Lest we forget: A letter that I just posted to my family's list: REH Before the collective bargaining power of the teachers union, and competition between the National Education Association and the teacher's union for representation, my father made $3,500 a year in 1959 as Superintendent of Schools and we lived in a lead polluted house that had been a shack until my father built with his hands, bedrooms, a sewer system and a garage. My mother made $1,500 as a full time business teacher. She was miserable and literally wept constantly about the conditions and what she had to do to make ends meet. Both my father and mother had Masters Degrees.
Moving to Bartlesville was better but even there they were lower middle class it was the advent of the union and the bargaining power of the National Education Association that made it better. My mother was an accountant and business teacher and was so good with money that when they retired she tripled her teacher's retirement playing the money market, gave herself nursing home care and a nestegg that got her through my father's death in the medical system of Tulsa. She also left an equal inheritance for both my sister and me. Without the Teacher's Unions and the National Education Association my sister would have had no money to go to college on and she would have had no teaching career. The small inheritance made it possible for me to run my opera company and pay child support for my daughter as well during the disaster for the Arts of the Reagan years. They could do all of that because of the Unions raising the miserable teachers' salaries in Oklahoma and my mother's acumen at working the Money Market once they retired and they had capital (their retirement) to work with. She was a clever college educated accountant and they only had to pay for one child's college since I worked my way through college and paid my bills. My father could not have accomplished what my mother did. At Picher, she was the volunteer who gave him advice and made up for the inadequate assistant that was the best he could get with the money he had. He could not hire Mom to do it because of the nepotism so she did it for Dad and the schools for free. He was a great teacher/educator but it was my mother who knew the finances. My mother would have survived just fine on social security in the market like Bush wanted but my father would have been destitute. But neither would have had capital to play with if they hadn't had the unions to raise the salaries through collective power. The question for each of you is are you willing to go back to this? My fear is that those who haven't gone through this personally will just piss it away on a theory. Those same people with huge families have no inheritance to give to their children and no capital to start them in a market that requires entrepreneurs with capital rather than factory or school jobs no longer available. The second question is which are they when it comes to managing their retirement, medical plan and life insurance for their family? My father or my mother? It was mom who made the medical decisions as well. She was blunt and taught that one need not fear facts. Facts were just facts and they were necessary lest you be robbed by the system as some relatives were by those church driven insurance companies and don't forget "Heritage Village" and "Flint Ridge" two other ideas that my dad liked. Dad was a genius educator and an exceptional educational administrator and theorist but it was Mom who saved their hides again and again on the money. To survive in that system you have to be an accountant. But maybe all of you are or your children are. I hope so because I really fear for the future you will inhabit. The wealthy are not nice people and they are just as good as anyone at claiming poverty and justifying letting your children starve. Uncle REH -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Gurstein Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2011 12:02 PM To: [email protected]; 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Subject: [Futurework] One World http://motherjones.tumblr.com/post/3376168879/egypt-supports-wisconsin-worke rs-one-world-one _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
