pic is a bit tough to read...so here is the quote; "Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice . . . you don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They've long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying . . . lobbying, to get what they want . . . Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don't want . . . they don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that . . . that doesn't help them. That's against their interests. That's right. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin' years ago. They don't want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers . . . Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they're coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They'll get it . . . they'll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fuckin' place. It's a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in The big club. By the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people . . . white collar, blue collar it doesn't matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means . . . continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don't give a fuck about you. They don't give a fuck about you . . . they don't give a fuck about you. They don't care about you at all . . . at all . . . at all, and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That's what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that's being jammed up their assholes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth. It's called the American Dream cause you have to be asleep to believe it..." - George Carlin
Not a meme but... <blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' > Walker and his Republican backed Right to Work Laws have really made an impact on America. Just think about the benefits... The latest figures show that the average take home pay in the United States is now $41,392.00 a year. And Right to work Laws have been a major factor in getting to that number. These numbers (annual per capita income) help show the impact of the Right to Work States. Mississippi - $20,618.00 Arkansas - $22,170.00 Idaho - $22,568.00 Alabama - $23,680.00 Utah - $23,873.00 South Carolina - $23,943.00 Oklahoma - $24,408.00 Tennessee - $24,409.00 Louisiana - $24,442.00 Indiana - $24.635.00 Georgia - $25,182.00 North Carolina - $25,284.00 Arizona - $25,358.00 Florida - $26,263.00 Nevada - $26,589.00 Kansas - $26,929.00 Iowa - $27,027.00 North Dakota - $29,819.00 Wyoming - $28,902.00 Virginia - $33,493.00 Michigan will be joining the pack soon. Basically, its Mitt's 47%. Its like living in a 3rd world Country without the wars. Remember, Right to Work Laws were designed to lower labor costs. For those of you that don't understand lower labor costs, the short definition is lower wages. When your employer doesn't have to compete with higher paying union jobs, they can get you to work for less. We are currently living in a time of mass production, and *all time corporate profits*. Why ?? Because the corporations get to keep all the wages right to work Laws allow them to steal from the workers. Just in case you're interested, the top 5 states in income are as follows: New York - $62,660.00 Connecticut - $62,140.00 Massachusetts - $60,892.00 New Jersey - $58,604.00 California - $56,784.00 Notice how you make TWICE AS MUCH in a UNION state. Wonder why that is??? HMMMMM?????? </blockquote>
Id also like to point out the living expenses in those top 5 states make the wages look much different. 50 g a year in cali is equal to 25 g a year in Nevada if you factor in cost of living. Americans have the most disposable income in the world, which is a better barometer than gdp or wages for living standards.
Scandinavian countries are highly ranked in the Index of Economic Freedom. Although the United States ranks higher than these nations, they are more free in several decisive areas. Denmark has greater business freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, and freedom from corruption, while having comparable monetary freedom, and trade freedom scores to the U.S. Sweden has greater business freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, and freedom from corruption, while having comparable trade freedom, and monetary freedom, to the United States. Finland has greater business freedom, financial freedom, property right enforcement, and freedom from corruption than the United States, while having comparable monetary freedom, investment freedom, and trade freedom. Norway, the lowest ranked Scandinavian nation (but still rather high at no. 37), has greater freedom from corruption and property right enforcement than the United States while having comparable business freedom and trade freedom. Iceland has greater fiscal freedom, investment freedom property right enforcement, and freedom from corruption, while having comparable business freedom, and trade freedom.[5] A 2007 study from the Cato Institute concluded that Nordic nations are reasonably successful in spite of the welfare state. The United States enjoy a faster economic growth, per capita economic input, and a higher disposable income. Private consumption is also higher, even when it includes items paid for by the public sector. Nordic nations lag behind in economic output per capita GDP (with the notable exception of oil-rich Norway). In respect to "income inequality", the poorest 10 percent of Americans have about the same level of income as the poorest 10 percent of Finns, Swedes, and Danes. Only in oil-rich Norway is there a noticeable gap. What differentiates America from the Nordic nations is the income of everyone else. The rich, the middle class, and the working class in the United States enjoy higher levels of income than their Nordic counterparts.[6] The long-term development, however, may not be as positive. As one researcher explained, "Over the last decade, the incomes of the poorest 10% of the population have grown eight times faster in Ireland than in Sweden, and six times faster in Britain. As a result, so-called Anglo-Saxon economies like Ireland and the UK now for the first time have a smaller proportion of their population below the poverty line than does Sweden."[7] This would suggest that strong economic growth is better than income redistribution if the goal is to help the least fortunate in society. The unemployment numbers are comparable or in some respects better than in the United States; although with worse statistics for the long-term unemployed.[6] A noteworthy feature is the role of government as a major employer. As noted by a German think tank, "On average, the share of state employment in total dependent employment across Scandinavia is 32.7%, compared to only 18.5% in the non-Scandinavian countries of the EU-15.[8]" In the United States, government workers account for slightly more than 15 percent of the workforce (2007 numbers).[6] Moreover, the same researchers say that some Nordic nations are prone to re-characterize welfare beneficiaries as government employees, a practice that artificially overstates economic output (since government salaries are added to GDP) and artificially understates unemployment[8]. Government spending as a percentage of GDP consumes a larger share in all Nordic nations than it does in the United States. Sweden has the biggest burden of government, followed by Denmark and Finland, with Iceland and Norway closer to the American level. The larger burden of government presumably does not bode well for Nordic competitiveness since this means politicians and bureaucrats have more power over how resources are allocated.[6] And since policymakers are more likely to be influenced by political considerations rather than economic factors, that undermines economic performance.[9] High levels of government spending, not surprisingly, are associated with higher levels of taxation. Denmark, Sweden, and Finland all impose much higher tax rates on personal income. Norway's top tax rate is significantly higher if the payroll tax rate is included. Iceland, however, has a less punitive system for highly successful taxpayers, and Norway actually has a slight advantage over the United States if measuring only the personal income tax. In the Nordic nations the top tax rates penalize a much larger share of the population - the top tax rate is imposed on taxpayers with middle-class incomes.[6] On the other hand, every Nordic nation enjoys a lower corporate tax rate than the United States. Corporate income in the United States is taxed at 39.3 percent, while the tax rate in Nordic nations is no higher than 28 percent.[10] The tax burden in Nordic nations and America was remarkably similar until 1960. Not coincidentally, it was during this pre-1960 era that Nordic nations grew rapidly and became rich. Beginning in the mid-1960s, and accelerating through the 1970s and into the 1980s, however, the Nordic nations created large welfare states. Before the 1960s, Nordic nations had modest levels of taxation and spending. They also enjoyed-and still enjoy-laissez-faire policies and open markets in other areas. These are the policies that enabled Nordic nations to prosper for much of the 20th century. Once their countries became rich, politicians in Nordic nations focused on how to redistribute the wealth that was generated by private-sector activity. Nordic nations became rich, and then government expanded. This expansion of government has slowed growth, but slow growth for a rich nation is much less of a burden than slow growth in a poor nation.[6]
I'm not a right to work guy but this isn't really slam dunk evidence against right to work laws. There's so many factors in the average income beyond just right to work laws that looking at those numbers is fairly meaningless without some context. It would be best to compare two like states maybe where one has the law and the other doesn't. The problem with right to work laws is just like the idea of voluntary taxes. Sounds good in theory but just ends up with a smaller percentage footing the bill well everyone else receives the benefits which is unsustainable. I think many unions are inefficient and greedy but the sad truth is without them the workers would probably be worse off. The one thing I would like to see is more restrictions on campaign donations from unions.