"Migration from high-tax states to states with lower taxes and less government spending will dramatically alter the composition of future Congresses, according to a study by Americans for Tax Reform.
Eight states are projected to gain at least one congressional seat under reapportionment following the 2010 Census: Texas (four seats), Florida (two seats), Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington (one seat each). Their average top state personal income tax rate: 2.8 percent.
By contrast, New York and Ohio are likely to lose two seats each, while Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will be down one apiece. The average top state personal income tax rate in these loser states: 6.05 percent.
...And, as ATR notes, “in eight of ten losers, workers can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. In 7 of the 8 gainers, workers are given a choice whether to join or contribute financially to a union.”
Washington Examiner
"On Nov. 9 in the pages of the Columbia Tribune, one of the state legislature’s most dependable defenders of trade unionism sent a shot across the bow of the arriving conservative dreadnaught: Don’t think seriously about passing a right-to-work law in Missouri, wrote Sen. Timothy Green, D-St. Louis.
Sen. Green had a list of reasons why unionism is good for the state and the world in general, but I’ll bet the main intent of his literary foray was to remind enthusiastic conservatives of the political torture RTW poses. Green has a point.
It’s likely that in this season of right-wing ascendancy in the Missouri General Assembly, thoughts of finally passing a right-to-work law dance in some heads like visions of sugarplums. Perhaps Sen. Rob Mayer of Dexter, representing the most conservative branch of the state GOP and heir apparent to the coveted position of majority leader, imagines this is the time finally to see RTW succeed in Missouri.
But he and his co-thinkers would be wrong. As Green hints, they would be heading for a brick wall with plenty of brambles along the way."
News Tribune
Missouri, especially St. Louis, used to be a union hotbed. We had lots of manufacturing and construction. Most made a pretty good living. The middle class was well populated and all those union jobs supported a whole bunch of small non-union shops, you know, barbers and groceries and the like.
Those days are long gone and they're not coming back. Almost all the jobs that were done by union labor have gone to right-to-work states or overseas to the slave labor in Asia. The jobs aren't coming back unless our political leaders grow a pair and that's not going to happen.
Realistically, we need jobs. Ideally they'd all pay great wages and have great benefits but I'll not hold my breath. We need jobs NOW; just about any kind will do. And the threat of unionism in Missouri stands in the way of many employers even considering our state.
Not to mention that the unions have changed. They're not the looking out for the good of the worker or the company. Their main purpose today seems to be to spread socialism and distrust of our country. They have become world wide organizations embracing Marxism not just in Europe but here, in America. We don't need that in our country, much less our state.
Support economic growth here in Missouri if the issue of Right-to-Work comes up. Let's try to break the union stranglehold and return the jobs we so sorely need to our state.
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What makes you think that if employers make more money, they'll hire more workers. Most, these days, are using the recession as an opportunity to downsize their workforce and cause single workers to do two or even three jobs - and they do it out of fear of losing that unfair job. I will never understand the rationale of those who say if the wealthy get wealthier, they'll pay the poor. It won't happen.
ReplyDeleteHi Mary Ann!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting.
My experience has been that the number of jobs is directly related to the profitability of the company. I'm not saying it's always true but I do believe it usually is.
Companies must expand to remain profitable. If they cease to grow they will inevitably begin to shrink. Nothing stays static for long in business. Growth begets employment.
What I can say because it is statistically true is that right to work states have more growth than union states. The article above reflects that truth.
Missouri is one of the states that is on the losing end of the union/non-union argument. We lose auto plants while states in the right-to-work south gain them. Do the employees of those Honda and BMW plants make as much as the ones at the UAW represented Chrysler plant here in Fenton? No. They make more because they have jobs while the Chrysler plant here is currently being dismantled.
I didn't say that as the wealthier get wealthier they'll pay the poor. Why should they? What I do believe is that if the environment is one which supports the start and expansion of business then businesses will start in that place if the need for their product exists. And if business can profit it will grow. And if it grows it will need to hire more people.
The fact that Missouri is not a right to work state creates an environment that many in the business world see as hostile to their interests so they take their businesses and the jobs that go with it elsewhere.
Personally, I'd rather make a little less than nothing at all.