Some benefits of trade unions that are rarely mentioned:

"Labor Market

If labor markets are already competitive, economists maintain that increasing the bargaining power of employees may result in a misallocation of resources. In competitive labor markets, higher union wages may reduce employment for union workers below the levels that would exist in the absence of unionization. If unions lower employment in the unionized sector, they may also increase the supply of workers to employers in the nonunion sector, lowering the wages of nonunion workers.

Profits

Finally, research suggests that unions reduce a firm’s rate of profit. Some evidence indicates that the effect of unions on profits is greater in concentrated industries where profits may be relatively higher because firms have the ability to influence the prices of their products. Other research concludes that unions reduce profits in general, regardless of the ability of firms to influence prices."

http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu...

The part about making firms less profitable is a bummer. That means the firm may be and probably is less competitive and that means that capital and investors will not be attracted to that firm. And that translates into a dying industry and loss of jobs - but who gives a crap about that, as long as it lasts let the good times roll.

eightball.

Union membership has been dying right along with the jobs. So shouldn't the job situation be improving? The fact is, our minimum wages are too high for many of the companies that moved their operations overseas and those companies want to pay 0 taxes and have 0 controls on themselves. Unions are not the problem. Unions are trying their dambdest to keep our wages, countrywide, up to a livable wage. If you want jobs, like they have in those other countries, keep blaming unions and maybe you will see it one day. No 40-hour workweek, no weekends off, no minimum wage, no nothing that we have become to expect over in this Country. Unions got those things for you and without unions, they may just cease to exist.

There are `150 million people employed in the US.

About 16 million American workers are in labor unions, although the percentage of workers who are unionized has dropped fairly steadily in recent decades. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 12.4 percent of the American work force belonged to a union in 2008, down from 35 percent in the 1950s. The percentage of workers in unions has dropped as companies have closed many unionized operations and moved them overseas and as many employers have grown more sophisticated in beating back unionization efforts. Moreover, as the American work force has grown more prosperous in the decades of World War II, many workers concluded that they did not need a union to represent them.

The unionization rate in the private sector was just 7.6 percent in 2008, far lower than the 36.8 percent rate for public sector employees.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/referen...

eightball

We can't compete with $4.00 a day and unions only represent about 7% of the workforce,so the bottom line is, we want cheap goods and stockholders' want and demand a good return on their investment. Outsourcing started about 30 years ago and it will continue until we start producing jobs that only Americans can do. We have to fix our educational system not defund it, and find a way to invest in our infrastructure and innovation programs.

Medicare is indeed going broke but we should have been raising the payroll tax of 1.45%all along, we could do some means testing, but we know that 50% of our COST comes from wasteful spending such as the last six months of elderly patients life and costly procedures. I'm on Medicare, I know there's there's waste and it should be reformed....Those on Medicare love but we have to pay it in this generation and those to come.

The costly wars, war profiteers, and corporate tax breaks override welfare fraud by billions. The first cuts will be on those whose duty is to investigate welfare fraud. It the same way for those not paying their income taxes. Look it the budget cuts; see how many IRS agents will have to be let go.

Come on people, get you head out of the sand. Medicare is going broke and something has to be done. Lets start by eliminating all of the people getting welfare that do not deserve it. Like the lady that goes into HEB and orders a $175 birthday cake for her 7 year old daughter and pays for it with food stamps or all the people working for cash and drawing welfare and I could go on and on. I would like to hear one politician acknowledge the fact that the reason we can't compete in the world market is because unions have driven the wages so high that we can't compete. I am one of these senior citizens thats suffering along with the rest of you, but things won't change until our goverment cleans up its act. Get realistic.

bfjoseph,

It's not a ponzi scheme and is one of the most brilliant ideas that this Country has ever had. It worked until companies started taking jobs elsewhere, basically making it possible to lower wages over here so much that it cannot pay for itself anymore. Not enough are paying into it now, and the ones that are, don't pay enough because of their poverty-level wages, unemployment status, or employers hiring under the table.
You find a way to get the good paying jobs back to this Country, at the wages that are above poverty-level, and the rest takes care of itself.
Some say you cannot spend your way out of a hole, but you cannot cut your way out either. It has to be a balanced approach or it just won't work.

What's reckless is having fallen for this ponzi scheme in the first place. We're about to run out of other people's money.

That's right, especially since a lot of them pulled out their shaky 401K with all the stock market swings....

$12,500 is unreachable for those who chose to pay for their kids college and chose to pay their own way. Those people were not able to put up a lot of money for their own retirement and paying that much out of the meager SS payment is not possible.

You are right ,born2Bme, but some posters should take their own advice because the letter writer is absolutely correct.

The CBO estimates the net federal premium support payments for a typical 65-year-old would be $8,000, or 39 percent of Medicare spending per enrollee, under the program that would be established by the GOP’s "Path to Prosperity." That means the total cost of providing health care benefits (premium and other costs) to a typical 65-year-old in such a plan would be about $20,500 in 2022. The beneficiary would pay $12,500 in out-of-pocket costs.

http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statem...

I still don't think they get the full picture....That 55 year old with voucher in hand(10 years from now) will have a hard time getting insured and if he/she does, it will cost plenty...Read the Ryan plan.if you are a wealthy,healthy republican;then its a good plan.

Obamacare cuts Medicare,by "cramming down" the fees they pay to providers. So you will have Medicare if you can find a doctor or hospital - oh, you will eventually get a doctor if you don't die first or "quickly."

I'm one of those under age 55, by a few years, and I am PO'd at the thought of changing it now. People my age who have planned out their retirement years with the understanding of how it was going to be, cannot reverse things on a dime at this late date.
Besides, it doesn't have to be done away with, it just needs a little tweeking NOW. How hard should that be?
Have any of you even thought about what happens when there is no longer any surplus for the government to use in times of need? How much are your everyday taxes going to go up to cover these shortfalls? Get ready for it because this government takes X amount of $$ to run, and that money will come out of your pockets, one way or another.

Are you aware of some proposed legislation of which the rest of us have not heard, K. Trebesch? The only proposals for reforming Medicare from any Republican in Congress have always included a provision that any changes would only apply to those under fifty years of age. For those age fifty and older, Medicare would continue to be available to them in the same fashion in which it is currently available. Where in this is there any proposal to "...cut benefits that hardworking SENIORS have earned."?

An old adage advises that it is preferable to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. This adage also applies to Letters to the Editor.