The Southern Republican Leadership Conference was SO over the top and foaming with crazy that I doubt they have a snowball’s chance in Hell (how appropriate) of gaining a huge following in either the mid-terms OR the Presidential election at this point.  That being said, in this 1 party system which we find ourselves subjected to, how can we put the focus on the hypocrisy and corruption rampant in the Democratic party?  I’m pretty sure the evidence is there already, and due to the self-congratulatory nature of the party right now I’m sure that more evidence will arise due to their own hubris.  If all works out in the people’s favor we will eventually have 3rd & 4th party contenders which are NOT controlled by the 2 major parties behind the scenes (like the Tea and Coffee parties).  Honestly, everyone should be an independent and refuse to settle for corruption and lies from their representatives.

The topic of unions has been coming up quite a lot over the last few months.  It seems to be really hard to get someone to agree to the logic of how modern unions operate.  Don’t get me wrong, most of the ideas and goals of unions are completely virtuous.   They strive all manner of benefits, safety in the workplace, vacations, fair hiring, everything an employee could be concerned about.   BUT, (and this is a huge but)  there is a point at which the union becomes a cancer upon the host company as well as the employee.  But let me back up here, I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s look at corporations (as I see them).  It becomes apparent to me that as a corporation grows and develops, makes money, provides for its employees, provides a tax base for the community, etc…   there comes a point at which the tables turn and the government starts to serve at the pleasure of the corporation.  At some point things start working for them in the government so it becomes easier to make money.  They hire lobbyists, politicians take the money and write helpful little clauses at the end of bills that really mean a lot to a corporation.  Or they deregulate.  It’s not usually in the best interest of the public, but that’s what happens.  Now the posture of the corporation has changed just enough to have conflicting interests with the public good and so begins the battle between corporate entities and the people that sustain them.

So we have unions to balance the power.   Now, anyone who has become familiar with union relations will gladly tell you an earful about them.  If you’re in a union, you feel reluctantly grateful.  You work hard.  You make really good money when you work, but the problem is (problem #1, at least) that you might work 2 weeks and be off a week or 2.   So half that money is your real wage.  Everyone is familiar with the horror stories of union waste.

In the same way a corporation feeds off the public with ever increasing intensity, it seems (to me) that the unions have become just another layer of corruption that feeds off the employees.  Essentially, both the corporations AND the unions are taking a dollar and giving a nickel.  Now I’m no economist, but I’m not happy about Clinton and Bush dragging our country into the global economy.  I couldn’t see the logic at the time, nor do I see the benefit to the public now.  The only benefits go to those who buy goods from China and sell them here.  Specifically, non-union Corporations (i.e. Walmart).  Whether I’m right or wrong about that doesn’t matter any more, so who cares.  The point is that by doing so we took a high standard of living and equalized it with the rest of the world, thereby making it a medium/low standard of living.  It is indeed reasonable to speculate that our society will soon mirror the corporate structure of a company like Walmart.

We are turning into a service based economy.  We don’t build anything anymore because there’s no way that an industry can pay union benefits and wages and compete in the world economy, where the exact same job is done in China at a rate of $5 a day.  There is no way a car company can survive if they have to pay union wages to build a car.  The car would cost $350 thousand dollars by the time it was over.   They hire a modest work force to “assemble” parts of cars which are made off shore and shipped over.  Then they can say they have provided quality union jobs and sell cars.  But even this modest gesture of good will can only last so long.  In a world where labor is a “human resource” and government corruption allows corporations to do as they please there is no room for a wasteful, corrupt union.  GM went bankrupt for a lot of reasons.   One of them was an “unaffordable work force”.  They knew they couldn’t pay those benefits and still survive.  They also knew if they sent all of that labor overseas it would seal their doom in the public relations arena.

Generally speaking, we (most of us) understand the conservatives to defend the corporations (businesses & owners) and the liberals to defend the unions (workers & poor).  The problem is that both of these ideologies have made great strides to compromise the well being of the very people who elect them.  Not intentionally, but slowly, incrementally, over time with subtle shifts in the direction favoring corporations in exchange for campaign money – hoping that the electorate will either not notice or forget quickly.  And as a matter of record we have done both.

We believe we are recovering from a banking crisis and some day soon we will get a little breathing room and a few dollars in our pocket.  Not so.  The whole of the world economy is shaken up and something is going to become clear to all when the dust settles:  Like it or not, the global economy that Bush and Clinton so enthusiastically rushed us into consists of 2 classes: The Ultra-Rich and the Ultra-Poor, and there aren’t many spaces at the top.  Welcome to the New World Order.  Even with a liberal president and congress, the conservatives have already won and the liberals have lost.  How long will it take to realize this?