posted
They are destructive if used wrong. They can hurt you severely. If not cleaned regularly they can explode in your face. They have been used by organized crime and others who favor violence.
Yet, despite all these issues, when you really, really need one, you really, really need one.
And by then its usually to late to try and put one together.
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
I suppose it wouldnt be good if I took my union out on friday and shot it till I was out of amunition....
Posts: 467 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Unions are a right of willing participants. Gun ownership is a right of the individual. Funny, the same people that fight for gun registration, love card check.
It's no one's business that I own a gun and it's no one's business if I voted for or against the union.
Unions and guns can be good, if used properly. "Owning a gun should be public record", like a card check vote....the burglar will know who to target and who to avoid. The unknown, scares them more.
Posts: 1495 | Registered: Mar 2009
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posted
Funny....no response to this thread, but plenty of "firearms" threads started to ridicule this one.
Posts: 1495 | Registered: Mar 2009
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posted
my response was only because i thought of something that i thought was funny... i suppose i really have nothing serious to say on the topic yet. Some people i know hate their unions. My grandmother was part of a teachers union and she despised it. I have a an aquantence that works for the movie writers guild and loves it.
I have friends who hate/fear firears, i personally own a few. I dont mind registering mine, i dont mind following the laws.
Posts: 467 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
My father was a union member once. He worked for ALCOA as a welder. He waited years to get that union job that paid twice the wage of other welders in the valley. They went on strike for six months. We lost our house. In the end, management got a huge raise and the worker masses, like my father, got nothing. Unfortunately, the union strike, cost us our house. My father went back to work six months later with a 10 cent per hour raise. We lost our home to give the big raise to people in the union that made more than the masses in the union.
My father hates unions and he was once a union member. He gave up is home to a strike to give union leaders a pay raise.
Posts: 1495 | Registered: Mar 2009
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posted
yea, my dad (the son of the grandmother who hated her union) cant stand unions. He is unfortunately in a profession where they are not legally allowed to strike. He is a water/wastewater operator and from what he describes the field as it sounds like they are not in a nice place. Apparently people who are in wastewater will get arrested, lose their jobs and get fined if they tried to strike.
I don't know the real legal rammifications of such an act, because i know he is staunchly republican and is probably idealogically a little right of the kieser. What i do know is that when hurricanes or tornadoes threaten the area and everyone else is forced to evacuate he is required to stay and monitor the equipment.
Personally i have no real experience with unions yet. Even though from a family standpoint unions are demonized i understand their necessity. Greed is powerful and unchecked businessmen will take advantagte of anyone and everyone they can.
Posts: 467 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Ecthalion: Greed is powerful and unchecked businessmen will take advantagte of anyone and everyone they can.
dont mistake entrepreneurial efforts and ambition for greed and exploitation. there are many people in all sizes and levels of business with upstanding character and integrity. you can be a businessman, even a successful one, without compromising your ethics or moral principles.
Posts: 570 | Registered: Sep 2009
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posted
While many businessmen respect the ties that bind worker and employer in that success for one is success for the other, some do not see it that way.
They see Payroll as their biggest expense and lack of productivity as their biggest hindrance to increased profits. The result is that they will cheat, connive, threaten, and bully their employees, break their contracts, and take the power that they claim and abuse it as best they can.
The fallacy is that its the owners who are the enemy to the workers. Usually its the middle-management who think that if they chop costs--but cutting hours, safety guidelines, cheating on overtime, etc, they will impress the entrepreneurial owners. What they don't realize is that many of those owners respect hard work and believe that a good employee, a productive employee, should be paid for that productivity.
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
An unproductive employee should be fired. The most productive employees are the greedy ones,...they work for themselves. In a union, minimally performing employees cant be fired....they meet the minimum standard. Kinda like the argument between socialism and capitalism. Guaranteed employment vs the promise of promotion for hard work?
20 years ago, government jobs were great for their stability at a lower wage.....union stability at the cost of a lower wage. Today, government employees make twice as much and thanks to SEIU, can't be fired.
I'm as right wing as you can get...even I am looking for a government job....meal ticket. As much as you hate government contractors, only the most connected contractors get GS jobs. I'm close... Will I be a sell out for accepting the GS12 job?..... My connections have offered me 11's, that I've turned down...
Of course, the masses have to go through the phony USAJOBS.COM ruse..... What are your preference points...female, minority, veteran, wounded vet, etc... No MLK principles at USAJOBS.COM. Either you're connected (like me) or you deserve affirmative action credit. The government reviews the resume's of the "disadvantaged" first. Content of the resume is secondary to race, sex, veteran's status and disability, unless you're already connected. They aren't open...they only have to advertise them, even when the hire was predetermined. Veterans were granted "minority preference" under Clinton. One day a contractor, one day a military member, the next a government employee. USSR would be great if they stuck to their principles, same goes for the US Constitution....people are corrupt and either system might work, without corruption. Benevolent dictators might be best....some people need prodding instead of welfare.
All people are corrupt...we need a nation of laws. We need to return to what we were...... Our founders knew what they were talking about.
posted
Wow--what a thread hijack-from unions to the evils of Government Jobs.
"An unproductive employee should be fired."
In a perfect capitalist world, this would be the yard stick of all employment.
But what if a boss says that "Unproductive" means unwilling to have sex with him? What if "Unproductive" means voting for a different person, or means Hispanic since the boss thinks all Hispanics are secretly lazy, or what if it means unwilling to work unpaid overtime, etc etc.
Who defines "Productive?"
In a world where there are sufficient jobs for everyone who wants to work, then the hard working person can always find another job. But what happens when a corrupt manager, boss, owner is in an area where jobs are fewer than people who work hard?
Labor can be seen as a commodity. Unions are a monopoly of the commodity and companies are the consumer of that commodity. A monopoly on the commodity is bad for the consumer.
On the other hand Jobs can be seen as a commodity. Companies can form a monopoly of that commodity for a given area or type. Ford has a monopoly on the jobs near a given Ford plant for example. Once again, a monopoly on this commodity is bad for the consumer.
Where there are neither monopolies, growth grows.
Where there is just one--stagnation follows.
(Side note--in the last 30 years we've seen business emphasize Jobs as a commodity more than Unions have emphasized their Labor as a commodity. This is partially due to the efforts of several to destroy unions, and partially this is due to the competition in labor available from other countries.)
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Feb 2003
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