The right to work for less

Thanks to the fine folks in that shithole known as Indiana, business writer (?) Tom Walsh and Mackinac Center apologist for the 1% Michael LaFaive think the republican controlled legislature here in Michigan should begin debating Right to Work for a Lot Less laws--and hell, the middle class hasn't been decimated enough in our fine state so let's pass the mother fucker, too.  Because, you know, what every state should desire is to be like, um, fucking Indiana.

And, of course, noted union busters The Detroit Free Press runs another of their brutal "At Issue" pieces in the business section--little depth, fairness over facts, reliant upon far too few sources--which claims that the jury is still out on whether or not Right to Work for a Lot Less laws work or not in creating jobs.

Horseshit on all counts.

The jury is not out on any of it--the unemployment rate in Right to Work for a Lot Less states is statistically insignificant in its difference between the unemployment rate of union states.  And as I've shown before, when membership in labor unions declines, so do wages.  And Indiana?  Really?  As someone who's lived in both states can attest, there is no compare.  Indiana is a backwoods, redneck, armpit of a state.  For all its problems, Michigan is considerably better than that--from our great lakes to the home of the auto industry to our great universities to our four sports franchises (in fairness, I'm a fan of none of them) to Motown...Indiana fails in comparison--as Gertrude Stein once noted, there's no there there.

And I think it's very telling that those on the right think we should reach for the lowest common denominator rather than be the state that can pay its citizens a decent wage and have a good standard of living.  What's next?  Let's shoot for the barrenness of the Dakotas?

Peace,
emaycee