President 2016

[Dan Druff]

How does a chart allow one to trace the cause of income inequality?

Do you know many union employees? Ask the ones who haven't been there for a long time what they think of the union. Their answers might surprise you.

Do you realize that the sorry state of education in the US is partially due to teachers' unions? Are you aware that bad teachers in public school cannot be fired if they have tenure, unless they do something really horrendous?

Do you think that companies hampered by high salaries and benefits for manual labor employees can compete in the global market, or even in the domestic market where non-union alternatives exist?

I guess some people here are still under the delusion that unions help the average worker, while those who oppose unions are heartless corporate apologists.

Schools are shit because teachers make shit. Who would want to be a teacher and start at 25K a year? What a terrible job.

Do you know any union employees? I live in Michigan. I know more union employees than you know people.

I just think you're wrong, not evil. You have no real world experience in the market place. Almost all your experiences that you talk about are from 20 years ago. I don't think you have a very good grasp of the labor market in general. You do spout Republican talking points particularly effectively, though.

I know a number of union employees. All of them are unhappy and think their union is shit.

Anecdotal evidence, sure, but I stand by all of my criticisms of modern labor unions even without such anecdotal evidence.

The average Los Angeles Unified School District teacher makes $58k, and that's before benefits and bonuses.

Not big money, but a far cry from the $25k figure you quoted.

They also have a more generous vacation schedule than any profession you can think of, especially with the almost three months off they get during the summer.

Pay isn't the issue here. Even if you're paying a teacher $200k per year, if he feels he can't be fired due to tenure, he will often get lazy. Higher salary doesn't necessarily equal better performance.