When you think about it, everyone is replaceable. You can be a lawyer, you are replaceable - there is always going to be someone else out there with that degree who can take over your job.
Fast-food workers walk out of job
- Thread starter SuMar
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When you think about it, everyone is replaceable. You can be a lawyer, you are replaceable - there is always going to be someone else out there with that degree who can take over your job.
eagle1462010
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What really destroyed Detroit ? and it?s not globalisation | TODAYonline
UNFUNDED OBLIGATIONS
The most obvious candidate is the citys vast unfunded pension programmes, which have been running deficits for years. Fully 99.6 per cent of the citys retiree healthcare liabilities are unfunded, and the programme generally pays 80 to 100 per cent of retirees medical costs.
From 2007 to 2012, the citys two biggest pension programmes paid out US$3.3 billion (S$4 billion) more in benefits than they took in through contributions or investment income. Unfunded obligations account for US$9.2 billion of Detroits US$18 billion debt: US$3.5 billion comes from the pension part and US$5.7 billion comes from the retiree healthcare liability.
The individual pensions for public employees are fairly modest, averaging some US$18,000 a year, but they are spread over a huge past and present workforce. Detroits political establishment has long been based on patronage. Although the public workforce has shrunk in recent years, almost one in 15 residents still works for the city.
Salaries and benefits for current employees consume 36 per cent of the citys revenue. Legacy obligations, which include pension contributions and benefit payments, take an additional 39 per cent of revenue. That leaves little to invest in the failing infrastructure.
TAX-AND-SPEND LIBERALISM
Pensions are hardly Detroits only hurdle. The city throws plenty of money at its schools, which are beholden to the powerful Detroit Federation of Teachers, spending more than US$14,000 a student annually. Yet little value is received in return: In 2009, Detroit public-school students turned in the lowest scores ever recorded in the national math-proficiency test. More than a third of students fail to graduate.
In many ways, Detroit is a model of tax-and-spend liberalism. The citys per-capita tax burden is the highest in Michigan. Detroit has the countrys highest property taxes on homes, the top commercial property tax and the second-highest industrial property tax.
The citys income tax 2.4 per cent for residents, 1.2 per cent for non-residents and 2 per cent for businesses is the highest in Michigan. The income tax burden on residents is significantly higher than that for those who live in the surrounding area, which helps drive more affluent and successful residents out of the city. And Detroit is the only city in Michigan that has an excise tax on utility users.
CRUSHING BUSINESS
Besides the anti-business taxes, there are the anti-business regulations. The city imposes a living wage of US$11.03 an hour (US$13.78 an hour if other benefits arent provided) for public employees, as well as on businesses that contract with the city.
This year, Detroit started a campaign against businesses that dont meet the citys voluminous licensing requirements, promising to shut some 1,500 illegal ventures such as tire shops and second-hand appliance stores operating out of abandoned warehouses. This sector makes up almost a 10th of businesses operating in the city and serves almost 70 per cent of residents. The official policy is to crush these operations.
A few years ago, the non-partisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research rated Detroit as the most liberal city in America. The citys own choices, not free markets and limited government, are really responsible for Detroits failure. BLOOMBERG
UNFUNDED OBLIGATIONS
The most obvious candidate is the citys vast unfunded pension programmes, which have been running deficits for years. Fully 99.6 per cent of the citys retiree healthcare liabilities are unfunded, and the programme generally pays 80 to 100 per cent of retirees medical costs.
From 2007 to 2012, the citys two biggest pension programmes paid out US$3.3 billion (S$4 billion) more in benefits than they took in through contributions or investment income. Unfunded obligations account for US$9.2 billion of Detroits US$18 billion debt: US$3.5 billion comes from the pension part and US$5.7 billion comes from the retiree healthcare liability.
The individual pensions for public employees are fairly modest, averaging some US$18,000 a year, but they are spread over a huge past and present workforce. Detroits political establishment has long been based on patronage. Although the public workforce has shrunk in recent years, almost one in 15 residents still works for the city.
Salaries and benefits for current employees consume 36 per cent of the citys revenue. Legacy obligations, which include pension contributions and benefit payments, take an additional 39 per cent of revenue. That leaves little to invest in the failing infrastructure.
TAX-AND-SPEND LIBERALISM
Pensions are hardly Detroits only hurdle. The city throws plenty of money at its schools, which are beholden to the powerful Detroit Federation of Teachers, spending more than US$14,000 a student annually. Yet little value is received in return: In 2009, Detroit public-school students turned in the lowest scores ever recorded in the national math-proficiency test. More than a third of students fail to graduate.
In many ways, Detroit is a model of tax-and-spend liberalism. The citys per-capita tax burden is the highest in Michigan. Detroit has the countrys highest property taxes on homes, the top commercial property tax and the second-highest industrial property tax.
The citys income tax 2.4 per cent for residents, 1.2 per cent for non-residents and 2 per cent for businesses is the highest in Michigan. The income tax burden on residents is significantly higher than that for those who live in the surrounding area, which helps drive more affluent and successful residents out of the city. And Detroit is the only city in Michigan that has an excise tax on utility users.
CRUSHING BUSINESS
Besides the anti-business taxes, there are the anti-business regulations. The city imposes a living wage of US$11.03 an hour (US$13.78 an hour if other benefits arent provided) for public employees, as well as on businesses that contract with the city.
This year, Detroit started a campaign against businesses that dont meet the citys voluminous licensing requirements, promising to shut some 1,500 illegal ventures such as tire shops and second-hand appliance stores operating out of abandoned warehouses. This sector makes up almost a 10th of businesses operating in the city and serves almost 70 per cent of residents. The official policy is to crush these operations.
A few years ago, the non-partisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research rated Detroit as the most liberal city in America. The citys own choices, not free markets and limited government, are really responsible for Detroits failure. BLOOMBERG
eagle1462010
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So What??????????
Does that change the price of rice in China?
You keep jacking up pay rates and prices go up as a result. Those in the middle suffer as their wages don't grow as well so there money doesn't go as far. The CPI keeps rising and you haven't done anything more than inflate the prices.
They need to look to other areas of employment, or stop whining and move to where they can have a better life if it isn't cutting it there. I work with some displaced from Detroit who moved down here to get a job and a life and they are happy they did so, except the underwater mortgages left in Detroit. A CITY DESTROYED BY LIBERALISM.
Mr. H.
Diamond Member
Big protest here in Seattle yesterday , with arrests.
Sunshine
Trust the pie.
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They can. What about that don't you get? If you don't like it get another job where you are the boss.
Sunshine
Trust the pie.
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High_Gravity
Belligerent Drunk
Big difference, yes a Lawyer is replaceable but you can't just walk out onto the street and find someone with a law degree. As far as fast food worker I can comb the local high school for replacements.
squeeze berry
Gold Member
MEd in special education
Papageorgio
The Ultimate Winner
More leftist, victim hood bullshit. Business owners don't sit back and think they "made it". Sorry, businesses today watch and move toward trends. No business feels they made it, all know it can disappear tomorrow.
You seem like a bitter employee, that has little future, other than playing a victim to the big bad businesses.
Papageorgio
The Ultimate Winner
I have a couple at work that have become a couple, if it goes bad, I already know who I'll replace. One is the receptionist, the other a mechanic. Guess which one I keep.
When my office was open and I felt that the employees were unhappy for some reason, I would punish them, severely, by taking a few days off myself. Within two days they were in a panic. They could be replaced, in an hour, without me, there was no job for anyone.
It was enough to settle them down for months.
Sunshine
Trust the pie.
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My guess is the mechanic because they are exceedingly hard to come by.
Sunshine
Trust the pie.
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Sounds like you're just what Noomi needs
SuMar
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The funny thing is if the fast industry did decide to pay their workers $15.00 an hour, there would still be people on welfare collecting something for nothing. Higher wages at fast food isn't going to motivate the folks sponging off of welfare.
SteadyMercury
Gold Member
- Jan 1, 2013
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Of course they are, but to different degrees of pain.
Fast food worker walks off the job you grab someone with a pulse and can have them mostly up to speed in one shift. That isn't the case with many professional jobs.
High_Gravity
Belligerent Drunk
The mechanic.
High_Gravity
Belligerent Drunk
Exactly.
Sunshine
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