Boris, No armed revolts here, but many unhappy people. The perception is that public employees - teachers, police, & firemen are retiring at 2/3 or 3/4 of annual salary as paid by the state government. Most people are not covered by such pensions and have seen their retirement 'nest egg' fall by 50% or more in the financial crisis. (Falling home prices vs fixed mortgage loans have wiped out homes as assets.) So the 'have-nots' now resent the union deals and see pensions as something they will pay increased taxes to cover in the future.
The percieved injustice of the situation complicates things. The public employee unions have been very successful negotiating with the politicians. And the politicians have hidden that success in future IOU's, not raising taxes to fund the future debts. The unions are often the most powerful supporters of politicians with loose purse strings, and the cycle continues. >From time to time, we throw out the old politicians and elect new ones. Often the new politicians have no idea how to solve the problems, but propose some outlandish remedies that make the 'have nots' feel better. After a lot of shouting and protest, the problems get sorted and painfull solutions are implemented. Regards, Bob S. On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 2:23 AM, Boris Liberman <[email protected]> wrote: > Despite the fact that you eventually turned demonstrator, you did an > excellent job as a photographer, Christine. > > I am not offended, obviously, though a little devil inside me begs me to > type down the question - aren't you going to overthrow your government too? > And then another little devil asking - has the world revolution finally > started? > > But seriously, there is much sense in what's going on now practically > everywhere in the world. At least that's how methinks... > > Boris > > > On 2/27/2011 5:16 AM, Christine Aguila wrote: >> >> Hi Everyone: I know things are a bit politically charged in the U.S. >> right now given the labor issue, and I'm sure most of you know by now, >> I'm pro labor. I just wanted to say I'm not pushing my political views >> on anyone here, so I hope no one will be offended. From a pure >> photographic standpoint, I am rather proud of the two photos I posted to >> my PAW blog this week. Frankly, I'm amazed I was able to get any >> pictures taken, since I was constantly alternating between being >> demonstrator then photographer--and in the end, mostly demonstrator. If >> anyone is interested, there's a link below the second picture to a more >> comprehensive gallery of the day's events. Cheers, Christine from >> Chicago, Local 1600 :-) >> >> http://aguilapaw.posterous.com/paw-week-8 >> > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
