those analogies.
I am NOT a managed trade open borders person. I have a very long reputation for being otherwise. I'm insulted that you would think I was. Instead of arguing the points you have both resorted to insults. Thanks, appreciate it.
A letter making the request to State Fund from union local President Yvonne Walker contrasts with an e-mail she sent to members in April. At that time, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter Busch had just ruled from the bench that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger illegally furloughed the 500 State Fund members of the state legal professionals union, CASE. "(State Fund's) so-called independence for decisions about furlough signals a dangerous tone and could do long term damage to the civil service protections enjoyed by (State Fund) employees," Walker said in the April e-mail to members. SEIU did not participate in the CASE lawsuit against State Fund. Now Walker wants fund President Jan Frank to restore full hours and pay to the 5,000 or so SEIU-covered employees at the fund based on the CASE lawsuit, which, she says, didn't include SEIU workers because of "a legal technicality." "Local 1000 attorneys are preparing to file an action against State Fund and the Governor to compel State Fund to comply with the court's judgment should State Fund fail to take immediate action to apply the judgment to employees represented by SEIU Local 1000. I hope that State Fund will take action rendering these steps unnecessary and thereby avoid the time and expense of additional litigation on this subject." You can read Walker's letter to Frank by clicking here. It seems unlikely that SEIU folks at State Fund will get furlough relief with just a letter. CASE members won their lawsuit, but still had to wait weeks for a formal judgment from Busch before the Controller's Office would recalculate their payroll. And now, with that out of the way, the fund's "legal team is reviewing the order and working with DPA the Controller's Office" to apply the ruling, said State Fund spokeswoman Jennifer Vargen. A couple of other issues: We've asked the Controller's Office to confirm that yesterday's judgment means that those CASE employees directly impacted by the ruling will get full pay for June. (Click here for a primer on figuring out the state's payroll change submission deadlines.) From what we can tell, it shouldn't be a problem, but we're checking just to be sure. And how will the fund will make up the lost hours and pay to CASE members? Stay tuned. The lawyers are figuring it out. UPDATE 5:17 P.M.: State Controller's Office spokesman Jacob Roper sent an e-mail reply to our question about whether CASE-covered workers at SEIU will see their checks restored to full pay this month: By Ryan Lillis The vote was 66 percent against, 34 percent in favor, according to the union. Sacramento officials asked that firefighters forgo a 5 percent raise due to them next month in order to slash $5 million from a citywide $50 million deficit for the 2009/10 fiscal year. If an agreement is not reached before the city council meeting on June 16, the city will have to decide whether to cut the fire budget or transfer those cuts onto other departments. Non-public safety departments already face millions in cuts and more than 100 layoffs. The last day for firefighters and other city workers laid off would be June 19. Earlier today, fire union officials charged the city with trying to intimidate members by sending out layoff notices to 68 employees this week, two days before voting on the tentative agreement began. Those pink slips were sent to 50 firefighters whose jobs were in jeopardy, as well as 18 high-ranking fire officials who face demotion. City officials said earlier this week those layoff notices would be rescinded if the fire union agreed to salary concessions. The notices were sent out this week to give at-risk employees three weeks' notice that their jobs could be slashed. June 19 represents the last day of the final pay period of the current fiscal year. Still, union officials questioned the timing of the notices. "There's a great amount of mistrust and now confusion since those pink slips were already issued," union spokeswoman Robin Swanson said. "They're trying to create intimidation. This is a plan that has definitely backfired."
Featuring the original photo captions by Lewis W. Hine. Faces of Lost Youth Left - Furman Owens, 12 years old. Can't read. Doesn't know his A,B,C's. Said, "Yes I want to learn but can't when I work all the time." Been in the mills 4 years, 3 years in the Olympia Mill. Columbia, S.C. Mid - Adolescent girls from Bibb Mfg. Co. in Macon, Georgia. Right - Doffer boys. Macon, Georgia. The Mill Left - A general view of spinning room, Cornell Mill. Fall River, Mass. Mid - A moments glimpse of the outer world. Said she was 11 years old. Been working over a year. Rhodes Mfg. Co. Lincolnton, N.C. Right - Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up on to the spinning frame to mend broken threads and to put back the empty bobbins. Bibb Mill No. 1. Macon, Ga. Left - One of the spinners in Whitnel Cotton Mill. She was 51 inches high. Has been in the mill one year. Sometimes works at night. Runs 4 sides - 48 cents a day. When asked how old she was, she hesitated, then said, "I don't remember," then added confidentially, "I'm not old enough to work, but do just the same." Out of 50 employees, there were ten children about her size. Whitnel, N.C. Mid - The overseer said apologetically, "She just happened in." She was working steadily. The mills seem full of youngsters who "just happened in" or "are helping sister." Newberry, S.C. Right - Jo Bodeon, a back-roper in the mule room at Chace Cotton Mill. Burlington, Vt. Newsies Left - A small newsie downtown on a Saturday afternoon. St. Louis, Mo. Mid - A group of newsies selling on Capitol steps. Tony, age 8, Dan, 9, Joseph, 10, and John, age 11. Washington, D.C. Right - Tony Casale, age 11, been selling 4 years. Sells sometimes until 10 p.m. His paper told me the boy had shown him the marks on his arm where his father had bitten him for not selling more papers. He (the boy) said, "Drunken men say bad words to us." Hartford, Conn. Left - Out after midnight selling extras. There were many young boys selling very late. Youngest boy in the group is 9 years old. Harry, age 11, Eugene and the rest were a little older. Washington, D.C. Mid - Michael McNelis, age 8, a newsboy [with photographer Hine]. This boy has just recovered from his second attack of pneumonia. Was found selling papers in a big rain storm. Philadelphia, Pa. Right - Francis Lance, 5 years old, 41 inches high. He jumps on and off moving trolley cars at the risk of his life. St. Louis, Mo. Miners Left - At the close of day. Waiting for the cage to go up. The cage is entirely open on two sides and not very well protected on the other two, and is usually crowded like this. The small boy in front is Jo Puma. S. Pittston, Pa. Mid - View of the Ewen Breaker of the Pa. Coal Co. The dust was so dense at times as to obscure the view. This dust penetrated the utmost recesses of the boys' lungs. A kind of slave-driver sometimes stands over the boys, prodding or kicking them into obedience. S. Pittston, Pa. Right - Harley Bruce, a young coupling-boy at Indian Mine. He appears to be 12 or 14 years old and says he has been working there about a year. It is hard work and dangerous. Near Jellico, Tenn. Left - Breaker boys, Hughestown Borough Pa. Coal Co. One of these is James Leonard, another is Stanley Rasmus. Pittston, Pa. Mid - A young driver in the Brown mine. Has been driving one year. Works 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. Brown W. Va. Right - Breaker boys. Smallest is Angelo Ross. Pittston, Pa. The Factory Left - View of the Scotland Mills, showing boys who work in mill. Laurinburg, N.C. Mid - 9 p.m. in an Indiana Glass Works. Right - Some of the young knitters in London Hosiery Mills. London, Tenn. Left - Young cigar makers in Engelhardt & Co. Three boys looked under 14. Labor leaders told me in busy times many small boys and girls were employed. Youngsters all smoke. Tampa, Fla. Mid - Boys in the packing room at the Brown Mfg. Co. Evansville, Ind. Right - Willie, a Polish boy, taking his noon rest in a doffer box at the Quidwick Co. Mill. Anthony, R.I. Left - Day scene. Wheaton Glass Works. Boy is Howard Lee. His mother showed me the family record in Bible which gave his birth as July 15, 1894. 15 years old now, but has been in glass works two years and some nights. Millville, N.J. Mid - A boy making melon baskets in a basket factory. Evansville, Ind. Right - Rob Kidd, one of the young workers in a glass factory. Alexandria, Va. Seafood Workers Left - Oyster shuckers working in a canning factory. All but the very smallest babies work. Began work at 3:30 a.m. and expected to work until 5 p.m. The little girl in the center was working. Her mother said she is "a real help to me." Dunbar, La. Mid - Shrimp pickers, including little 8 year old Max on the right. Biloxi, Miss. Right - Johnnie, a nine year old oyster shucker. Man with pipe behind him is a padrone who has brought these people from Baltimore for four years. He is the boss of the shucking shed. Dunbar, La. Left - Manuel the young shrimp picker, age 5, and a mountain of child labor oyster shells behind him. He worked last year. Understands not a word of English. Biloxi, Miss. Mid - Cutting fish in a sardine cannery. Large sharp knives are used with a cutting and sometimes chopping motion. The slippery floors and benches and careless bumping into each other increase the liability of accidents. "The salt water gits into the cuts and they ache," said one boy. Eastport, Me. Right - Hiram Pulk, age 9, working in a canning company. "I ain't very fast only about 5 boxes a day. They pay about 5 cents a box," he said. Eastport, Me. Fruit Pickers Left - A berry field on Rock Creek. Whites and blacks, old and young, work here from 4:30 a.m. to sunset some days. A long hot day. Rock Creek, Md. Mid - Camille Carmo, age 7, and Justine, age 9. The older girl picks about 4 pails a day. Rochester, Mass. Right - Norris Luvitt. Been picking 3 years in berry fields near Baltimore. Little Salesmen Left - After 9 p.m., 7 year old Tommie Nooman demonstrating the advantages of the Ideal Necktie Form in a store window on Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. His father said, "He is the youngest demonstrator in America. Has been doing it for several years from San Francisco, to New York. We stay a month or six weeks in a place. He works at it off and on." Remarks from the by-standers were not having the best effect on Tommie. Mid - Joseph Severio, peanut vender, age 11 [seen with photographer Hine]. Been pushing a cart 2 years. Out after midnight on May 21, 1910. Ordinarily works 6 hours per day. Works of his own volution. All earnings go to his father. Wilmington, Del. Right - A young candy seller in Boston, Mass. A Variety of Jobs Left - A Bowery bootblack in New York. Mid - Bowling Alley boys. Many of them work setting pins until past midnight. New Haven, Conn. Right - George Christopher, Postal Telegraph, age 14. Been at it over 3 years. Does not work nights. Nashville, Tenn. Left - A boy carrying hats in New York City. Mid - Young boys working for Hickok Lumber Co. Burlington, Vt. Right - Three young boys with shovels standing in doorway of a Fort Worth & Denver train car. Struggling Families Left - Mrs. Battaglia with Tessie, age 12, and Tony, age 7. Mrs. Battaglia works in a garment shop except on Saturdays, when the children sew with her at home. Get 2 or 3 cents a pair finishing men's pants. Said they earn $1 to $1.50 on Saturday. Father disabled and can earn very little. New York City. Mid - A Jewish family and neighbors working until late at night sewing garters. This happens several nights a week when there is plenty of work. The youngest work until 9 p.m. The others until 11 p.m. or later. On the left is Mary, age 7, and 10 year old Sam, and next to the mother is a 12 year old boy. On the right are Sarah, age 7, next is her 11 year old sister, 13 year old brother. Father is out of work and also helps make garters. New York City. Right - Picking nuts in dirty basement. The dirtiest imaginable children were pawing over the nuts eating lunch on the table. Mother had a cold and blew her nose frequently (without washing her hands) and the dirty handkerchiefs reposed comfortably on table close to the nuts and nut meats. The father picks now. New York City. Pastimes and Vices Left - Teaching the young rider how to start. A common scene in pool rooms. St. Louis, Mo. Mid - Messengers absorbed in their usual game of poker in the "Den of the terrible nine" (the waiting room for Western Union Messengers, Hartford, Conn.). They play for money. Some lose a whole month's wages in a day and then are afraid to go home. The boy on the right has been a messenger for 4 years. Began at 12 years of age. He works all night now. During an evening's conversation he told me stories about his experiences with prostitutes to whom he carries messages frequently. Hartford, Conn. Right - A.D.T. messenger boys. They all smoke. Birmingham, Ala. Left - A group of newsies playing craps in the jail alley at 10 p.m. Albany, N.Y. Mid - 11:00 a.m. Newsies at Skeeter's Branch. They were all smoking. St. Louis, MO. Right - Richard Pierce, age 14, a Western Union Telegraph Co. messenger. Nine months in service, works from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Smokes and visits houses of prostitution. Wilmington, Del. Group Portraits Left - Getting working papers in New York City. Mid - Children on the night shift going to work at 6 p.m. on a cold, dark December day. They do not come out again until 6 a.m. When they went home the next morning they were all drenched by a heavy, cold rain and had few or no wraps. Two of the smaller girls with three other sisters work on the night shift and support a big, lazy father who complains he is not well enough to work. He loafs around the country store. The oldest three of these sisters have been in the mill for 7 years, and the two youngest, two years. The latter earns 84 cents a night. Whitnel, N.C. Right - Some of the workers in the Farrand Packing Co. Baltimore, Md. Left - At 5 p.m., boys going home from Monougal Glass Works. One boy remarked, "De place is lousey wid kids." Fairmont, W. Va. Mid - A few of the young workers in the Beaumont Mill. Spartenburg, S.C. Right - Fish cutters at a Canning Co in Maine. Ages range from 7 to 12. They live near the factory. The 7 year old boy in front, Byron Hamilton, has a badly cut finger but helps his brother regularly. Behind him is his brother George, age 11, who cut his finger half off while working. Ralph, on the left, displays his knife and also a badly cut finger. They and many youngsters said they were always cutting themselves. George earns a $1 some days usually 75 cents. Some of the others say they earn a $1 when they work all day. At times they start at 7 a.m. and work all day until midnight. Copyright © 1998 The History Place™ All Rights Reserved
American history has always had a sordid side to it and it seems some people wish to ignore what they never experienced, nor know anything about.
We have a nation myth that we have been taught, along with a national religion. To some extent that may be a good thing, but the notion that we are blessed by God, the one and greatest gives eye wash for our rulers to commit crimes and dodge accountability. Not such a good thing. And Cal Thomas is a well fed defender of the status quo. Our national religion is military worship, BTW.
#74. To: tom007 (#73)
Individualism trumps militarism.
Tom... You have to somehow make Americans understand that they are...programmed... During WW2 and there after, Americans received a steady diet of programming day after day, in school, in college and 24/7 via MSM. Prior to WW2, many did not go to school, few went to college, few had radios, so government poison was difficult to disseminate. Now it is in full force, every moment of our lives.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestUnions,
#3. To: Cynicom (#2)
#9. To: Lady X (#3)
Why the hell is it always the unions fault and never management?
#10. To: mirage (#9)
#23. To: Cynicom (#10)
True, unions protect the malingerers as well as the hard working employee.
#25. To: mirage (#23)
So tell me, with the vast majority (read: 90%+) of union members being Government employees, are they truly still needed to protect the IRS agent who just stole your house, the cop who planted a bag of weed on your child, and the teacher who was caught sleeping with your son?
#28. To: Cynicom, mirage (#25)
things changed, the government was setting all the rules and we had no recourse.
#39. To: farmfriend (#28)
Except the freedom to find a different job if you didn't like the one you had.
#42. To: Cynicom, farmfriend (#39)
#47. To: Deasy, Cynicom (#42)
I've heard so-called "conservatives" lambasting workers who demand a decent retirement pension.
#48. To: farmfriend (#47)
#51. To: Cynicom (#48)
History is replete with volumes written about serfdom and slavery. Something most of us care not to envision.
#56. To: farmfriend (#51)
Yet that is what government unions make of me, a slave.
#61. To: Cynicom (#56)
Until the advent of ...UNIONS...there was but a tiny middle class, very tiny.
#62. To: farmfriend (#61)
#63. To: Cynicom, farmfriend (#62)
#64. To: Deasy, Cynicom, lodwick, IndieTX, Original_Intent, christine, critter, turtle (#63)
The managed trade, open borders crowd uses those analogies.
#66. To: Deasy, Cynicom, lodwick, IndieTX, Original_Intent, christine, critter, turtle (#64)
UPDATED: SEIU Local 1000: Don't furlough our State Fund members
SEIU Local 1000 wants its represented workers at State Compensation Insurance Fund immediately excluded from twice-monthly furloughs.
Sacramento firefighters reject salary concessions
rlillis@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Jun. 5, 2009 - 3:16 pm Members of the city's fire union have rejected their tentative agreement on salary concessions, setting the stage for 50 firefighters to be laid off.
#68. To: farmfriend, mirage, Cynicom (#66)
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/
#69. To: Deasy (#68)
#73. To: Cynicom (#69)
(Edited)
American history has always had a sordid side to it and it seems some people wish to ignore what they never experienced, nor know anything about.
Replies to Comment # 73. Our national religion is military worship, BTW.
#75. To: tom007 (#73)
Our national religion is military worship, BTW.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 73.