Tuesday, August 12, 2008
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Unionizing Our Way to Greater Taxes
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Posted by:
Michele Bachmann at
4:50 PM
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The nonpartisan Tax Foundation has made a pretty interesting case that those states with a forced employee/union system not only pay higher taxes than those states with Right to Work laws which protect employees from being fired for refusing to join or pay dues or fees to a union, but household incomes in Right to Work states are also higher.
This year, Americans celebrated their "Tax Freedom Day" on April 23. This is the day when Americans have earned enough money to cover their total federal, state, and local tax bill for the year, on average.
The Tax Foundation and U.S. Census Bureau data have found that in 2008, the average Tax Freedom Day in the 22 states with Right to Work laws was April 18, five days earlier than the national average. For the 28 non-Right to Work states as a group, their Tax Freedom Day came nine days later than the average in Right to Work states.
In addition to a higher tax burden, forced-union states’ cost of living is higher as well. Economist Barry Poulson from the University of Colorado figured that living costs average nearly 18% higher in metro areas in non-Right to Work states than in Right to Work states.
Why?
The National Right to Work Committee says that "where forced dues are legal, union officials use their power to disrupt labor markets, jack up costs, and bankroll regulation-happy, Tax-and-Spend state legislators and governors."
Hopefully the Minnesota state legislature will come to understand the benefits of a Right-to-Work state and come on board for the sake of all Minnesotans.
For more information on the report, click here.
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Hmmmmmmm..so what about Sarah Palin saying her husband is a "proud member" of the steelworkers union? Is that a problem for Republicans? |
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Worked both sides of this street. GM going down not because of the Union although its part of the issue. GM like Ford built a lousy product for a great number of years....along came the gas issues of the 70's and Toyota, Nissan became the poster child for quality and fuel savings. When the gas issue went away temporarily the American manufacturers again returned to large cars that the public wanted...the problem was they again lost the path to quality that the Americans became enamoured with. Once the foreign manufacturers captured the market, they worked their collective butts off providing what the market demanded. "Buy American" led to diminishing quality since "My father was a Chevy man and so am I" mentality gave way to increased costs. Blame whoever you want, Here in the South where "right to work" is defended like your sisters virtue, I daily see people threatened with their jobs for failing to meet corporate established standards that wouldn't be considered in a Union shop. These corporate types only concern is looking good. They'd sell their sister for a quarter a throw given the opportunity. As for Union members, the gentleman that observed that the "Union members didn't know how good they had it" was right. I found being in the Union an exercise of protecting the valueless. Those people that earned their money the old fashioned way were in short demand and weren't well thought of since they made the deadwood look bad. So the truth, the market changes, labor requirements change, and this argument have no innocents. As corporate America's investors demand greater return on our investments, we drive the need for corporations to become more of the old employers where abuse and lack of enlightenment become a way of life. |
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The union bashing game is up. The middle class of the 50's-60's-70's was built on union wages. This came under attack with Reagan. Now look at the loss of the Middle class, and manufacturing jobs goes hand in hand with the Republican support of Corporate,rule and Corporate Welfare. The Tax Foundation is far from Non-Partisan, but is instead a Right Wing supported Anti-Tax organization.
Try these - http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/upload/072308_candidates_tr anscript.pdf
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/index.cfm
http://vt71443.com/materials/tax_leaflet_back.png |
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Corp,s pass on their income taxes to whoever buys their products, and lower dividend checks to there shareholders if listed and also lower pay to their employees.
If you go out and buy a $1000 computer from say Dell or HP, just how much do you think you are forking over for their income taxes when those companies pay how much now in income taxes? If they pay out a 35% rate then guess? YOU pay their income taxes. |
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Hey PA Voter, it's hard to listen to your hero in her own words make a complete fool out of herself isn't it? How do I have no credibility? All I did was post an assinine direct quote from your hero Michele, along with a link to the quote itself. What's not credible there--except for your hero Michele? Or are you going to say she was misquoted by the librul media? try again--the quote is from a right-wing "Christian" news service. |
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Corporations due not pay federal income taxes. Income taxes for individuals. Corporations pay on average 15 different types of taxes. Corporate taxes, state corporate fees, audits fees (because of the SOX Laws), they pay taxes on inventory, taxes on thier energy they consume; they match Social Security taxes, pay unemployment taxes; pay taxes on thier profits; taxes to comply with OSHA; taxes on various imports; taxes on every purchase they make; they pay fees to local zoning boards; legal retainers mandated by different federal agencies; and taxes on bonuses.
Corporations pay up on average $2 trillion in taxes and compliance fees.
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With both parties looking the other way on the millions of new poor coming into the country, Unions will make a comeback. The living standard will go down for non-union members and things will cost more. Simple math and history. Look at GM in Mich. Whatever. We deserve what we get.
I went to work for a few weeks in Detroit when their Free Press carriers and District managers decided to go on strike. These guys had it made and didn't even realize it. Us scabs felt like we struck gold when we went up there. We got paid what they were getting paid. It was awesome. My point is that Union members lose touch with reality after a while. |
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His specialty is calling Michele a liar no matter what she says about any subject.
He has zero credibility.
The same is true of Kimberly. They are both DNC apologists.
83 days til election day! Woohoo!
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Michele believes that since Jesus "saved the planet" 2000 years ago, we don't have to worry about saving it today:
"[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that," says Bachmann.
So why is Michele worried about saving us from unions? Jesus already saved us--don't worry Michele. Everything's great!
If you don't believe the idiotic quote above, you'll find it here:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=210502
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Lets see, GM is going to build a new diesel plant in Thailand for the asian market. Seems like here in the US , Gm is all about out of business. I will kick back and say to myself what a bunch of dumb A__ when GM closes shop in the US. Stupid Union and stupid people like Rick Wagoner on down. |
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but her time, as you say. My screwy hours are taking me to bed now.
Good luck, God bless.
Byron Keith
And I as well, Byron!
Good night, and God bless, as well.
Regards,
Dempsey |
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I'm sorry if I touched a nerve. Looking back over your posts, if half your family had a chip on their left shoulder (so to speak) when you were growing up, I can see a need, for courtesy's
sake, to measure words better than I did.
Mr. Sowell has benn a favorite of mine on this site since I found it, some four years ago. I haven't seen his latest yet, but I'll surely look it over - but her time, as you say. My screwy hours are taking me to bed now.
Good luck, God bless.
Byron Keith |
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You may have a point regarding, "corporate headbreakers", in the past. But we will leave property rights for another time and column.
As for today, I certainly do not see any "corporate headbreakers", yet unions still use scare tactics as they always have.
I refer you to Thomas Sowell's new column, titled, "whose special interests"?
This article talks about not only the so-called, Employee Free Choice Act, sponsored by unions; but deleterious special interest groups as well.
Regards,
Dempsey |
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Explain EFCA? Big, hyperactive government. we're overdosing on that, too.
If you can tell me that corporate headbreakers, etc., never existed, that I'll leave off asking why we don't see them now. If you can give me an explanation more to your liking why we don't see them, I'm ready to hear you out. Perhaps more so than vice versa . . .? |
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We no longer see workers paid in company scrip rather than US currency to keep them tethered to the company store in the company town. We no longer see the corporate equivalent the knee-breaking union thugs Dempsey reminds us of, them being the head-breaking corporate thugs used to keep workers toeing the corporate line. We no longer see . . . well, insert your own favorite evil here.
We no longer see any of these things. Thus, we can put unions behind us now, right?
Well, let's wait up a minute. Let's use an analogy from medicine: we rarely hear of polio these days. Thus, we can stop immunizing our childern against it at birth, right? The danger is all in the past now, isn't it?
The reason we so rarely see polio these days is that the step we take to prevent it works. The reason we don't see corporate employees becoming corporate chattle today is that unionism works.
Your "medicine" analogy is not worth a pint of public water, BK!
If your unions are so "clean" and virtuous, please explain the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act! This handy piece of legislation, is sponsored by unions in order to make it easier for them to organize workers against their will. In fact, the Employee Free Choice Act takes away a workers right to a private ballot in the workplace.
Yeah sure, all part of a "progressive" plan, like curing polio. BS I say! This is nothing more than corrupt thuggery, that goes back to my grandfather's day, in the thirties and before. Not a damn thing has changed with unions and never will. |
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Really, Michele? The U.S. Census Bureau is in the business of calculating your little scam called Tax Freedom Day? Please show me the source of your information--specifically, a Census Bureau site that discusses Tax Freedom Day and how they help calculate it with the "nonpartisan" Tax Foundation. Or are you just lying through your teeth again? |
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God bless you man, and your sister. You are one for the books!!! |
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I address myself to you as you seem to be the only one here (after BJ) who's willing to give unions even half a break.
I'm actually in agreement with the line of attack
brought against unions by yourself and Dempsey. 21st Century American unionism is in a deplorable state, and worse yet, is spreading its deplorable-ness around to the rest of us. But, as you say, "Unions had a purpose at one time and they served it well."
We no longer see workers paid in company scrip rather than US currency to keep them tethered to the company store in the company town. We no longer see the corporate equivalent the knee-breaking union thugs Dempsey reminds us of, them being the head-breaking corporate thugs used to keep workers toeing the corporate line. We no longer see . . . well, insert your own favorite evil here.
We no longer see any of these things. Thus, we can put unions behind us now, right?
Well, let's wait up a minute. Let's use an analogy from medicine: we rarely hear of polio these days. Thus, we can stop immunizing our childern against it at birth, right? The danger is all in the past now, isn't it?
The reason we so rarely see polio these days is that the step we take to prevent it works. The reason we don't see corporate employees becoming corporate chattle today is that unionism works.
The problem here is not that unions are inherently bad. It's that - to keep the medical analogy - we're overdoing it and overdosing on it.
Let's return to the original dosage of unionism, the one that you recall in your posting.
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Name one unionized industry where the US is a global leader. All US industries that once dominated the world are now also-rans or have offshored the bulk of their production due to unions. Steel, autos, tires, white goods, the list goes on. The only area where there is any union growth is in the public sector, which IMO should be illegal, and in the service industries because they can't be offshored. The US automobile industry is probably the most studied example of how a union can crush a business; wages way out of proportion to the skill required to perform the task, job banks where idle workers can sit for years collecting paychecks while doing nothing, health care for retirees, many of whom have been retired longer than they worked. Unions had a purpose at one time and they served it well. They won. Now their time is past. The same can be said of environmentalists who led the charge to clean this country up but now, like unions, burden it so heavily that we are perilously close to losing our economic leadership as our companies abandon our hostile business environment. I personally hope GM decides to shut down all US operations just to screw the UAW who have been bleeding it for decades. |
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I am in a union. My take, on the union that I am affiliated with, is an excuse for lazy people to get a free ride. |
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My apologies for the double "part two" post. Seems this happens with other posters at Townhall as well. |
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In my senior year in high school, my uncle told me to never worry about a thing, as he and 'grandpa could get me into their union, and I would be set. I told him, " it would be a cold day in hell, the day I need someone else to do my bargaining for me." He never talked to me again.
But that is alright, because I ended up making far more money within fifteen years than all of the union side of my family made in their entire life.
One major problem (amongst others) with many union workers is, (based on my experience) how they whine about how hard they work and how much they deserve. Never once, do they consider how many hours their employer works, after they go home and get all 'comfy with a beer and remote. Or how much stress the can have after their precious little union worker has a nice weekend after a "grueling" forty hour week. While all along,they have to pay into healthcare plans, retirement plans etc.
So Mr. BJ, don't tell me about unions, their corrupt leaders, and forty hour per week members. I learned about their attack on business at an early age! |
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In my senior year in high school, my uncle told me to never worry about a thing, as he and 'grandpa could get me into their union, and I would be set. I told him, " it would be a cold day in hell, the day I need someone else to do my bargaining for me." He never talked to me again.
But that is alright, because I ended up making far more money within fifteen years than all of the union side of my family made in their entire life.
One major problem (amongst others) with many union workers is, (based on my experience) how they whine about how hard they work and how much they deserve. Never once, do they consider how many hours their employer works, after they go home and get all 'comfy with a beer and remote. Or how much stress the can have after their precious little union worker has a nice weekend after a "grueling" forty hour week. While all along,they have to pay into healthcare plans, retirement plans etc.
So Mr. BJ, don't tell me about unions, their corrupt leaders, and forty hour per week members. I learned about their attack on business at an early age! |
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I was raise Union and am still Union.
BJ, I was raised in a partial union family. My mother's side consisted of knee breaking, union thugs dating back to the thirties. I constantly grew up with, "those g*d damn, fat cat republicans" from my mother on a daily basis. Truth is, she didn't have a clue, and only spouted knee jerk slogans she learned from her father.
My father, a genuine WW2 patriot, and business minded guy, was constantly under the gun by the other side of the family who talked tough, but would NEVER start their own business, simply because they didn't have the nerve to take a risk. Instead of developing an immensely higher income, coupled with early retirement in very comfortable surroundings, my dad worked his butt off as a tradesman, (non-union) because in my mother's words, "at least the income is steady."
Fortunately, I have an older sister who started a highly profitable business at an early age, and introduced me to basic economics and a man named Barry Goldwater, when I was nine years old. My 'sis and Goldwater shaped my thinking for the future.
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.
The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.
Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate.
"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who asked for the GAO study with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
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Unions S___. and i will never join one. what a bunch of crazy socialists are the leadership of them. Just look at John Sweeny, a member of the democratic socialist party of America.
and no wonder i told my wife we are going to move one day down south and probably to Texas to escape being screwed over in income taxes in the sorry state of KY. Idiots for leaders. Ah yes democrat gov here. |
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Almost looks like the electoral map! |
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I beg to differ with you on the taxes and expense of "right to work States" being cheaper. The Government for years has tried to keep the people scare of the Union. I was raise Union and am still Union. I make a good wage, benefits and retirement. I work hard for this money and yes I have someone in my corner to help me fight big business. Big business rights this Country and will screw the people every chance they get. They are out for money and don't care about the employee. My union dues are $50.00 per month. When you stop and think of what I am receiving in return for this, it's not much money.I had heart surgery 10 yrs ago and didn't have to pay a penny. Big business is against Unions because they would have to have enough people to do a job and not have 1 person do the work of 5. They also have to provide good benefits and retirement plan. Companies like Wal Mart will spend thousands and thousands of dollars to keep the union out. Because, they would have to hire more people and pay a decent wage. Wal Mart, as everyone knows could well afford this, they want all the money in their pockets. The CEO want to keep their big bonuses, not passing anything on to the people. The people are the backbone of any Company. They will work them to the bone and then fire them with they can't work any more. They don't care, they just get another body. With the Union they aren't allowed to use and abuse people then though them away. Taxes and cost of living is no higher in the Union states than the right to work states. The taxes are higher in the North then the South. Always have been. There is more people, more roads, most cost of everything.
Before, you believe everything you read stop and do fact finding to yourself. |
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...are really scary. No idea why people would willingly...
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