Spoke with my tea bagger relatives

They are going through some rough times financially. My sister is moving in with my parents in an effort to save their home, doubling up as many are doing these days. They are upset over the unrest in the middle east mainly because they worry it will cause oil prices to rise which will mean higher costs for fuel and food for them. Worried about inflation, blaming the fed for printing money, etc. They think the recovery is BS and resent government workers for having what they think of as cushy well paid jobs while everyone else suffers. My mother particularly pointed out that restaurants and retail are doing poorly.
So why does she want government workers to be stripped of their benefits, salaries, collective bargaining rights? That would just add that many more financially insecure workers to the mix. That wouldn't be good for restaurants or retail either. Just the opposite in fact. This rage against other workers will only hurt already struggling private business increasing the downward spiral of the global economy. It will lead to more job loss in the private sector, won't it? I get the impression she thinks privatizing public services like fire, education and police will lead to lower taxes and that workers for these privatized services won't have their pay, benefits and retirement funds paid by taxpayers. Won't our taxes still be paying for these outsourced jobs run by private companies?
Also, do people on the right think that privatizing jobs currently held by unionized government workers will lead to lower taxes on themselves? Has that ever happened anywhere? Where a former government run service has been privatized and then results in lower taxes for the community?
I can't get much of a coherent answer out of my relatives. What say you DU?

employees (other than the CEO)?

upper echelon passed on as cost. The logic that privatizing will lead to consistently lower cost makes no sense in the real world.

Solidarity is important.

Can these people turn their rage around to the perpetrators of their demise and destitution? Or is it that nobody likes to admit they have been totally duped and so, pride keeps them from admitting who is directing this dissonant orchestra?

Of course, I am not going to expect them to be open to understanding just what the current role of media is in their misunderstanding of who is doing what and why. It would help though.

works when the rich have all the money. Tell them to immediately send all what's left of their money including their pensions to a Wall street CEO of their choice. They will feel better about the whole situation. Tell them they can help Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck by writing the names of the products they flog on the cardboard signs they hold up at freeway off-ramps.

Y'know....Sean and Rush and the lot won't have many contributors or listeners if their fans are all reduced to living under the freeway. Maybe they should think about that?

Believing or desiring others should suffer.

was particularly telling. They were apparently OK with people in other countries living under repressive dictatorships as long as they didn't have to pay more for energy or food. Literally said they didn't think that part of the world could handle democracy. And here I thought republicans were all for toppling dictators and spreading democracy.

...resent government workers for having what they think of as cushy well paid jobs while everyone else suffers.

I'm reminded of the Walker/"Koch" conversation in which Walker relates with glee how the New York Times "got it right":

Walker: So it’s, uh, this is ground zero, there’s no doubt about it. But, uh, I think, you know, for us, I just keep telling, I call, I tell the speaker, the senate majority leader every night, give me a list of the people I need to call at home, to shore ’em up. The New York Times, of all things, I don’t normally tell people to read the New York Times, but the front page of the New York Times has got a great story, one of these unbelievable moments of true journalism, what is supposed to be objective journalism. They got out of the capital and went down one county south of the capital to Janesville, to Rock County, that’s where the General Motors plant once was.

Murphy: Right, right.

Walker: They moved out two years ago. The lead on this story is about a guy who was laid off two years ago, uh, he’s been laid off twice by GM, who points out that, uh, everybody else in his town has had to sacrifice except for all these public employees and it’s about damn time they do, and he supports me. Um, and they had a bartender, they had, I mean, every stereotypical blue-collar worker type they interviewed, and the only ones that weren’t with us were people who were either a public employee or married to a public employee. It’s an unbelievable story. So I went through and called all these uh, a handful, a dozen or so lawmakers I worry about each day and said, “Everyone, we should get that story printed out and send it to anyone giving you grief.”

http://host.madison.com/wsj/article_531276b6-3f6a-11e0-b288-001cc4c002e0.html

Hey, Walker! Guess how this poor autoworker got laid off? That's right...fucking GM pulled out of the country. Anyone tell this dumb SOB that GM moved to Mexico?

GM to invest extra $540 million in Mexico to build motors
MEXICO CITY (AFP) – US giant General Motors will invest $540 million to produce two low-emission motors in central Mexico, the company announced here Thursday ... (full article pulled). on edit: Yahoo News.

So why expect public workers who are unionized to sacrifice because fucking GM gave its workers the finger? Why? Want to explain that one, Walker?

And while we're at it, guess who's taxes were used to "bail out" GM? Want to guess? Think it was the unemployed GM worker? No, it was all of us who are working, including the unionized public workers, that's who!

Fuck you, Walker!

who work for the state and federal government. Those working at the state level have had mandatory furlough days for the past couple of years and have had their benefits slashed while also contributing more for these same reduced benefits. So the whole story about government workers having it made is completely false. They have already made sacrifices. There already have been cuts in salary and benefits. There have been layoffs as well.

One of my tea party relatives works for a defense contractor and loves to complain about her taxpayer dollars paying for the salaries and benefits of government workers which is crazy considering my taxpayer dollars pay for her salary and benefits too. And I get no say in how that money is spent. Should I also be upset? Raging that her job should be abolished? The company she works for has contract work rebuilding Afghanistan. Personally, if I had a choice of where my taxpayer money went I'd rather pay for fire, education and police here. But maybe that's just me?

One book in particular has stayed with me for about 40 years or so, called Welcome to the Monkey House. In this story, the masses wanted everyone to be the same, not that they would all have the best, but that they would all be the same. So, the Handicapper General was in charge of putting weights on the ankles of the best ballerina, the best of everything was given something terrible to bear so that they would not be better off than everyone. No one could be better than anyone else, so of course everything and everyone got worse. That's my theory on why the Teabaggers want everyone stripped down to their level...they are jealous and envious. Not they were in the past when they thought they were better off, of course. They were the stupid ones to not be raking in the big bucks flipping those houses.

My rant. Glad you have DU :hi:

It's been a long time since I read it though. Sounds like a definite re-read.
Definitely think that media is stirring up the resentment and that those down on their luck are susceptible to giving into their feelings of jealousy. Sadly...

...instead of having it go out in wages and circulate in the larger economy, would that help them understand?

Or would that be 'welfare'?

money, but enriching their friends and more than likely hurting whatever service was being provided.

Is there any example of privatized services actually resulting in lower taxes for the community? Or even sustained proven lower costs for the local government?

Cause I suspect no...but would really love some concrete examples.

State
County
City

??????

you know of communities that had their taxes lowered as a result of privatizing services formerly run by the government? :)

Property taxes have decreased almost every year (26) Since things went privitised.

:(

That's why I didn't press too much...still wish they'd understand they've been led to believe things that run counter to their own best interests.

I've been through this with family. The ball is in their court.

but when the tide goes out, I want to make sure I drag you down with me" Stephen Colbert, 2/22/11

Also, unions hurt the middle class. I have a hard time understanding how any worker can swallow those obvious corporate lies.

My BIL listens to Limbaugh every day so he knows what to believe. I'm not kidding. If there is a breaking issue he will not even discuss it until he hears "the truth" from Rush. My BIL never really had much to say about unions, saving his venom for black people, brown people, democrats, and his sister (my wife). You know the type of person he is.

So now he is in a total foaming at the mouth rage about unions public and private employer unions too. He suddenly believes that unions are the worst thing in the world. Why? Because right wing radio has turned their hatred towards the Wisconsin teachers and other public workers.

My suggestion about your family. Ignore them. Maybe some day they will turn off Rush Limbaugh and become rational again. Or not.

getting them to just unplug for a moment to get some rest from media pundits. I do it occasionally myself and find it quite relaxing. But I think you're right, if they would just think things through themselves it would be a big help. :)

idiots.:banghead:

"Class envy" and everybody who decried the obscene profits, bonuses, and tax breaks for the wealthy were just haters who resented the success of those who are smarter and worked harder?

Bet that was a FOX news thing huh?

when the topic was obscenely wealthy CEOs and banksters. I'm grateful to a certain "Zorro" on another forum, who can always be depended upon to dutifully spout all the latest RW talking points. That way I don't have to go wading through pajamasmedia and similar drecht myself. Zorro can always be counted on to import it to the other board, and he usually apes it in his own posts (although he's also a notorious plagiarist).

Yeah, they were denouncing class envy just a few weeks before they were instigating it!

they need to turn off fox.

I sooooo wish that was possible. :)