Harmony for Families

Weeks ago, union leaders wrote me this:

"On Friday, state and local public employees offered to accept all economic concessions called for in the budget repair bill – including Governor Walker’s pension and health care concessions that he says are needed to solve the state budget challenge.

Governor Walker turned it down.  He wants more."

Walker got what he wanted last night. [Read Here]

 Admittedly, public employees have not always made the most favorable impressions.

A story came out of Milwaukee this summer reporting that their teacher union leaders wanted Viagra to be covered under their insurance plan. [Here]

Disappointing for sure.  In many respects, union leadership and some teachers, as exemplified in this case, have proven themselves unworthy for leadership positions. 

  

This lack of leadership has been obvious on both sides.  

“Republicans devised a plan to get around the impasse and hurriedly approved the bill late in the day after meeting for hours behind closed doors.” – JSOnline.com

This plan may have been legal but it certainly was not democratic.  Few would argue that it portrays the lack of political leadership show by the state’s chief executive.

As for my family and our resulting sacrifices, the financial concessions we’ll make will equate to $630/month out of pocket.  However, the financial costs will be so much more when all other contractual variables are considered.

To ask anyone of already moderate income to drop this sum from their family's monthly income is completely unreasonable and potentially economically devastating for us.

For families such as mine, and for so many others, we simply can't budget for those losses.

These personal losses are just a drop in the state’s economic bucket.  My family’s purchasing power was already comparatively minimal.  However, when one considers the impact of the decreased purchasing power accrued by the hundreds of thousands of families of state employees…it may devastate local economies and the economy state-wide.

Those in the private sector, who have so much scorn for the public employee, may find solace in our legislated miseries but that comfort won’t last long. 

Though my family’s contributions to this economy may amount to only one drop, the economy will have to endure the loss of hundreds of thousands of such drops.  Those in the private sector will soon learn that it’s difficult to fill an economic trough when so many drops are absent.  Indicators show the state will lose trillions of dollars worth of purchasing power from its economy.  

Whether or not this state’s economy can endure the loss of so much purchasing power,   I can promise this:  Those of us in the public sector will not find comfort in your losses, will not find refuge in some distorted sense of revenge, and will not celebrate your destruction with commentary.

Reasonable people are everywhere.  Empathetic and hard-working people abound.   

It’s the extremism, absolutism, and authoritarianism in leadership that concerns me.

I tell my students this, “Balance the needs of the individual with those of the greater good.”  If our state leaders put into practice this simple creed, union members, Republicans, teachers and taxpayers would find reasonable solutions for bringing harmony to our families.