Collective Whining

People who whine and cry tend to travel in packs. On the flip side people who solve their own problems tend to fly solo. Individuals in the first group rarely seem to want to fix problems on their own. Enter unions. "I don't want to put the work into fixing the problem, so if I find enough people to complain with me then I won't have to." In some cases this is valid, such as in the situations under which many unions were originally formed: dangerous working conditions in factories. Today this is rarely the case, however. "Collective bargaining" has been replaced by "collective whining." Today it is more about masking the realities of life and economics than it is about safety or other legitimate reasons. In many cases (read: Chrysler and GM), they are digging their own graves.

America is now divided into two groups: 1. Those who don't get what they want, but make some changes to get it on their own and 2. Those who don't get what they want but refuse to make any changes, whine about it and sometimes get it. Conservatives, by nature, are usually independent people who are much less inclined to gather in groups to protest something. They're too busy solving their problems on their own. That's why they don't make headlines as often. Controversy sells, and conservatives unintentionally avoid it by relying on themselves. Liberals don't seem to want to take care of anything on their own, so they gather in groups and whine about it until they get their way. They know controversy sells so they stir it up to get noticed. It's pretty rare to see a group of independent individuals gathered together screaming "Work hard and make some changes to your situation and you'll get what you want!" Again, they're too busy already doing it.

Did you know that some of the United Auto Worker's labor agreements include giving workers a full 8 hours of pay for only doing 5 hours of work?!? Payroll and benefits are usually a company's biggest expenses. Imagine if Chrysler and GM had their labor costs CUT IN HALF?!? A lot of these folks love to use the word "fair". How is that "fair"? Imagine having to pay your babysitter for 6 hours of watching your kids when you were really only gone for three. Or better yet, imagine paying for 3 entrees at dinner when you and a friend only ate two. It's the same thing.

The public sector (government jobs) is much more heavily unionized than the private sector. Did you know that the average public sector worker makes about 46% more in compensation than comparable private sector workers? This means you and I are paying these people almost 1.5x as much as a regular company would pay them! This is largely due to unionization and government inefficiency. As I write this, unions are sucking our (YOUR!) money down the drain. California is trying to close their budget deficit (that's what happens when you spend more than you make.... see this for an explanation), and the unions are successfully working to stop them. The problem with government is that they want everything to stay the same regardless of what is going on in the world around them. In their minds Same = Votes. Did you know that Congress has never decreased spending year over year? Right now we're in a recession, and millions of people have lost their jobs. That means millions of people are no longer paying income taxes which means the government isn't receiving as much money. Government solution: keep spending just as much money even though we're not making as much. HOW IS THAT SUPPOSED TO WORK? You've got to cut programs, cut employees and ultimately cut costs. I have never been laid off (that sound you just heard was me knocking on wood), and I wish that layoffs never had to happen, but they are a reality. Things cannot always stay the same. Things change, people change and businesses change. In New York, one of the areas hardest hit by decreased tax revenues, unionized government employees are refusing to give up wage increases. That's like you losing your job and then going out and buying some new clothes, a new computer and a TV. You just lost your job and have no money! How can you afford to spend more?

This has to stop. At some point people have to wake up and start making smarter decisions. There are some people out there that just don't get it. The ones that do have a responsibility to educate the ones that don't. Some people simply are not exposed to more than one way of thinking, and I don't blame them. Spread the message folks! All of these little changes add up. They're easy to ignore, because nothing really seems to change immediately. It's going to be a very different story ten or twenty years from now.