TED Conversations

Robert Winner

TEDCRED 50+

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

Should organized labor be allowed to spend 35.8 million dollars to unseat Wisconsin state governor Scott walker.

In the US it is no secret that money is the key factor to election success. I just read a article that was all about the election and named the Gov and the union. I do not know who is running against Gov Walker or why there was a recall vote but I do know that it is Organized Labor against the GOP. Every year there is a rush to secure Big Labor support. Should Labor have this much influence in the election process? I am not from Wisconsin but this has made national news. The state I live in is a right to work state so labor is not the elephant in the room here.

Perhaps we should look at the whole election process.

0
Share:

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.

  • Mike Robinson

    • 0
    Jun 6 2012: Not so much disagreeing with your premise Pat that public sector unions don't respond to the marketplace and thus could or can upset budget projections, but how would you assign them fair wages? The jobs they do are pretty specific and specialized in some cases, and you can't always find qualified employees right off the street. WHo decides what is fair? What if a populist government decided to slash wages by 30% or 50% to pay for a another highway (so much money goes to our roads) (socialism).
    Ultimately I think we are quibbling over details and missing the big picture problems like concentration of wealth and power into too few hands, over consumption and materialism, ecosystem decline, pollution and over-population. People have to work for 20-40 years to buy a dwelling, which could be taken away by missing a few payments. Yet that is the free market for you! We limit where people can live through zoning (supply) which forces up prices to the benefit of the original land-owners (people who already have capital). And when the bubble collapses the banks, who made up the money in the first place takes the property.
    We're in the middle of a global clusterf#%k and it is hard to see a way out especially as ideologies become more polarized and we spend time arguing instead of fixing our mess.
    My apologies for my part in the grand fiasco... and my apologies if I have offended anyone.
    Mike
    • thumb

      pat gilbert 50+

      • 0
      Jun 6 2012: Being that you are in Canada you are not feeling much of the effects you lament.

      The fact is that what works is bottom up not top down. That mean there is no one qualified to plan for billions of individual transactions per day. Or figure out who to pay more or less. The problem is politicians make there living by doing just that so they are going to sell their importance when the truth is they are superfluous.

      I like the tee shirt that says "IF I HAD A DOLLAR - Every time a problem caused by government Was blamed on business I'd be a fat filmmaker in a ball cap politics" [Michael Moore]
      • thumb

        Debra Smith 200+

        • 0
        Jun 12 2012: If you are willing to throw aside all the propaganda youhave been force fed you might like to read a book called "Deadly spin" It might help you just as the Grapes of Wrath might help. Respectfrully.
        • thumb

          pat gilbert 50+

          • 0
          Jun 12 2012: Steinbeck is a great writer but I find it ironic that you would point out a book that illustrates how hard, the government created depression, was on people.

          The deadly spin is about corporate corruption?

          This conjecture is used by politicians to garner votes. The corruption in business pails in comparison to government
      • thumb

        Debra Smith 200+

        • 0
        Jun 12 2012: Reading comphrehension is a real skill, I agree. Pat. It has been decades since I read this book butr even now I know that the interpretation you offer is bogus unles you refer to some legislation that made the take over of the family farms more lucrative.
        No wonder you have such inaccuarate interpretations of books if you are willing to decide what they say without reading them. Try reading, I PROMISE YOU that it will be an interesting experience.
        • thumb

          pat gilbert 50+

          • 0
          Jun 13 2012: Give me a break if I read everything everyone suggested I read I would not read anything of any value therefore I have to be selective about what I read. As I stated I have read a number of Steinbeck books but that does not make his rhetoric pass the reality test. Have you read any Ayn Rand???
      • thumb

        Debra Smith 200+

        • 0
        Jun 13 2012: Unlike you, I do read the books and I have read every word that the Queen of Mean ever wrote. She basically wrote justifications for narcisistic teenagers. Now I understand your position!

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.