intersting. I know 1 friend who has his own barber shop and no employees just him and he makes a good living at it. now this is back in Missouri. and his days off are during the week he even stays open on sunday and that gets him his busiest day because no one else is.

Are thier places you know of that thier are unions that a salon say all the employees can join? as a open shop i have found is a waiste of time.

AndyBgood sez:

I bet if everyone made 40,000 a year the economy would be humming. I made 74,000 last year, with one kid in collage and a single parent I think that may be just the right amount to sqwweeek by for now. Other kid drives has a vehical I maintain and as long as he is in a sport and grades are A's and B's I pay his insurence. I would imagine everyones financial needs are differant for differant times in their lives. If I were single no kids 40.000 k would be more money than I have right now. You should try to look at the world from someone elses eyes before you make such chizzled in stone statements.

I guess $40k/year should be considered a good, living wage. By that standard, $250k/yr might as well be $gajillion/yr. You'll remember, Conservatives screamed like banshees about people at that level having to pay more in taxes. Go figure.

No one screams at anything. If anything we think everyone should have to pay the same taxes. They already pay 10% more than the average american. i think its sad that they have to get a higher percentage taken away just because they make more.

10% of 40k is 4k
10% of 250k is 25k.
Just at that small percentage you can already see that the 250k person pays more in taxes by 21k. I support a flat tax.

It sounds like you believe that progressive taxes are unfair. I think if you truly understood how marginal taxes work you can see that this isn't at all the case. Even Adam Smith said that taxes needed to be progressive.

I was talking about a flat tax which is why I said flat tax. Yes marginal taxes would tax at a certain rate until you reach the new bracket and then change the rate. I understand the concept. It is still punishing you more for making more money. It just seems unfair still. Especially by how big a difference it is.

ATTACHED: This is the official excel DPI database of teachers wages by school district. Look up your own district !!! 

 

The current budget repair bill would have them paying about 5.8% towards their own retirement....right now, we the taxpayer, pays 100% of their generous retirement, and most of us pay 100% of our own retirement too.

 

 

AVERAGE WAGE <span>AND</span> BENEFITS (remember this is for about 9 months of work)

 

<span>TEACHERS:</span>

 

Milwaukee        $86,297

Elmbrook          $91,065

Germantown     $83,818

Hartland Arrwhd    $90,285     (highest teacher was $122,952-lowest was $64,942)

Men Falls          $81,099

West Bend       $82,153

Waukesha       $92,902

Sussex           $82,956

Mequon           $95,297

Kettle Mor       $87,676

Muskego        $91,341

 

<span>STAFF:</span>

 

Arrowhead - Bus Mng - Kopecky - $169,525

Arrowhead - Principal - Wieczorek -   $152,519

Grmtwn -  Asst Princ - Dave Towers - $123,222

Elmbrk  -  Burliegh Elemetary - Principal Zahn-  $142,315 (for a primary school!!)

Madison - Asst Principal - McGrath - $127,835

 

 

<span>UNIVERSITY of WISCONSIN STAFF (2009) (salary alone):</span>

 

Michael Knetter - Prof of Bus  -  $327,828

Carolyn Martin -Chancellor Mad-  $437,000

Hector Deluca - Prof of Nutritional Science - $254,877 (really??)

 

(source:Madison.com -as the UW removed salaries from being posted online in 2007- why if they are so low?)

 

 

How about some other "public servant job" ???  What do they make?

 

 

<span>Madison Garbage men (2009) (salary only):</span>

 

Garbageman, Mr. Nelson earned $159,258 in 2009, including $109,892 in overtime and other pay.
Garbageman, Greg Tatman, who earned $125,598
7 Madison garbage men made over $100,000
30 Madison garbage men made over $70,000
 

 

<span>MILWAUKEE CITY BUS DRIVERS (salary only):</span>

 

 

136 Drivers made more than  $70,000

  54 Drivers made more than  $80,000

  18 Drivers made more than  $90,000

   8 Drivers made more than  $100,000

         Top Driver made  $117,000

 (Source WTMJ)

 

(The average <span>private</span> bus driver makes $9-13 an hour (about 20,000 yr) with no pension, or healthcare.)

 

 

 

AND WE ARE SUPPOSED TO CONTINUE PAYING 100% OF THEIR GENEROUS RETIREMENT ? THEY HAVE SHUT DOWN SCHOOLS AS THEY DON'T WANT TO PAY 5.8% OF IT THEMSELVES ....REALLY?

Its all about life style. Everyone wants the high end everything. I have seen SO MUCH BULLSHITTE over the years. My mom supported our family most of the time since my father was a dead beat looser who spent more time out of work than working!!! If you are married and your wife (or husband) stays at home while you have to do all the work that is YOUR fault! My mom worked and took care of me and my brother and took care of the house. My mom divorced my father becasue he was full of shitte. We have it off WAY too easy in this country. I have been to Mexico and seen what a real slum looks like.

Now let us look at a fact ALL OF YOU ARE OVERLOOKING. A Wisconsin teacher makes $40,000 a year, now how about the costs to the tax payer for their withholdings? OH BUT NOT HERE WE REALLY GO! Think their health care benefits are free? WELL SOME OF YOU "EDUCATED FOLK" BETTER TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THAT THE HEALTH CARE THEY GET IS STATE SPONSORED AND COSTS AT LEAST ANOTHER $10,000 TO $20,000 PER PERSON BY THE TIME YOU GET DONE WITH BUREAUCRACY AND THEM TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ALL THE "FREE" MEDICAL CARE THEY USUALLY GET! That means effectively once you get past all the BS they are really making closer to $50k to $60K a year! Yeah it is so easy to ***** and whine about how poor people are when they make heaps of money over me! I don't have health care insurance. I CAN'T afford it. Yet they get it automatically and the state pays for it! Start to take into account their benefits before waving these "FACTS" in my face like a huge penis of minuscule size!

Hell, most of them don't work 3 months out of the year unless they decide to teach summer school! Those teachers need a dose of "SHUT THE FUQUE UP!" hey are lucky to have work at all in this economy and here they are pissing in the wind on all of us about how THEY are underpaid! They make $40,000 a year for a job they DON'T work all year??? ON top of that the cost of living in Wisconsin is not nearly anywhere near as high as it is here in good old Los Angeles! They have no room to *****!

Play your whining violin elsewhere!

It's not difficult to understand why people in the private sector have their panties in a wad. Pre-Reagan, they used to have the same kind of benefit packages that the Public sector has. That's the whole idea behind a labor union, to preserve what you have and are entitled. Private workers have allowed employers to simply take that away from them without even a whimper. Now, the thunder of envy is ear-splitting.

Every private sector job before Reagan was unionized?

Your generalizations are a bit of a stretch.

You keep using the pre Reagan timeframe for comparisons.

I am sure that you realize Jimmy Carter was president before Reagan.

Are you claiming that the imaginary line between prosperous, no problems in the world America and the apocalypse is January 20, 1981?

This should be good.

Actually, I think I'll play my whining violin pretty much anyplace I want to. I get to do that in this country.

Yes.

Reagonomics was the beginning downfall of this nation.

Ask a Railroad worker from the 80's what he thinks of Reagan. But be warned be ready to Duck

also FYI. i was in the servise in the early 80's.

Reagan had a plan how to save money.

His plan well everyone needs to cut back so the military can give up thier cost of living raise. for me that was $24 a month. I said ok i would.

so I wrote Reagan and said I was willing to do my share. Since this was passed by our govt. Elected officials all I ask is they give up thier also.

Fair huh they are the ones who come up with the plan and forced it on us.

My answer. We understand your concern. But the U S senate for 1 it said votes on thier own Salaries.

well they took 24 a month from me and every member of the Senate voted themselves in a 16k pay raise that year. Fair huh? They are the ones in power and we voted them in.

We are being told again how everyone should cut back by the same people elected officials.

How much are they cutting back?

What kind of retirement do they have and benefit package?

http://www.therightscoop.com/scott-walker-to-obama-mind-your-own-budget

Not envy. Policy that promotes chasing work away from this country has to be relaxed. Even with Tax Cuts many businesses are getting hammered by Union Labor demanding MORE money when the business is struggling to make a profit. The cost of benefits are not taken into account and this ripples upwards in huge labor pools for larger businesses and likewise can get to the point where the profit is sucked dry and businesses leave. When it is cheaper to manufacture overseas AND import and you turn a profit you go OVERSEAS like so many smart businesses did! Medicine has been commoditiazed. So has insurance. And when that happens the cost goes through the roof! On top of that we are a producing nation and a MAJOR oil producer who in all reality imports very little oil in comparison to EUROPE! Our prices are based on THEIR demand. Not ours! While we are trying to cut back in every way Industry says "The dollar is weak, fear of loss of influence in the middle east," and any host of buzzwords to justify upping prices on us! Worst is while the rest of us flounder financially BANKS are turning profits! And when all you pro union folks hear that you demand more wages. It is like "IF THEY CAN HAVE A PAY RAISE WE WANT ONE TOO!" The banks abused our trust and still milk us viciously and sheeple just complacently sit back and complain while being sheared and complain about being sheared instead of taking their money from fuqued up banks like Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo and go to a real bank with real service and no shell games and thieving people through their rules and ambiguously confusing contracts!

When I lost my job UAW 148 did nothing to help me get another job. We are talking NOT ONE GOD DAMN THING. No references, no counseling, Not ONE GOD DAMN THING! DONKEY FUQUE UAW 148 WITH A HUGE BLOATED SLAB OF FROZEN BEAST MEAT! That is how much I hate the UAW 148 and most other unions. A RARE few actually make a huge difference like the Sprinkler and Pipe Fitters since they actually have a union that cares about the trade and skill levels and competency of their laborers! The Teamsters are nothing but Shakedown artists! They are the jackoffs who stand in front of businesses with signs saying "Shame on Whoever! Labor Dispute." All they are there for is graft money! You convince a bunch of people they have new rights they will make demands that could put them out of a job! And Unions act like everyone is making so freaking much money!

I usually fend for myself. I never needed much medical attention over the years. Being sure I was covered when on the job site was all I really needed. All I need is a decent wage but I don't expect more than that from an employer becasue frankly I am glad I got work where so many others are just wallowing in misery with no way out! To hear some pack of whining cretins who think they can collectively bargain themselves more money when they make more than me and have less training and fewer job related hazards that are potentially life threatening all the time and on top of that don't have to hustle up work in a pinch from day to day just friggin pisses me off to no end. These folks need to spine up and cut back. Sorry but I grew up in poverty and have absolutely NO sympathy for the possibility their union powers may get stripped back. If they have to take a pay cut and reduction in benefits to keep a job they need to SHUT THE FUQUE UP! SMILE!! AND GET BACK TO WORK HAPPY IN THE KNOWLEDGE THEY HAVE A JOB WHERE OTHER PEOPLE HAVE NO JOB AND OTHERS WORST JOBS!!! Otherwise they can quit and find a job elsewhere like we all do in the real world! I don't see a lot of "White Folk" Or BLACK FOLK for that matter out in the fields picking strawberries!

NOPE NO SYMPATHY HERE!

I agree since they work for less so should the rest of us. While the fat cats get ever richer and one private island isnt enough the rest of us should do without benefits or descent pay. Its no small wonder this country is in such sorry shape.

I don't believe that the President is excepted from the first amendment.

Way, way, way to OVERPAID for the lousy job they are doing.

I did not learn to read from a 'teacher'... My mom taught me, she also taught me math, to love science and to search for truth...

Those that are feeding at the public trough are not speaking 'truth' they are speaking spin...

Just look at the test scores of our youth...

You seem to assume that we all want the teat sucky nanny state...

Reality is that many of us see the truth of the budgets. We continue to spend like we uns owns a money tree... We un is gonna become a history lesson to the children of the 22nd century...

As just another failed nation.

wonder what language those children will learn the lesson in.

Perhaps you should have your ears checked... don't they make some medication for people that hear things that arn't there... Like silent thunder.