Thursday, December 8, 2016

The On-Ramp Analogy

I was sitting in traffic not too long ago listening to talk radio when I thought of an analogy for the economy and why trickle-down economics just don't work.  I thought this analogy was simple to understand and relatable to everyone - especially those who have been stuck in traffic.

I call it "The On-Ramp Analogy."


Imagine the economy as a highway and all the cars are citizens going to work.  Everyone is moving at an even pace and things are running smoothly.

Some of the cars are impatient.  They contain business owners and they believe there is an incentive for them to get to work quicker then everyone else so that they can run their companies better and make more jobs. 

As the business owners changing lanes so they can speed up and get to the front of the on-ramp they cause a chain reaction.  All the cars behind them start hitting their brakes causing following traffic to come to a stop. 

As more and more business owners see the benefits of the on-ramp incentive they all begin to change lanes.  This not only causes delays in their original on-ramp lane but as they change lanes it causes oncoming traffic to also slow or stop, the end result being that once smoothly running highway is now a see of gridlocked cars. 

The bosses made it to work on time.  They even had extra time to spare and picked up breakfast or coffee for their friends.  As for those who were in traffic, they were blamed for the business' performance as well as their own tardiness...

It's that simple.

Next time you are in traffic and you are sitting at an on-ramp pay close attention.  You may notice that it seems cars are moving at a decent pace at the front of the line.  Not too fast but not too slow.

Then take a look down the line and the lanes beside it.  You may start to notice cars cutting in or getting out of line to move to a better spot.

Now look behind you.  Notice the standstill down the highway?

Congratulations.  You just experienced trickle-down economics at the automotive level...


Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Donald Doesn't Know About Anti-Union Laws

Donald took to twitter to attack the United Steelworkers 1999 for not protecting jobs of Indiana workers.


He attacked their job representing workers and called for them to reduce dues.

"Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers," he wrote. "Reduce dues," he continued an hour later.

The problem with his tweets is not that the president-elect has nothing better to do with his time than attack individuals and organizations on Twitter but that he demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of, well, everything, but in this particular case he shows just how little he knows about organized labor and the laws that govern them, and in this situation that would be Indiana state law.

You see, Indiana is a "right-to-work" state.  While that phrase makes it sound like finding and keeping a job is a god-given right that all can enjoy in a nurturing environment, Trump's tweets actually highlight the problems with such laws.

"Terrible job representing workers?"

The Indiana law actually prohibits a union from mandating non-members pay fees to the union representing them, which leads to the second tweet - What does it matter if they reduce dues or not when the state legislature and supreme court prevents them from collecting from those they represent?  While it may make a nice soundbite and rally call it is laws like these that weaken unions and drive down wages, benefits, and living standards for all workers - those same workers that believed Trump was going to make America great again and bring back their jobs.