Wealth Distribution in the USA

After watching this video, I can say with all honesty that I can be proud to be a moderate liberal and to be the union steward at my place of employment.Though critics may say that Unions extort money from corporations, I would now argue that the people need to take from the wealthy, since the wealthy quite obviously refuse to give us anything.Yes...the "Bill" will get paid, but there will be a revolution before that top 10% get to skate off without paying their fair share.I now know forever which side I stand on in this struggle, and I pray for wisdom and strength from the Good Lord to be able to serve those less fortunate than myself. Now that I see what selfishness causes, it makes me want to be less selfish.

The only difference is that now we have no ramped up industrial capacity following a war. The other countries are the new middle class, and our(US) middle class is having to join the ranks of a new emerging global middle class.As I said before, I am proud to be part of a labor union that stands up to the efforts of a corporate culture that seeks to break the US wage structure into more of a global conformity.Globalism has its pros and cons.If the 1% ran off, would taxes double? ...and if so, would the population feel exploited and thus start a needless revolution?

And yet that is what is happening at my work. The company keeps trying to bring in lower paid help and give them the lions share of the hours. I asked to be trained as a manager, and then saw at least two of the new hires get trained ahead of me.For those who think that checkers are overpaid at $17.00 an hour...note that when I got out of High School in 1978 I was making $4.00 an hour in 1980...which if extrapolated through an inflation index calculator would amout to roughly the same purchasing power and value as $17.00 now is.In essence, real wages have been dropping. This is not a good thing when a 53 year old only makes what he made out of High School and only through the graces of a labor union. My market value in non union sectors is more like $13.00 an hour max.

Im palming no peas. Its all a matter of perspective.Everybody wants to get paid more. The value that one earns is all subjective, however.

The public wants as low of price as possible with good service. They(the public) like to have clerks serve them who are knowledgeable,m friendly, and efficient. (or ones that can operate self checkout and stay out of the way while they rush through on their cellphones)

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The Corporate bigwigs see labor as a two dimensional bottom line expense. They believe in the republican conservative concept of proportional fairness...people get paid according to their value. The problem is, employees should be able to apply the same standard to corporate salaries, in my opinion. It does not take five guys in white shirts to tour one store. Get rid of four of them!

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The union employee believes in proportional fairness. Society determines honest, open, and impartial rules to determine who gets what and what value should be attached to certain jobs. The problem is, we live in a society with massive inequality...the rich have many opportunities to rig the game in their favor. Liberals in general wish to level the playing field...Conservatives are ambivalent, claiming that unions "extort" and that Romney was right with his "47%" comment that praised "Horace Greeley" virtues of workers that suck it up, succeed despite hardships, and that wage value is or should be earned through merit. Of course yopu know where I stand and why.

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I maintain that the rich will never give up anything and that the poor need union extortion to even get anything close to a livable wage and benefits.

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After all, we must compete with the children of the wealthy.

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Do I believe that social programs and unionism are rewarding mediocrity? Not at all...I consider myself more intelligent than most union leaders and most corporate bigwigs combined.

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Look at this:
http://newswires-americas.com/...ivate-equity-for-bankruptcy

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Perfect example of corporate managers deciding what needs to be cut and what needs to be saved. (They saved their own salaries!!)

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Edited by Phat, : add

Its just my anger over the inequity of wealth between the top percentiles and the working class. I am in favor of unionism. That's all I really wanted to say. Oh and one other thing---there are rumors that Safeway may close in Denver, eventually. They tried so hard to preserve profits that they lost sales in doing so...which also angers me. I am no fan of corporate tactics versus bargaining units.

How is the middle class the problem? Having decent jobs preserves the middle class. No one can raise a family on $10.00 or less an hour...unless you are suggesting that the middle class should get used to diminished expectations. If that is the issue, we all need to unite!!!Granted we also need to work harder and get educated.But note this article: The awful truth: education won't stop the west getting poorerYes I know you will say that we did it to ourselves, but looking back at mistakes made in the past help no one.Its beginning to look like I will need more than the union to keep me afloat.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

We see the statistics in the first post. We read many pro and con articles about political ideology. This is a recent one: Billionaires Now Own American PoliticsAs a Christian, I believe that human nature will never become truly altruistic without a changed inner nature. I also see the trend in America of more and more people becoming poorer rather than wealthier. Becoming wealthy is an exception rather than a rule.I also see many smart people...such as my Niece, having Masters degrees and making what I make.What solutions do we have except imploring the rich to be more generous?

I respect your opinion...it is supported by a quotation from a statesman of the past. Unfortunately, todays political climate has very few if any people as wise as Teddy.Now we contend with this:

quote:

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An analysis by the liberal think tank Demos found that out of every $10 raised by super PACs in 2012, $9 came from just 3,318 people giving $10,000 or more. That small club of donors is equivalent to 0.0011% of the U.S. population.

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To me, if a spiritual war actually exists in the world today...(and yes, I believe it does) then it is between people who love and have money and those who love people...be they wealthy or poor.The love of money is indeed the root of all evil. Money itself is simply a tool. The love of power is synonymous with the love of money.

quote:

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Today, politics is a rich man's game. Look no further than the 2012 elections and that season's biggest donor, 79-year-old casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. He and his wife, Miriam, shocked the political class by first giving $16.5 million in an effort to make Newt Gingrich the Republican presidential nominee. Once Gingrich exited the race, the Adelsons invested more than $30 million in electing Mitt Romney. They donated millions more to support GOP candidates running for the House and Senate, to block a pro-union measure in Michigan, and to bankroll the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative stalwarts (which waged their own campaigns mostly to help Republican candidates for Congress). All told, the Adelsons donated $94 million during the 2012 cyclenearly four times the previous record set by liberal financier George Soros. And that's only the money we know about.

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How on earth can a willfully ignorant populace with barely enough money to take a few days off once in awhile or afford higher education even begin to compete with a casino mogul who throws money at politics as if it is a high stakes poker game?

I am all for higher wages for developing peoples, but not at the expense of my own modest wages...the keyword in all of this is competition.I am paid $17.00 an hour which is not too high and not too low in my opinion...but if the market sets my wage i may be forced to provide more value than I provided previously...even though in my mind i'm working just about as hard as I can.

So shall we serve money or shall we serve people? The employees indirectly help make every nickel of profit that the company gets. The stockholders have done nothing except kick in money.Shall we take care of people? Help each other? or....shall we reward investors first?

which is why I believe that the US middle class would benefit more through socialism at this point.Capitalism has progressed(dare I say regressed) to the point that no favoritism has been shown to the domestic population of the West. People before Profits is my cry!Why should my wealthy neighbors become richer through competing for cheaper foreign labor at my expense and yet insist on paying no taxes?

The love of money is the root of all evil. The wealthy always win, because they have the politicians in their pocket and lawyers on their payroll. The people will only win if they are unified against the wealthy, but the wealthy trick the middle class into defecting to their side in the name of free enterprise. The middle class think that somehow they too will someday have the huge payday.Its all rather disgusting, and is a reason that I count on unionism to get a fair wage. The wealthy wont give up anything without pressure.