Issue of the Week: Walker's Failed Jobs Promise
Plus Hero of the Week
One year later, it's plain to see that Walker has failed Wisconsin.
His assault on middle-class families—whether they're employed in the public or private sector—isn't encouraging "job creators" to hire more workers. Instead, Wisconsin is shedding jobs while employment is picking up in other states. Walker has derided Illinois since becoming governor, but that state added 30,000 jobs in October. When Walker took over as governor, Wisconsin's unemployment rate was 7.4%. Now, that number is 7.7%—and the state lost 9,700 jobs in October, the fourth straight month of jobs losses.
It's easy to see why "job creators" are giving up on Wisconsin.
Walker has slashed funding for public education at all levels, and if there's one thing employers look for, it's a highly educated, highly skilled workforce. Employers appear to think that Wisconsin students aren't a good bet in the long run. While Walker has shown unstinting support for his road-builder donors, his opposition to mass transit—whether it's the Milwaukee County Transit System or the $800 million high-speed rail line that would have connected the state to the rest of the Midwest—will hinder the transportation of goods, workers and tourists for decades to come. And Walker's failure to support health care reform—true health care reform that reduces the cost for everyone—isn't going to help anybody but the for-profit insurance industry. Slashing BadgerCare funding so low-income families have to pay more for health care isn't going to encourage employers to create even one new job.
Walker and the Koch-brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity and the MacIver Institute have been frantically spinning the governor's "reforms" as "working." But more than 300,000 recall petition signers—and potential "job creators"—know the real story. Wisconsin will not work until Walker is out of office.
Heroes of the Week: Volunteers Being Creative to Help the Homeless
After the city of Cudahy rejected a proposal from a group led by Tippecanoe Presbyterian Church to operate a temporary shelter for the homeless last winter, an interfaith association of South Side parishes decided to instead offer "All Night Prayer Vigils," where the homeless could seek refuge from the cold. The Rev. Karen Hagen of Tippecanoe Church said that over the course of 110 nights, more than 1,000 volunteers from 15 community groups provided help and potluck dinners to area residents in need.
Beginning this Thursday, Dec. 1, Tippecanoe Church (125 W. Saveland Ave.) will again be offering the all-night prayer vigils to shelter and feed the homeless, with additional hosting by Unity Evangelical Lutheran Church (1025 E. Oklahoma Ave.).
Readers wishing to donate cash or needed items such as coffee, winter clothing, bus tickets, toilet paper or facial tissue are encouraged to call the Tippecanoe offices at 414-481-4680. For more information, visit www.tippechurch.org.
I'm sick of all these unemployed cowards whining no one will give them a make-work job. Look someone has to be our servants. Not everyone gets a make work job in a cube.
What employers are looking for is those same skilled people that are willing to work at southern, right-to-work states pay-scales. Look to the young, those who are not saddled with those suburb-size mortgage notes. Oops, they got student loans to pay, they will not bite on these half-pay jobs either.
So now we need to look at our young that did not go to college, only had their high school education. Sorry, no valuable work skills from there! All they cared about was getting a Prom date, getting laid, or getting drunk or high. Impressing their same-class peers was what mattered.
(Did we create this by keeping neighborhood schools apart, separating the age-groups into different class-rooms? Keeping kids out of the adult part of the house, giving them a TV and computer in separate bedrooms?)
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What our Corporate-oriented Republican government is doing is using these hard times to restore what once was. Rolling back the rules of the game to when we did not have affirmative action and Civil Rights, when we did not have welfare entitlements (black or white), when we did not have environmental protections (LA had smog, Ohio had rivers that burned), when we did not have consumer protections, and people bought with money they earned and saved, not on credit. The post war life back in the late 40's, the 50's, the early 60's, the GOOD OLD DAYS!
Back to when most people died before being able to retire or use expensive healthcare... that part was not so good. Those also were the class segregated days, where it was easy to tell at a glance what class they belonged to, you did not need to ask questions to know who you were dealing with. Law abiding people ruled the main-streets, the mafia ruled the back-streets, the red-necks did what they wanted to in the back-woods, the academics stayed on campus or in the museums, different peoples stayed out of each others way... we had room for all, not much money needed!
That won't work because those days also had another American advantage. There was no "outsourcing" of jobs because there were no other industrializing areas. What was there, Japan and Europe had their industrialized base destroyed by WW II. The United States was the sole industrialized place to go.
Now that we are "Global", how do we make it?
Now that we are crowded at home, how do we co-exist with others?
Your are right. Wages up here are too damn high. We need to drive down the average pay scale for flunkie type work. The smarter and harder working people are leaving to take good jobs out of state. We move people in to take higher paying jobs here because our workforce is too uneducated.
"Oh but I'm a teacher with a masters degree." Yes but that is a masters in education which is equal to Jethro's 6th grade education. "But I took the whole 6 week program in the summer". Well I'm sure you will get a top flight job in Walmart in the exciting fast track world of retail.
If we can drive down wages and taxes we can get companies to move it. Its worked for Mexico, India, China, Taiwan, Philipines, and Bangladesh. Look at the business booms they have had.
"Oh but we don't want people working for low wages." Yes we do or they don't work at all. Driving down wages means everything is more affordable. Look at housing prices in Mexico. A guy making $100k a year there lives in a McMansion and has a maid. We deserve things like that too but the entitlement class is taking it away from us.
I heard some more about the problem with finding "skilled" workers... Because the last 20 years had businesses out-sourcing the skilled jobs to lower cost regions, there has been no new young people having those skills being developed, local employers were fulfilling all their needs through retention, letting retirement be the way they slowly cut back (why have people go to school?)
Now that the retirment of the boomers is upon us, there are no new apprentices or trainees ready to replace them, half-wage or not!
The entitlement class is taking nothing from you. It's the big boys higher up who are taking it away from even you, their favored "overseers" of their working "slave" class. With no more need for their slaves anymore, do you think an overseer will be retained or given a McMansion-class pension?
There is hiring going on, but it will go first to close out existing projects, or just short-term to handle current "stimulus" projects. Others to "package the work-knowledge for export". No job security in any of those. Before the home market can come back (and Middle class life resumes), we need enough high-paid job growth to absorb the homes from all the "losers" who "chose not to work to keep them" (your type of words). Before someone wants to commit to a new 30 year house-note, the worker (and the bank) want some assurance that good paying jobs will be there for the long haul. Otherwise, be prepared to buy your homes on LayAway.
WaukeshaGuy and anonymous, I see that you two are out making friends again. I think that you two have some serious hardhearted issues. It sounds as if you are againist Civil Rights. Oh my......
Karen
We need to get the entitlement class off of entitlements and back to work. Somebody has to do the "slave labor." Someone has to pick the crops, check us at Walmart, cook our burgers. We can't just pay them a living wage for just showing up. If we raise their wages, the harder and smarter workers will just raise the price of their wages. In other words if you are flunkie, you won't ever get a break. You will never magically have a middle class lifestyle just for showing up. We need to get the entitlement class to working 70-80 hours a week even to get welfare. Idle hands is the devil's workshop. Got to keep them active. If they are working rather than lounging snacking on Food Stamp chips and soda, we will have less obesity problems. Less obesity means less health problems. Less obesity means we don't have moster sized moms rolling over on their kids and killing them. Do the math.