Hallo Earl, Sunday, 10 July, 2005, 21:41:03, you wrote:
Kac> Which is why I didn't join the Libertarian Party, or any party Kac> for that matter. Everytime I look up a particular political Kac> party, I find something that I don't agree with. I think I will Kac> just stay an independent, as I have for the last 17 years. I Kac> voted for Badnarik in the last election because he seemed like a Kac> better choice than Candidate R or Candidate D. I don't get mixed up with partisan politics and political parties for religious reasons but I do believe in keeping as well informed as possible. Kac> On unions, it seems like the Government has enacted enough labor Kac> laws that the unions no longer seem useful. There are more Kac> federal and state laws today (119 in PA stick in my mind from a Kac> recent HR seminar I went to) that protect the individual worker, Kac> but none that protect the employers. I am not saying that unions Kac> aren't worthy endeavors, but the Government has taken away much Kac> of their power. Nowadays, unions are really just good for Kac> negotiating rates and benefits and keeping senior members Kac> employed. I think many of those labor laws should be scrapped, Kac> and more power put back into the hands of the individuals, or Kac> groups of individuals (i.e., unions). My grandfather went to work for General Motors in 1915 I believe or perhaps it was 1919. I don't remember exactly and he is long dead so I can't ask. He was involved in the 1936 strike in Flint (Michigan) which brought about the recognition of the union. I remember talking to him back in about 1960 about the strikes and the union and he told me that in the beginning the union was a good and unfortunately needed organization but over the years it had grown more and more to resemble the bosses and it seemed to him now that the purpose of the union was to maintain the status quo: keep the workers satisfied enough to not strike and the bosses satisfied enough to not complain and keep the union management in power. He even gave a specific year when he perceived that the values of the union "leadership" became entirely corrupted and that was 1955. He told me that that was the same year when the quality of the Buick and Cadillac had become so bad that "a body might as well drive a Chevy or Ford" because they were less expensive and the quality was the same. Over the years I have been a union member because it was required. I have been a member of locals affiliated with GM, Ford and Jeep and with the IWW as well. The IWW was the best of them and it was unsatisfactory. The UAW locals were pretty much clones of each other and relatively worthless in any real sense. The IWW wasn't great but it is the only union I know of whose members held a strike because the owners were trying to force a pay increase on the workers so the bosses could use the pay increase as an excuse to close the business, get rid of the union and then re-open. That notwithstanding I still did not care for the IWW either. The employers don't need much protection from the workers. They need protection from the government. Had the employers been fair and reasonable there would have never been a union in the first place. The salaries and benefit packages of management run from generally much greater than that of the hourly employees to obscene. Admittedly the smaller the company the less the disparity but how reasonable must an employee be then? To the point of near starvation or barely scraping by? You understand of course that I am not talking about mom and pop businesses now, eh? And while I'm thinking about it just how is it that business owners have the right to say that their profit margin is not "great enough" but that employees don't have the right to say that their wages are not great enough? Somewhere in here there needs to be a return to reason and cooperation. By the way Earl, these thoughts aren't directed specifically at you they are just rolling around in the empty space in my head. Another by the way, the union example was just the first thing which popped into that empty space. There are similar examples all through the platform. There are all kinds of ways for employers to get around government regulations. We all know that. Age, sex, race discrimination? Each can be gotten around. Perhaps not forever but generally they can be avoided. Shoot, I know places in Ohio which won't allow OSHA on their property. Rules, regulations, strikes and slowdowns are no decent substitute for reason and cooperation but... Government seems to be in the business of defining and enforcing morality and that is where the rules come from. Unions do the same thing. The problem is that they don't agree on the definitions and so they both talk about different things using the same words. A big and nasty circle. Look how difficult it is here on the list sometimes, perhaps often, to get folks on the same page. One person's justification is another person's reality. And we're a relatively reasonable group of folks generally. It is a question of balance I think. Control and cooperation. Salaries and wages. The individual and society at large. Restraint, responsibility, discipline, cooperation, reason. We're not there yet but evolution is slow. We just need to keep on truckin', bring ourselves into line with what is right and good for society as a whole which will be right and good for us since we are part of society, be the best example to others as we are able and to have patience. Lennon was right. All you need is love. Happy Happy, Gustl Kac> Thanks for the info! Kac> Earl Kinsley Kac> [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kac> ---------------------------------- Kac> "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe Kac> they are free." Kac> -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Sounds quite contemporary doesn't it? :o) -- Je mehr wir haben, desto mehr fordert Gott von uns. ******** We can't change the winds but we can adjust our sails. ******** The safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. C. S. Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters" ******** Es gibt Wahrheiten, die so sehr auf der Straße liegen, daß sie gerade deshalb von der gewöhnlichen Welt nicht gesehen oder wenigstens nicht erkannt werden. ******** Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music. George Carlin ******** The best portion of a good man's life - His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. William Wordsworth _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
