Original Post HERE
Teachers are the bastions of our society. Whether they are elementary school teachers or college professors, they are the ones that ensure the continuity of knowledge for the next generation. They provide the raw material for growth.
A society cannot exist without safety. The police are the arbiters of our safety. We expect them to be there as they were at the Colorado tragic shootings. When we need them they must be there with the resources necessary to protect us.
Firefighters are not just for fighting fires. They are our first responders for wrecks, health incidences, and that cat stuck in the tree. When we need them, we need them. Ask all those affected by forest fires that jumped into neighborhoods all around the country. Ask Texans who last year were hit by fires that could have been better handled absent budget cuts in firefighting.
We want that public worker at the end of that 311 call for poison control, traffic tickets, etc. We want that worker at the Social Security office there to help with needs only they can address. Bottom line, we want our government, we the people, there when we need them.
Because all these people provide all these services we want and need, we would normally have a rather large fondness for them in the aggregate. Moreover we would rightfully want them compensated well.
This is anathema to Right Wing vision of government. They do not want a public sector with teachers, police, firefighters, and other public employees. They want to relegate all these services to private corporations.
How would they accomplish this? It is a two stage process. Firstly, Americans must be convinced that government is inherently wasteful and inefficient. Secondly, the public sector must be demonized by asserting public sector employees are overpaid because of demands by corrupt unions. They have been extremely effective in having that concept metastasized in much of the American psyche.
Their complete success would have private schools, government services outsourced to low wage contract employment services, and who knows, the eventual privatization of firefighting and policing.
It is important to note that for the above services, profit is an inefficiency. It is a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the few owners of corporations that would provide these services. Moreover because these outsourced services generally pay less to employees it has a depressive effect on local economies as the available dollars to spend in the given community falls.
This is just a continuation of what afflicts America. We have already seen what outsourcing has done to private sector wages and employment. We have seen that inasmuch as the middle class has gotten much poorer over the last 30 years, the wealth of the select few continue their geometric growth.
Is this the America you want? If it is not then you must stay informed and vote your interest, the interest of your family, and the interest of your country.
LIKE My Facebook Page