“the only people who are benefiting from what’s left of the American system are the wealthy CEOS and their cohorts on Wallstreet.”

Are you ABSOLUTELY insane? Go look at any economic indicator. This country is in great shape all things considered. I assume that you are typing your asinine comments on a computer with the internet. I guess you managed to save a few nickels under the mattress to get yourself a new Dell. Times are hard I know. I couldn’t afford a new playstation 3, so I have to play on my old one without internet access.

Liberals will never get it. Its called the power of thinking positive. Most Americans already do understand that and consequently enjoy their lives. you should do the same.

As to your crazy babbling about Bush. I could care less. Now I know who reads the endless parade of Bushbashers on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. Liberalism has poisioned your mind. Free yourself from the shackles.

You probably think that Nike and everyone else utilizing cheap labor overseas are criminals who are exploiting the poor and uneducated. I see as they are giving people an opportunity to earn a wage where they otherwise would be eating garbage. Over time the standard of living increases and subsequently the cost of a labor also increases, and then manufacturers will move on to the next underdeveloped country. If that country played its cards right, it can move on to industries requiring more skilled labor and development continues. Look at Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea for example. India is moving in that direction and China will soon follow.

The reason BMW moved here is because the South is provides a skilled labor force and conservative government who haven’t been poisoned by your marxist bs. If you think that BMW workers are uneducated and being exploited then I suggest you go take a plant tour. They are earning a damn wage and making a quality product without the help of any unions. BMW is very enviro-friendly and all that other crap. So maybe you should check your facts and pull your head out of your ass.

Companies move where labor is cheap. Just because BMW moved here and Alabama is getting foreign companies to invest means nothing. It’s the same as American companies going to Mexico and Southeast Asia. When you have lax regulations and poorly educated people, that’s where you go. That’s why Northern textile mills moved to the South, and subsequently to Central America and elsewhere. But, I wouldn’t want the facts to get in the way of you defending the wealthy – not that Congress and the President don’t do a damn good job of that already.

Corporatist with the help of Reagan, Bush I&II and Clinton have sold out the very workers who made them rich in the first place by gutting regulations that protected them or dissolving barriers that kept American jobs in America just so they could make 2.1 billion in profits instead of just 2 billion in profits next year. They’ve conspired to bust unions and dismantle any worker, financial and environmental protections, they’ve sold our country into debt to China and Saudi Arabia and moved headquarters offshore to avoid taxes because they know they won’t take the hit. Working families will.

And worst yet, they have the balls to claim the workers are the ones who are asking for handouts when it’s the corporatists that expect the government to bail them out every time their stocks fall — usually because of their greed and criminal activity. Not exactly a free market is it? More like the market is free as long as you pay off the wealthy with public services and public funds first.

And why BMW and other corporations you name wanted to move their factories to S.C. and Alabama, is because the corporatists in those legislatures have already created the legal environment where workers have no protections and power to protect themselves from predatory practices and corrupt owners. They moved here to take advantage of the current exploitive atmosphere and will keep moving to where they can take the biggest advantage of the workers possible, preferably with the government and military’s assistance.

Wake up, dude. American families are working harder and longer than ever and are having a harder time paying the bills than ever before. Millions don’t have healthcare and even for those who can get it, it often doesn’t cover the costs. Millions are living in poverty and going into greater debt than ever before just to survive.

Darrell, you’ve either drunk the koolaid and actually believe in the fantasy that the corporatists and their criminal cohorts are going to let you into their club, or you’re already in the club, in which case, you’re disingenuous arguments are even more insulting to real, honest hardworking people. Either way, it’s even more clear you couldn’t care less about America’s working families. And that’s sad.

Were your grandparents in a farmers union or something? Did the union pay for your parents’ college tuition? I have been upwardly mobile in my life with no help at all from a union. It really isn’t hard, just do your best. If you want to fight the system and get free handouts, move to France. If you want to have good opportunities and a fulfilling career, put your nose to the grindstone and things will work out just fine.

We don’t have hardly any unions in the South Carolina, yet I am unaware of this systemic abuse of employees by their oligarchic employers. Look at Detroit and other crapholes to see what good a union will do for you. Do you think BMW moved its plant here because of the weather? How about Hyundai in Alabama or any other large manufacturer that has moved to the South in recent years? Perhaps you and Michael Moore can beat up on your employers until the leave town, or the country for that matter, and then blame them for your misfortunes. The quality of your pay and benefits should be dependent on the demand for your services and not the strength of your bargaining power.

I will agree that there are a few bad apple employers out there. However, unions will inevitably cross the line of bettering the lives of their members to leaching a company of its assets and marketability while also creating a hostile work environment. Clearly, unions are an aged institution and are slowly dying. We have learned from the mistakes made in the past and created a decent system for striking the balance without resorting to giving a bunch of goons a heavy stick to beat companies in to submission.

Say hello to your other brother Darrell at your next klan rally..

If business can organize in associations, employees should be able to do the same thing. And if you don’t think employers use said associations to go after their employees, you’d be pretty naive.

There’s nothing wrong with pooling your power to demand decent pay and decent health care. After all, if it weren’t for unions my grandparents would’ve remained poor farmers and my parents would never have been able to go to college. And, isn’t that what America is all about – upward mobility?

Step one. INTIMIDATION: “I dare you to call anyone in a union a Marxist face to face.”

Step two: LIES AND CONTRADICTIONS: compare “the political influence of unions is as strong as it has ever been” with “have you stopped to really consider why union membership has indeed been waning for some time?”

Step Three: DEMGOGUERY AND MORE LIES: “Reagan and the Bushies who have conspired with their corporate masters to dismantle the middle class”

Step Four: MARXIST RANT: “there is no such thing as a free-market. The Oligarchs are the only ones getting anything for free”

Step five: LAZY ASS FREE LOADER “you ought to think about just how you or anyone who works for a corporation got the 40-hour work week, vacation time and the protection of OSHA.”

You obviously don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, like most (ahem) conservatives. I dare you to call anyone in a union a Marxist face to face. That’s so 30s, dude. Why don’t you read a book now and then.

And for your information, the political influence of unions is as strong as it has ever been as evidenced by the candidates falling all over themselves to get an endorsement every election cycle. But more importantly, have you stopped to really consider why union membership has indeed been waning for some time? The answer is because of the illicit cabal of conservative nut-cases like Reagan and the Bushies who have conspired with their corporate masters to dismantle the middle class and sell the BIG lie that workers don’t deserve rights. The corporatists masquerading as conservatives in the GOP and the Democratic parties have sold out the majority of Americans for the past 30 years simply to feed their own greed and have handed over government to the souless oligarchs every chance they got. And contrary to the line of crap that Sic Willie and other quasi Libertarians have swallowed, there is no such thing as a free-market. The Oligarchs are the only ones getting anything for free.

So before you start bashing collective bargaining organizations, you ought to think about just how you or anyone who works for a corporation got the 40-hour work week, vacation time and the protection of OSHA. It wasn’t because owners decided out of the goodness of their hearts to give it to you.

Sic Willie is dead on. Most unions are nothing but a bunch of marxists at their core. They are most certainly on the wane as their political influence has been steadily decling for decades, as well as their numbers. also, what does China have to do with anything?