Top 10……Poverty in Our Major Cities

As much as I love the Lincoln quote above, it wasn't made by Abe Lincoln. It was made by Rev. William J. H. Boetcker.

While I realize Wikipedia isn't necessarily the most reliable source, it is the best summary of the fact that Abe didn't say it and Boetcker did. I found many other sites that cited the same information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._H._Boetcker

 

Great catch!

 

Bingo. The labor unions in the Northeast are a parasites that are killing their host.

On a similar vain, let see who can find the poorest zip code in America. The answer has been the same location for the last 30 years or so too. Let's see who can get it.

 

05501
Andover, MA

 

I vehemently disagree. Look at the corporate tax rates (and taxes in general) in those areas; how they relate to the migration of business over the years; and then look who taxed them out (Democrats).
Mismanagement can be applied to GM, Ford, etc. but you can not tell me all manufacturing in the northeast was mismanaged- it didn't happen.
Global competition? Yeah, maybe some fell to global competition because it's hard to compete when you're paying the highest corporate tax on the planet.

 

A rose by any other name...

 

I'll leave you guys with some words of wisdom;

If you're young and not liberal, you don't have a heart.

If you're old and not conservative, you don't have a brain.

 

I don't think the IRS zip code is the poorest in the nation... unless you are referring to the national debt.

 

We make stuff in Philly. Nabisco bakes cookies! That's really about it, though.

 

I don't know if I'm right. I just took a shot in hopes of winning some sort of prize!

Source

 

awesome!

 

That's cool, we can disagree. I'm all for a little debating. But here's the thing. If taxation means an automatic failure of a state's economy, how do you explain California? This state is the 5th largest economy in the world, and as such is a bigger economy than the other 49 states combined. Yet it has not only extremely high corporate tax, but income tax as well. 1/3rd of my paycheck is gone immediately to taxes every week. Yet the state is still a global powerhouse despite now having a HUGE deficit. So its obvious to me that taxes are not an accurate way of determining the success of any given state. The Republican motto seems to be no taxation, and no regulation. Well, unfortunately you have to have taxes or the country goes broke and you have to have regulation or else we wind up in a recession caused by an unregulated financial industry.

As far as Unions, Car makers did this to themselves. There is nothing wrong with Unions. For decades workers got good benefits,retirements, and security. These companies never evaluated the long-term effect these allowances would eventually have. What started out as very good treatment of employees turned into a huge burden that drained their competitive edge and profit margins.

 

We need a new political party. Let's call it The American Party and base it on common sense, not Liberalism or Conservatism. Both Republicans and Democrats have had a roll in this mess, and yet they are the only real choices come election day. What are we supposed to do? The Obama, Pelosi, Reid spending bill is not the answer. They may call it a "stimulus", but the only thing it will stimulate is their Washington power grab. Sorry for the rant. I'm just pissed.

 

Really? Wow...

I'm sure the companies evaluated the long-term effects... Do you really think they're THAT dumb? It would eat away at profits to give into unions, so I guarantee they looked into the long term... If the company doesn't eventually concede, there will be a strike. It's a big game... The company vs. the union... whoever breaks first, loses...

Unions are poison in this country. Let's look at the airline unions too eh? Not too many profitable airlines anymore, eh?

 

Stop drinking the Kool-Aid...

 

The airlines screwed themselves by giving in too much to the unions. I used to go into all of the airlines (most of which are gone, Eastern, Pan AM) and see 5 guys standing around doing the work of one, becayse the union said that he has to do one thing and he does another and that one scratches his ass until someone goes to take a crap. Unions are a great idea, but some of them really went down the wrong path.

Unions are certainly not to blame for all of the problems that these companies face, but some of the contracts that they forced through were ludicrous.

 

Not sure if those companies evaluated the long term implications of being overly generous with unions. Unfortunately in the US, long term effects are seldom studied because simply put- by the time the shit hits the fan, those that made the choice will be long gone. Additionally, back in the 50's and 60's when these Unions got these bonuses, the US auto industry was a very different animal, having a virtual monopoly in North America. Their market share was immense. Making a decision back then would've been much easier to do given that I'd bet these guys had no clue that those crappy little Japanese cars in California would overtake them someday.

Now I'm not totally rosy with Unions. My Dad was an HR manager at a small furniture plant that didn't have a Union. We came home one day to find nails all up and down our gravel driveway. They made his life hell trying to get into that plant and their means to do so were unscrupulous. Unions at one time were highly regarded. But I'm not so sure about that now.