Wisconsin resident Daniel Vitek complained in a letter to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the country "is being turned into a socialist state with the people and weak-kneed political hacks giving into the big labor unions demanding more and more handouts."
The country Mr. Vitek grew up, he wrote, "put self reliance and hard work first. ... Today it's all 'me' and handouts from big government."
There was more, but I'll stick with these excerpts.
(1) The handouts I'm aware of that union have demanded were for the most part benefits tradeoffs companies, pleading poverty, offered in lieu of payraises. Mr. Vitek, as a Wisconsin resident and presumptive newspaper reader, should know that those benefits are being rolled back, wholesale. Not only are union members' benefits shrinking, the politicians currently running this state have essentially stripped public-worker unions of collective bargaining rights and, thus, greatly diminished the union-initiated worker protections, higher pay and better workplace conditions that benefited all working Americans, whether union members or not. The decimation of private-sector unions began more than 30 years ago. Thus, those "big labor unions" Mr. Vitek so dispises and villifies are about as yesteryear as the cold war's communist scourge.
(2) The 'handouts' Mr. Vitek so resents laid the foundation for better pay, working conditions, and safer working conditions that resulted in better pay and safer working conditions for all Americans, including Mr. Vitek.
(3) The roads and highways Mr. Vitek drives on, the clean air, safe water and food supply he benefits from and so much more that contribute to Mr. Vitek's healthier life and good standard of living -- and the Social Security and Medicare I would bet anything Mr. Vitek receives -- are all parts of a social-sharing system that help stitch our country together. So too are the law enforcement, legal system, fire protection and myriad other "socialistic" benefits Mr. Vitek receives, thanks to his membershp in this democracy. That memberhip does have dues. They're called taxes.
(4) I'm flummoxed that Mr. Vitek is so resentful of self-reliant, hard-working Americans who band together to pressure employers to provide living wages for their labor, yet has no problem with the government's socialistic policies of this giving handouts the size of Jupiter to corporations that are pulling in record profits.
(5) The stunner though, was Mr. Vitek equating union actions with today's "all about me" narcissism. What could be more narcissistic and "all me" than American-style capitalism?
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