Michigan! Welcome To The Slide . . .

[hippiewannabe]

I don't suspect they will succeed in blocking or reversing the legislation.

There are no *legal* challenges to the suspension of public comment?
Colin

I don't know what people are talking about with the public comment / open meetings BS. They had to close the doors because the capitol was overrun. They heard their comments.



You can't fight the laws of economics. If you put an artificially high price on something, like labor, you will create a surplus (i.e., unemployed workers). Because of our productivity and decent infrastructure, US workers can make four or five times as much as Chinese workers. But not ten times. The unions might as well have made it illegal to build a factory in Michigan. We'll see if this helps.

[Amskeptic]

If you put an artificially high price on something, like labor, you will create a surplus (i.e., unemployed workers). Because of our productivity and decent infrastructure, US workers can make four or five times as much as Chinese workers. But not ten times.

This supply/demand argument is used on the labor side of the equation, but it somehow does not apply to the management side of the equation.

American productivity has risen almost 100% in the past twenty five years, yet their purchasing power has been flat. Meanwhile, executive compensation in the banking industry, for example, has sky-rocketed, yet their "productivity" has been 100% parasitic. Golden parachutes and bonuses and all . . . There has been an enormous transfer of wealth up the income strata that has yet to be explained rationally.

So my question is, if the rules of capitalism are going to be applied to labor, when are they going to be applied to management? There is a growing realization in the streets that the rules are being gamed. This latest hit against unions is going to be remembered in 2014. Stay tuned!
Colin

[Bleyseng]

There will be challenges. I just am not optimistic the court will rule the way I would like. Here is a nice article describing some of the issues:

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2012 ... /212120358

Some of the responses in the blog underneath are just unbelievably short-sighted. Why do we tear down those who are making a decent wage and sneer at them instead of asking our own employers why we get paid so little?
Colin

Derisive politics led by Fox news so the labor pool of the USA fights among itself over the scraps while the "rich" take 90% of the wealth. The GOP has set itself up pretty well in Congress with its gerrymandering so it will take a 57% Democrat vote to get them out next election cycle. That's a tough sell especially when Fox News keeps bringing up BS headline news like Social Security is bankrupt and needs to be cut or the starting age changed to 67.
Fox News is the master of not telling the truth and selling their BS as the truth.....

[Amskeptic]

Well, the courts are weighing in . . .

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-1 ... court.html

[drober23]

An artificially high price on labor...

Yes, anyone who performs labor and makes more than it costs to eat is making too much. Oh, wait... it costs more to buy food here for a week than most Chinese workers will be paid in a month, and that is counting the ones that actually get paid (as opposed to the participants in the "Rehabilitation through Labor" facilities in China). So even making enough to eat is an artificially high price for labor.

The slide back to the labor practices of the 1900's - 1930's is well underway thanks in large part to thinking like this. Bust the unions today, then go after health and safety laws tomorrow. Can't fight economics, they don't have laws like that in Bangladesh.

And yes, the MI legislature knew what the folks storming the Capitol felt about their intended course of action. They also knew that they had 2 weeks of a lame duck session to cram in as many reactionary bills as they could write. There was no time for congressional examination of that barrage, much less public input. My personal favorite was the law that makes it harder to recall elected officials. They didn't have ANY idea they were passing things that wouldn't be popular with a large portion of the population...

[Amskeptic]

An artificially high price on labor...
Yes, anyone who performs labor and makes more than it costs to eat is making too much.

Nicely put . . .

the MI legislature knew what the folks storming the Capitol felt about their intended course of action. They didn't have ANY idea they were passing things that wouldn't be popular with a large portion of the population...

No, no idea . . . they were merely seized with the spirit of the Christmas season.

There are elections yet to come . . . 2014, for example.
Colin