What does it matter?

Through some careful thought and prayers I've decided to keep this blog, but change the style of posting. In reality we will never "fix" the current political system in this country because it's not the political system that's broken. It's corporations in general that are the problem.

I recently read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and at first thought I have finally read an author that thought the way I did. What I've realized though is she only got part of it right and another part very wrong. She believes in less government and telling them to butt out of our lives which I agree with completely but her problem is she favors the corporate life which is where I am beginning to understand the problem lies. (no pun intended) Her choices leave you with be a slave to the government or slaves to corporations. I choose neither.

My other blog Dreaming of a Country Life is our story getting to true freedom. Our own land, growing/raising our own food, and zero debt. the problem is that is also going against what our government really wants for us so I still need to wear the tinfoil fedora now and then.

I also refuse to walk away from God as she would have everyone do. I do have serious questions about what I've been taught a Christian really is, but those will be answered by a higher power and as long as what I do is based on scripture I can't go wrong.

-mike

Union Rights?

Everyone else seems to have chimed in on the Wisconsin union situation so I figured I'd throw my two cents in. I think I can boil it down to two words. 

UNIONS SUCK

There all better now. 

Honestly I have never run into a union worker that was under the age of 60 that wasn't either lazy or stupid. Stupid in the fact that they couldn't see through the veil that the union had thrown over their heads. Lazy in the fact that they thought it was a great thing that they got paid for doing nothing just because the union negotiated it that way. 

Look, if you aren't happy with the work you do, the conditions you work in, the people you work for, or the wages you get paid the answer to your problem is very simple. Quit and go get another job. Nobody if forcing you to work there. The department of labor doesn't assign you a job and keep you from seeking employment elsewhere. Do you honestly think that your union rep really cares what your standard of living is? Nope, he has one thing on his mind. Get you more money so he can charge more dues so he has a job and a high standard of living. Does that union rep give you part of his pay when you're out of work? Nope. 

Now if you and your fellow co-workers feel that what you do is so specialized that nobody else can do it and you want to ask your employer for a raise as a group go ahead and do so. But don't think that you have a right to stop working and keep him from finding a replacement for you if he refuses. You're hired to do a job period. You get paid to do that job period. You refuse to do that job you get fired and replaced period. Why is this so hard to understand? 

What if your mechanic decided that the job that should cost $40.00 is now going to cost you $80.00 and if you refuse he's going to sue you and keep any other mechanic from working on your car? Would you stand for that? Why should your employer? 

I used to work for a company that did work for the MD-11 aircraft for McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach. Part of my job was to drive over to the line and pick up parts we needed to do some pre-assembly work. I had a grievance filed against what I was doing many times and for the life of me couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. It was finally explained that whenever you see a parts truck running around the grounds there were always two guys in it. One was allowed to drive the truck but couldn't touch the parts. The other could touch the parts but wasn't allowed to drive the truck. Two separate unions and I was "taking another mans job" by working efficiently. We won't even talk about the part where the person in the parts cage spent 7 hours of her day putting together puzzles and was getting paid $65.00 an hour. 

If you drive by McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach now it's a shopping mall. They went out of business because they couldn't compete. 

I know a few people that are in construction unions that are laid off and rather than accept a lower paying job are sitting on their butts collecting unemployment, paying union dues from that unemployment and waiting for the union to get them a job. 

In the meantime I work my $10.00 an hour job and continue to pay my bills and have even managed to buy some property all while living "below the poverty level" 

For those of you that work government jobs let me remind you what you are. You are a PUBLIC SERVANT. You should not expect pay or benefits any higher than the public sector. In fact you should expect less. You don't like the work, go get another job. The freakin' government is too big anyway.