That Time of Year

Today is tax day for some. There are some 40+ percent of working Americans that won't pay taxes this year because they no longer make enough money to be eligible to pay. That's what happens when unions are busted. And the economy suffers from it. It's all so basic and yet even Henry Ford, a villain to be sure, understood that the workers have to be paid enough so that they can buy the products they are manufacturing. If the average worker couldn't buy his cars, who would? And here we are, close to, or right at 100 years later and the lesson has to be taught again.

I don't admire much of anything that Henry Ford said or did, mainly because of his virulent anti-Semitism, but his economic lessons were proven in the workplace every day. The employee parking lot at his plant was filled with his product and that had to make that 'capitalist' happy every time he looked out of his office window.

I'm also not much of an admirer of union leadership. But after all of these years of living, almost 70 years, including some thirty plus years as a union carpenter (I'm proud of that) I can tell you that they are a necessary evil. And I'm not much of an admirer of CEO's, CFO's and others of their ilk. And it is their behavior that makes unions necessary. Bad behavior from a union? That's the fault of the membership. Bad behavior from a corporation? That's the fault of the stock holders.