U.S. Taxpayers Are Gouged on Mass Transit Costs

Re:U.S. Taxpayers Are Gouged on Mass Transit Costs by brazzy on Sunday September 16, 2012 @05:26AM (#4528761)

Doesn't your experience indicate pretty clearly that the real problem are not unions as such, but the way they're operating in the USA?

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Re:U.S. Taxpayers Are Gouged on Mass Transit Costs by robomartin on Sunday September 16, 2012 @01:25PM (#4529642)

Sure, you could put it that way. Unions, as they exist and operate today in the USA, are a cancer that is eating away our country bit by bit.

Either they have to be dissolved by simple making them illegal or they have to change the way they operate. This will either happen by law or by union leadership realizing that they are on a collision path with the non-union citizens of this country, a collision they will not survive.

The first option is unlikely to happen. However, the second scenario is in play right now. Politicians can try to confuse people all they want, but reality is reality. Eventually it comes down to simple math and, as many cities in California have discovered, math is a bitch. You just can't hide from it and you can't bullshit your way around it. Enough of this happens and unions will self-destruct from the inside out.

I live in a nice middle-class neighborhood. I know quite a few of our neighbors. All hard working people. Times are tough and you can feel it when you talk to them. However, there's one neighbor that is living an alternate reality. He is a fireman. Unionized, of course. He barely works. He is always home. And he is the only one on the block with motorcyles, boats, jet-ski's, campers, multiple trucks, quad ATV's and all manner of "toys" that are obvious and ostentatious. OK, this is one data point and it might be skewed, but it is not lost on the people who see it. I know other government union workers around town and, again, they are living in an alternate reality that is completely isolated from what is actually happening to the country.

If you want to talk about the one percent-ers, well, I'd rather talk about the ten-percenters: government and private unions who are living the life at the expense of everyone in this country. That's a crime.

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Re:U.S. Taxpayers Are Gouged on Mass Transit Costs by bunderbunder on Monday September 17, 2012 @10:50AM (#4532805)

He is a fireman. Unionized, of course. He barely works. He is always home.

What you're seeing is because of the firefighter bit, not the union bit. A common work schedule for firefighters is 24 hours on, 48 hours off. That actually works out to quite a bit less time at home than what you get on a normal work schedule.

I suppose it's easy to fixate on the number of days they don't go in to work and fail to realize how long it is until they'll be back home on the days they do.

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