Oh the Glorious Union…

 
I usually don’t rag on something unless I see the need for it to be ragged upon.  This time however, it’s personal.  It comes out of my check and I get zero say in the matter, because others have taken the liberty to remove my choice in the matter…needless to say this vexes me greatly.

It goes back to the idea of somebody else knowing what is best for me regardless of said person never even knowing me.  Forget the fact that I am a grown man who can do his own taxes (okay so the wife does it), ties his own shoes, and has managed to stay out of jail his entire life.  This person who doesn’t know me assumes I lack the above mentioned life skills.

Let’s do some math.  $1600 a month gross.  Not stellar, but it will suit my family’s needs.  The wife and I are frugal people who frankly don’t go out to eat or do much in the way of spending money on entertainment.  We entertain ourselves, but not to the point of financial risk.  It doesn’t take money to have a good time, in fact I can remember several times where I spent money and wanted a refund on my life.

The last job I had paid the exact same, only I had the privilege of paying about $350-ish a month in gas alone just to get there and back each day.  At first when I got this job we were thrilled because hey, we just saved 350 bucks or so a month by being able to walk to work.  We were elated.  That is 350 extra bucks towards our minivan payment.

They say the devil is in the details.  This just happens to be the insidious truth of this particular matter.  1600 bucks a month gross isn’t too shabby for pushing a mop at the facility in question.  My beef is when they said “union”.  I immediately felt my pulse and temperature rise.  However, I managed to keep my calm.

The wage was more than perfect, until the union takes their slice out of it.  Mandatory 125 dollar membership fee, plus 36 bucks every month until I find another job or quit, that is just to be a member of this….thing.  And thanks to the marvelous union bargaining nonsense I have to contribute 6.9% to a retirement fund which I never plan to see a return on.  I say this because apparently the states don’t know how to run one properly-check the news.  It gets better, now I also have to shell out 435 bucks a month for health insurance that I didn’t want in the first place.

You might say “Chill out Daniel, you’re getting a stable job with great benefits and two different pensions to draw on when you retire, ease up man.”.  I can see why others might say that.

Here is my side of it.  We all already have insurance coverage.  We don’t need to pay extra for something we already have.  And when you have two different insurance companies they love to fight over who has to pay the bill.  In the mean time the bill doesn’t get paid, and you the consumer, are left on the hook for the bill.  Any wife knows this, and almost inevitably the wife is left to call both insurance companies up and make them do their job.  More isn’t always better, but it’s almost always more complicated than it needs to be.

The retirement plan is a joke, a sick joke at that.  Let me decide what I will do with my money.  I am intruded upon continuously by their mandating the spending of my earned cash.  This really irks me to a degree which words fail to deliver.  If I choose to invest my money, I will do so.  Frankly I have seen just how reliable these pensions are in the news recently, I think I’ll wait for a better option.  State run pensions are a disaster when they are run improperly.  Unfortunately most are run improperly.  A perfect example is social security, a federal pension for everybody.  I received a letter from the Government regarding my pension where they openly admitted to being short of funds.  I could only expect 71 cents out of every dollar I was supposed to get.  So basically they screwed up with my money. 

Mistakes happen, I understand people are human and mess up sometimes.  Simply put this is my beef, they never asked me if they could take my money- they just took it.  If I don’t pay into social security men with weapons will come and take me away for a lengthy amount of time.

I’ll put it this way, a couple hundred years ago a bunch of people in colonies got pissed off about taxes being raised.  They killed people over it.  It isn’t about money; it’s about food.  When you reduce my income you reduce my food supply.  When I can’t feed my kids and wife gears start to turn.  Rarely when these particular gears turn do they produce anything kind or forgiving.  So we adapt.  My loving and industrious wife now grinds wheat and makes our bread to cut down on costs.  My point is that we can only adapt so far before I start feeding my kids poached meats and eventually Cannibal Big Mac’s.  Let’s face it.  I am a predatory creature.  My eyes are in the front of my skull for a reason.  I have canines and incisors for a reason.  When the young get hungry, the parents find food wherever they can get it and will eventually do anything to get it.
Back to the math. 1600 *6.9%= 110.4 that is for the mandatory retirement that I never wanted nor will I ever see.  1489.6-435=1054.6 for the health insurance that is going to complicate my life more and also another thing I didn’t want in the first place.  Lastly, the all-important-ever-invasive-dictated union dues. 1054.6-36=1018.6 being my taxable income per month.  We’ll say Uncle Sam is kind; we’ll say he only takes 5%. 1018.6*5%= 50.93,  which gives us a whopping 967.67 bucks a month to live on.  Keep in mind that I have a family of 5 including my grubby self.

The Union says it has my best interest in mind.  Sick thing is this, I believe that they really do believe they are doing what is best for me.  There is only one problem with their plan; They Are Wrong.  This might be tolerable for anybody who doesn’t have a family.  Even then they would struggle because 967 bucks a month doesn’t amount to much.

Not all unions are bad.

The unions have their good points too.  The formation of unions shows that the power is in the people and people can make things happen.  Kudos to the people.

People wanted to defend themselves from merciless capitalists who would chain children to factory machines. Unions gave people more family time, a better wage, protection from retaliation by superiors and so on.  These are all good things…within reason.

There are some employers out there who need to get thrashed for bad practices against employees.  I have worked at some places where I gambled my life everyday.  I have also worked at places where I couldn’t do my job effectively because of union mandates. 

Most unions have lost their way and corrupted their original purpose.  Unions seem like they were designed to work only for a while, flounder a little longer like a turd that just won’t flush and then finally meet its pre-destined demise.  Want some facts?  Here is a link to a government page that illustrates that private sector union membership is shrinking.  The private sector only does things when they are profitable, more effective, or because the laws dictate them to do so.  Anyways, here is that site.

Unions formed in response to something that needed combatting.  This was admirable and necessary.  However, once the dragon is slain, just get back to doing business as usual.  Unions should not invent problems to keep themselves in power.  If somebody has a problem at work now days they can just call any one of the abundance of lawyers out there and usually the problem will stop instantly.  Threatening somebody with legal action is fairly formidable these days.

These aren’t just my thoughts either.  Here is another site says that unions are basically job destroyers.  They harm the company which in turn harms the employees.  Backwards, eh?  Take a look over here for some enlightenment on the topic.  The video at the bottom of the page is very informative.

Forbes even pitched in their two cents.  And not surprisingly they predict the
demise of unions as well.  They too illustrate the job destroying practices of unionized work forces.  Sure you get paid more as a union worker but you squeeze the company.  Then the company hires less people and eventually the company can’t compete with others in its field.  Eventually, the workers (unionized or not) are pitched over board in massive layoffs in a desperate and futile attempt to save the company.  You can check out the article here.

And the fun fact is this- I bet you that the lawyer involved in correcting an abusive company is in…
…the non-union private sector.
Beautiful… just beautiful.

One of the Oldest Professions

When times are tough regarding economics, people start to get a little frugal.  Amen.  It goes to show what we really need.  I think that a little humility is good for everyone.

So what happens when people get humbled for too long?  Well for starters I don't think that there is such a thing as being humbled for too long.  However there is a form of abuse called neglect.  Most often referred to when children are involved with poor parenting/guardianship.  How does this correlate to the current economic and political atmosphere?

I can give you my story.  I worked a job like any other working stiff out there.  Just doing my part to provide for the family and save some cash to go to school with.  Even if I have VA educational benefits I like to prepare for their inevitable stupidity.  They pay late, they forget to pay, or they over pay and give me a loan I didn't ask for and the list goes on.  Anybody who has dealt with them knows just how slovenly they are about getting things done right the first time.  Hence the reason why I am saving. 

Worked at this place for a time, about six months.  Boss calls me in, says he wants to talk to me.  It's Monday, but still the little red button in my mind says "Danger Will Robinson!".  He says I am a good employee but I am inexperienced where they need me and that I am overqualified for what I am currently doing.  Nice way of saying "hey, you're fired".  Kind of surprised actually, usually they like to fire people on Fridays.  Less chance of an incident on the news when people get to simmer down over a weekend.


The sad thing is this, I couldn't agree with him more.  I don't know much about diesel mechanics.  I wanted to learn.  The commercial environment wasn't exactly accommodating for learning though.  Trucks stop by, and want to get out of dodge and back on the road.  This doesn't leave much time for teaching.  They said they would teach me, but they more or less they tried.  Just not enough time to learn in six months what takes about 2 years to learn.

I can honestly say I am overqualified to play the part of the glorious parts runner as well.  I get things from point A to point B.  When I am not doing that I helped out in the shop as much as I could with limited knowledge.  However, when things get slow you find things to do to make yourself useful.  There is a limit though, you can only sweep the shop and clean up so much before you are seen for what you are-  a drain on the corporate clock.

I don't blame them.  I'd have fired me too.  Low guy on the totem pole, the new guy.  No misgivings from my end.

So what do I do now?  Millions of Americans are asking themselves this very question.  And more often these days it seems.  I file for unemployment, look for work and go to interviews.  Now in the part of the country I live in it is fairly clannish.  It's a small town, and they look after their own.  Nothing is really wrong with that.  Hell, I do the same thing in my social circles.  But I still gotta make a living, and when they locals are busy hiring their relatives it becomes very apparent that my looking for work in the local area is largely symbolic.


The wife and I planned for this.  I saw the writing on wall at work and realized I would be the first to go.  I just did my best to make sure I could stretch it out as long as I could.  I got three fantastically destructive children that need feeding and a wife that need to be supported as well.  Kind of have to make it last while I can.  So now that it happened what have I been doing?

I have applied to jobs obviously.  And since I am still blogging I have obviously not met with some success.  While putting in an honest effort to look for work I am also preparing to answer the call of one of the most ancient professions.

Nope, not farming.  Don't have the equipment, time, or expertise for that.  Not becoming a prostitute for reasons identical to farming and the additional moral implications.  Not a politician for similar reasons.
I am going back to Soldiering, well sort of.  I spent some time in Utah training for an instructor's certificate in a martial system.  Teaching others to fight and win, but also to avoid said conflict.  Teaching is a perfectly honorable profession, but it also depends on what is being taught as well.  In the times we live in, crime is going to get worse.  When economics go down hill, crime goes up.  Not saying that is a law of nature.  However it is seen as a fairly historical trend when you look at the books.

I dug this up to prove my point.  It is an old statement, but the truth of it has no expiration date.  Check it out here.  Now one thing I want to clear up before I proceed.  Poverty does NOT cause crime.  Committing crime is a personal choice.  Millionaires commit crimes too.  It comes down to personal accountability.  I believe that those who make up the vast majority of our prison population are simply there because they lack sufficient impulse control.  For the same reasons they will never be wealthy people.  It takes discipline to build a company, and run it successfully.  Even with discipline the odds are against you.  Most business ventures fail, sad but true.

So going back to one of the oldest professions out there.  Merc’ work.  The humble art of paying Timmy to go smash Tommy because he took my chicken soup.  This is not a new concept, but like prostitution it has many negative connotations associated with it.  Merc work can be good.  Many people involved in the wars in the middle east are private sector mercenary groups.  Black Water types and such.  They aren't evil per se.  They just fill a void.  Certainly they can choose to accept tainted contracts, and some have for sure.  But it doesn't make the industry evil.  If Black Water and DynCorp were busy defending third world orphanages, or an Islamic Mosque, I doubt anybody would be criticizing them.

Methinks that when people go to the oldest trades out there they are either following their dreams or they have no other perceived options available.  I know there are other options.  But this does follow a skill set I have acquired over time.  The Marine Corps taught me how to shoot, fight, and other such things.  It wasn't Job Corps though.  I wasn't given a flowery list of options and told I could be whatever I wanted to be.  Frankly, my options were fairly limited.  But hey, the GI Bill helps guys like me out right?  Sure it does, sort of.  I simply have to make sure my forms are pristine and that every "i" is dotted, and every "t" is crossed.  I already mentioned the troubles of working with them.  Every time I get off the phone with them I feel like Sparky the dolphin going through flaming hoops.  Lame.

The real meat and potatoes of this post is this.  I have impulse control to a greater degree then most inmates.  I can prove this because I am not knocking over banks and robbing others.  But when someone like me is starting to embrace these ancient professions with more than just a cursory glance- what are others considering doing?  Such a thought is hardly comforting.

Amusing evidence is something you can Google.  Look up what happened with the collapse of Siberia.  A land with resources.  But poor economics let to ruinous results.  There was a point where the number profession in Siberia was prostitution.  Heck, now that I think about it you don't even have to look that hard.  When times are tough people tend drive off without paying for their gasoline.  I am sure everybody has heard a story like that in the news.

I understand why it can be said the crime is directly linked with poverty.  That is an assumption.  It goes back to personal accountability.  You still are responsible for your own actions.  And if poverty causes crime, why do wealthy Americans commit crimes? 

It proves that poverty is not the cause, only a factor.