I will miss Jerk of the Week.  I talked to Scott Walker once and we joked about it.  He was kind of proud he was selected often.  It meant he was doing his job.  I was hoping perhaps someday I could be a Jerk of the Week.  I can understant the Shepherd dropping it because to a lot of conservatives, it was an honor to be selected. 

Since this is the time of trying to end government entitlements, for they stand in the way of deficit reduction and tax relief for common workers; then this is also the time to eliminate job benefits as all these benefits are job-killers. (American wages are a job-killer, too!)

As livingston hinted at, absolutely NO American company really desires to pay American wages and benefits, just too damn expensive considering the wages in other countries for the same work. Yet, they expect to continue to SELL to Americans. Savings are already gone, but we are supposed to be good little consumers, take out personal loans to pay for our goods and services. Point is, WE take out the loans, not the buisinesses we buy from.

There was a time when benefits were a way to lure in good workers when they were in short supply. New Industrialization needed vast armies of workers to come in off of their subsistence farms. Offering more wages was not enough, because offering a dollar more cost the company a full dollar. Offering benefits could bring in the workers at a lower cost. A dollar's benefit from a workers point of view likely cost much less than a dollar out of the employer's pocket, plus it was a future promise, not needing to be paid out of this weeks gross proceeds.

Now, the tide has turned. Too many workers, not enough good paying jobs. Simple law of supply and demand will be jumped on to eliminate as many benefits as possible. Like the weakening of consumer protection laws has brought about more "buyer beware" thinking, workers now must be begin to save for their own future, whether it be healthcare costs, retirement living, care of a sick child or whatever. But does that really help?

I also have to agree with what economist Kevin Quinn of St. Norbert College said in a WPR interveiw regarding the Packers being good for the NE Wisconsin economy. While it brings dollars in that otherwise would not come in, nearly all of those dollars would have been spent somewhere else. No new money is being created! This is true of anything in the economy of the last few decades, true because America does not, can not save for a rainy day anymore.

Let's get real, even if current mood succeeds in bringing about zero taxes on businesses, zero benefits paid by businesses, zero regulations on business, zero lawsuit exposure, the lay-offs will continue, for the weekly payable wages alone are cheaper elsewhere in the world. Those jobs will only come back when our total wage and benefit package drops to 3rd world levels... but then no American worker will be able to afford to buy. That will be your "double dip".