[quote=EconProf]CAR: You posted at 3:29 a.m. Get some sleep man. Its a holiday!
OK, we are supposed to bring data, but you are drowning us in it. And you are veering off topic.
The privatisation of Chicago’s parking meter revenues for the next 75 years was indeed a travesty, and us conservatives agree with you that it is another way to kick the can down the road. It is essentially credit card financing and is to be condemned. The then-mayor of Chicago, Daley, then went on to briefly become Obama’s Chief of Staff, but was pushed out because he was too business friendly and not liberal enough. That you show that he later went to work for the very law firm that benefited from the looting of Chicago’s parking meter revenues is indeed crony capitalism at its worst.
At last, something we can agree upon![/quote]
But it’s NOT off-topic, and that’s why I keep posting about it, even though people are (apparently) not paying attention. I can spend weeks posting links showing that the attacks on unions and pensions are coming from the “privatization” movement, NOT taxpayer advocates. I can spend weeks posting data that shows that privatization does not benefit citizens and does not provide more value for the money. I can spend weeks posting data that shows that the privatization of public assets and services leads to fewer good jobs for aspiring middle-class Americans.
I can show that the people who are behind the attacks on unions are the very same organizations and people who have decimated the private sector jobs that were once available to middle-class Americans, and that unions were fighting these greedy bastards every step of the way.
If someone can show evidence to the contrary, I would be exceedingly glad to see it. Just show some evidence that details how privatization has led to more and better-paying jobs for middle-class Americans (or even lower net costs!), and I will shut up.
Are there problems with the pension funds that resulted *directly* from the “financial crisis” that originated on Wall Street (including the PRIVATE SECTOR advisors and consultants, hedge funds, and private equity funds, etc. who were brought into CalPERS) — with help from the Federal Reserve, and from people in high levels of government who stood to benefit from deregulation and the credit casino? Yes! Can these problems be fixed in a legal and ethical way that does not try to scapegoat public sector workers for the problems caused by the financial sector? Yes!
Unions and boots-on-the-ground workers are NOT bankrupting anybody. The financial sector, some corporations, and some immoral cretins in legislative and regulatory offices have bankrupted this country. I will not stay silent for as long as these misdirected and uninformed attacks continue.
