Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil21
I agree that folks should be happy for anyone not paying the IRS - giving the government more money is never a good thing.
But.. I was in a very similar situation, and had to pay it all. It wasn't $50k, but it was better than half that amount. I was completely broke at the time - $500 would have been insane to pay. I paid it all back. Clawed my way back to where I could pay down a little every so often, and then finally saved up enough for the full amount and paid it off. It took a long, long, time.
Part of me says "why the hell did I have to live like I did for over 6 years to pay that back?" when I could have settled. But, the other part of me says "why the hell didn't I attempt to settle"  I can get where people who are paying it down the hard way come from is all I'm saying. Obviously the money was made at one point, in order to owe it to begin with.
As for the UAW, I don't think many "hate" on them due to how much they make. It's more the perceived idea that union workers are lazy, and unions keep the lazy employed for far more than what market wages are. While this may or may not be true, unfortunately my personal experience leads me to at least initially think this way about most union workers. Rarely have I seen a union shop where people truly pull their own weight, and want to do the best job they possibly can. Taking pride in ones work seems to be a thing of the past, and it's no longer "cool" to be good at your job. Better to be a slacker and work the system. There *are* some though, and those employees I applaud every damned dime they can get.
As for unions in general - they need to stop the "us vs. them" bullshit lowest common denominator stuff, and start encouraging productivity and punishing laziness within their ranks. I believe at one point, being in a union was a mark of honor of saying "I do a damned fine job of what I do, I work fucking hard, and I am willing to fight for what I rightly deserve". Your fellow union members would run you out of town if you were a lazy asshole. Now, unfortunately, most unions have generated into a "lets see what the littlest amount of work we can get away with for the most amount of wage possible". You create a guild/union of workers that you police well, and take pride in your work - and I bet you will have many businesses lining up to hire your members once you gain a reputation of "yes, they cost 50% more than other workers, but do 75% more work!". I know I would.
So.. off topic
Congrats to you RRRed, that has to feel absolutely wonderful. I know it did for me when I sent the IRS that final check - it was truly amazing. the weight lifting off your shoulders. |
The union thing isn't an easy question to answer. Being a business owner and a liberal, it's hard for me to reconcile those two viewpoints at times.
One example I like to use is when people talk about how much the non union auto workers in the South get to work at Honda and Toyota plants.
What most people don't realize, is that the only reason those wages are so high, is because Toyota and Honda fear the UAW, and they know if they paid wages that were too low, their workers would unionize.
So the non UAW workers still benefit from the presence of the UAW.
Companies like Wal-Mart aren't afraid of unions, because retail workers unions aren't very strong, and so half of their employees receive government assistance of some sort because their wages are so low.
My overall point in support of unions, is that our government intentionally keeps a certain percentage of the population unemployed in order to keep inflation under control. This is a good thing overall, most people don't want overall prices and wages subject to the shocks, peaks and valleys that happen to things like the stock market or the price of oil.
But since we never reach 100% employment, then the laws of supply and demand don't really apply to the labor market the way they do to other markets, and so we need other mechanisms in place to determine wages, benefits, etc for workers.
Collective bargaining is one of those mechanisms.
The best solution is to not throw the baby out with the bathwater per se, and allow workers to collectively bargain for wages and benefits, but get rid of alot of the stupid work rules and procedures that drive up a wall between the labor force and management.
I rambled again a bit there...but my main point is that I wish more people's point of view was "I'm happy so and so didn't have to go through what I went through" instead of "If I had to pay all that money to the IRS then that bitch should to!"...or "That's great that those guys get $30/hour plus benefits to work on that assembly line" instead of "Screw those bastards who retired at 48, they don't deserve those pensions, my dad is 65 and still working!!"