There are people who are trying to overturn a core principle in our form of democracy; that of the secret ballot.  The "champions" who are attempting to overturn this are the unions.  They are saying that the current method is unfair to the employees and does not allow them the "free choice" that they should be given.  The employees have "free choice" and have had it since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act (as amended).  Key to that is section 7 which reads (highlights are mine):

Sec. 7. [§ 157.] Employeesshall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all such activities except to the extent that such right may be affected by an agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment as authorized in section 8(a)(3) [section 158(a)(3) of this title].

Looks to me that the law as it stands already has “free choice” embedded in its language. So why now is there such a push to grant “free choice” to employees? Well, in actuality, the purpose now is to take “free choice” away from employees. How so? Since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act (as amended), any employee or group of employees who wished to form a collective bargaining unit (union) did so by secret ballot among the rank and file (employees). This allowed each individual to vote by his or her conscience. Now the unions want to take this step out of the process and continue forward with have employees publicly sign an authorization form. 

According to the website that is promoting this new “Employee Free Choice Act” it is presumed that any employee who does not sign the form does not support union representation. However, if this is done in the open, what is to say that employees who do favor representation will not seek retribution against those who do not sign? 

With the secret ballot the process is longer, but in reality it is fairer to the employees and to the employer. 

Watching the news this morning (Fox and Friends), I saw a story about education at the collegiate level. The specific topic was how university and college professors use the classroom to indoctrinate their students in their Leftist/radical ideas. 

There is nothing wrong with individuals having their own ideas, be it to the Left or to the Right. I have a problem with indoctrination; it leads to “groupthink.” I would much rather gather information, and form an opinion of my own based on that information. My opinion may be correct or not, but it would be mine. 

The story went on to describe how these professors would attack students who offered opposing points of view. This is where I was struck by how hypocritical these professors (and by extension other members of the Left) are when it comes to open discussion. These individuals are the ones who support the reinstatement of the “Fairness Doctrine.” This doctrine is designed to allow for “fair” discussion of issues in the media, i.e. whenever one point of view is expressed (conservative/Right) they insist that equal time is given to the opposing point of view (liberal/Left). However, when it comes to a liberal idea being espoused they will not allow a conservative alternative to be advocated. The usual method of denying conservative thought is to call the speakers anything from racist to sexist to close-minded. But this begs the question; who are being close-minded? Are they the people who will listen to alternative points of view, or are they the people who shout down any idea that does not fit their world view?

Those programs have done more harm to the well being of this country than they giving benefit. By their continued existence, they have fostered a society that no longer desires or understands the value of hard work. How can I say this? Easy, I’ve seen it firsthand.

I first witnessed this effect when I was seventeen years old. I was working in a grocery store, bagging groceries. A customer came through the checkout with his daughter. In his shipping cart were the groceries for the month and the little girl wanted a piece of candy. The man looked at his daughter and said, “Honey, maybe next time we come to the store. Daddy has to buy groceries today.” The man paid for his groceries with food stamps.  Within the next few days, a group of people came through the checkout with some food. It wasn’t a lot and they paid with food stamps. Then they put the non eligible items on the counter and pulled out a pile of money, the kind of pile that would “choke a horse.” 

Those episodes have stuck with me for over twenty years. To this day, they make me mad. Not because the first man didn’t have enough to buy his child a $0.25 piece of candy, but because the other people apparently had enough money so that they didn’t need to receive food stamps. Yes, I know that I did not and do not know all the circumstances, but the appearance is such that the second group was taking advantage of the system.

In later years, I worked at another grocery store and saw similar episodes, to the extent that I heard people say that they weren’t going to get a job because they made more from welfare than they could from any job.

What has happened to the work ethic in this country? This is the land that came out of the Great Depression and the Second World War as a leader in manufacturing and industry. Why are we not maintaining our lead? Why do immigrants (legal and illegal) perform jobs that could be filled by our own citizens? 

Basically, why are we rewarding failure????

People don’t talk to each other at length anymore. I’ve driven through neighbourhoods and have not seen many people out and about. I work in retail and I had a customer tell me that she had neighbours move in and it was six months before she realized that they had children. She had never seen them playing outside. Our sense of community is breaking down.

By interacting regularly with people we know and don’t know, we are able to understand more about our community, both on the local and national levels. We are losing the ability to communicate effectively with those around us. A lot of this now comes from the ease of access with technology (cell phones, text messages, etc…), but it all comes back to the withdrawal into our own personal enclaves with the widespread introduction of air conditioning. 

I’m not advocating getting rid of the air conditioning, but maybe we should all consider turning the things off for a period of time and allow ourselves to reconnect with our communities. You may be surprised with what you will learn.

Monday, the House voted down the bailout to the financial markets.  The reasons for this down vote are many, more than I will address here.  What must be addressed is that there is now a crisis that has not been faced in this country, indeed in this world, in generations.

I have long been of the opinion that the market will take care of itself.  However, there has been too much interference by politicos on both sides of the aisle to allow the market to correct itself on its own in a relatively short amount of time.  Apparently, the House will address the bailout later this week and vote again, and this time it should pass.  Why then and not Monday?

On Monday, the stock market tanked with a 777 point loss.  That translated to a net loss of $1 TRILLION dollars.  Now some may say that it serves the "big corporations" right for sticking it to the little guys, but what most people don't understand, or refuse to understand, is that they are all dependent on the financial well being of those big corporations.  Most of us have some sort of retirement account through our employers (yes I know there are exceptions), the every popular 401(k) accounts.  Well, how do those make money?  How do they grow so that when you and I retire, we will be able to draw from them?  Simple answer:  they are invested in the stock market.  So yesterday, $1 TRILLION was lost, some of that was my money, some of that was your money.

That is why the bailout will be approved later this week.  People should wake up and realize that this crisis has gone beyond the norm.  They also need to realize that the bailout does NOT fix the problem.  The market needs to be allowed to fix itself.  This bailout will be a stop gap that should give the market a chance to correct itself.  What everyone needs to understand is that the correction will not happen overnight.  It will still take time for the problems areas to clear themselves.  How long will that take?  Who knows?  Personally, I feel that the next several years will give us a slower economy. 

What will make this all work, is for everyone to stop looking in the short term, here I am using short term to mean less than two years.  This correction will take some time.  We have to allow this to proceed in its own time.  Overall, our economy is still strong; just look at the past.  If you plot the growth of our economy, it continues to rise over time.   Look closely at that plot and you will notice that the line is jagged, and for every "jag" up there is a "jag" down.  Every one of those down "jags" is an economic slowdown of some sort.  It has to happen; it is what makes the market grow.  An illustration of how this works can be seen in power lifting. In that sport the competitor lifts a weighted bar to shoulder height. At that point, the competitor readjusts hand and foot placement to carry the bar over their head. That is where we are now, the shoulder height. 

Let’s allow the market the time to correct. Let’s give it the tools it will need. And most importantly, let it happen without interference from people who don’t know what they are talking about.

How will this play out? Haven’t got a clue. What I do know is that the market will improve and the economy will continue to grow.