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Our economy is shitty because of the corruption and incompetence of corporate executives, wealthy speculators, and the rightist politicians they have bought. Yet, bought politicians and corporate media propagandists are working on a relentless jihad to scapegoat and punish government employees for the economic suffering we are experiencing. Steven Greenhouse of the extreme right (yes extreme right) New York Times wrote a vicious propaganda piece which is the most prominent anti worker rant currently being passed around the Internet. According to these rightist shills, only the rich should have even remotely decent lives.
If you are like me, you are burned out on reading and hearing the bullshit that is being spewed at middle class Americans who are unionized. I would like to focus on the fightback.
Brave New Films has put together a wonderful video on the subject which I encourage you to put up on your blog too.
AFSCME, the nation's largest public employee union, has come up with a Stop The Lies campaign to counter this seemingly endless wave of propaganda. They have their own video, albeit a bit less slick.
AFSCME also has an open letter which I urge you to sign against this constant barrage of lies.
I also would like to bring up a few points.
Some Facts the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Consider:
1) Laying off public sector workers makes life more difficult for people laid off in the private sector. It creates a bigger pool of people looking for the same small number of jobs.
2) Laying off public sector workers hurts the overall economy. Public workers provide services which help our society function more effectively. Public sector workers also are consumers, and lack of consumer spending is generally cited as one of the main causes of our incredibly slow economic recovery.
3) Cutting public sector salaries and benefits hurts private sector workers in the long term. This economic downturn won't last forever. Eventually, employers will be competing for workers again. When they do, the levels of compensation will be based on what other employers are offering. Lowering what public sector workers get will lower the standards of all non rich Americans in the long haul.
4) All the state "budget crises" are fake. Deficits could easily be switched to surpluses by making the rich pay a little closer to their fair share in taxes.
Update: I found this fab Laura Flaunders video on this subject.
Psycho Woman Throws Knives At Children
13 years ago
One of the things that you discover when you start looking into the Klanbaggers is that a stunning number of them are either GUBMINT workers or GUBMINT retirees.
They flat-out don't want anyone else to have it as easy as they've had it. The selfish stupidity of these knuckle-draggers absolutely blows my mind.
Haven't people noticed that this country was way more unionized back in the good old days when the economy was growing and standards of living kept improving. It's been going downhill since about 1980, hmmm I wonder why?