Mass Protests Over WI Governor's Controversial Budget Repair Bill

I will state once more on the collective bargaining, Collective bargaining would be allowed only on wage increases up to the rate of inflation. This is completely fair. No reason to battle over that.

However, I want to point out that the elimination of collective bargaining could lead to many things that could really kill the salaries that state workers get. Unions were there to counter big corporations in the first place (note: I'm not saying states are "big corporations") and they are there to fight for rightful pay.

I understand your issues in california. That said it is california not Wisconsin. As I stated in earlier posts, each state has a different economy and cost of living. I live in nevada, the state with the highest unemployment and home foreclosure rate in the entire united states. So I feel your pain. That said, here is a calculation to show the difference in the cost of living from nevada to Wisconsin...Madison Wisconsin to be exact. If I made 50k a year in nevada, I would only need to make 45k a year to keep my same life style in madison. That said, the average pay for a teacher in wisconson is about 100k. That is way more than is needed to live in that state. Wisconsin has one of the lowest costs of living in the U.S. They can afford to take out some of the pay the currently get to put into the pension and health care. Everyone else has to to that there is no reason whay they cant too. Even more to the point there is no reason why the cost of their pension and health care should fall onto the tax payer either.

I just looked up the average pay of Wisconsin teachers, and while its somewhat better than other states on average (not $100K total though), eliminating collective bargaining will trim down what the teachers are currently making. That is not good for those that want to go into the teaching profession.

And just to throw another element in there: Teachers are already under attack by those who think they're giving students a shi'tty quality in education. I can bet you have heard of people "teacher-bashing" all day, every day. I read an article the other day about how the breaking point for teachers in Wisconsin was the fact that they were attacked once more - though in a different fashion - in terms of their right to collectively bargain. That was enough for many Wisconsin teachers.

As for the minor note of selling assets. It is totally needed in order to get the defecit down to a more managable level. Wisconson is facing a 3.8 billion dollar defecit by 2013. Thats pretty big for a state of its population. I know about californias problems as well and I would question the reasons behind not selling assets in that state because I see no way out your states problems. California is and has been for a long time a state that is out of control. Though I think much of the problems there could be solved or at least lessened by getting rid of all the illegal immigrants. I know its a problem in nevada and can only immagine how bad it is there.

Though I believe that selling of state assets are not the way to go. I'm sure that there's other ways to cut "wasteful spending".

Sorry for bringing up California again, but in my state, I had already lost faith in state legislatures doing their job balancing the budget due to their antics. Had they done their job and did this on a bipartisanship basis, I can guarantee you the state budget crisis wouldn't be as worse as it is right now. Right now, Jerry Brown is doing a good job by hitting this issue since Day 1, but is not taking any rash actions.

Though I have to add that only last-minute compromise between the Democrats and the Republicans got the past state budget passed. Still ridiculous (and budget gap was still huge), but at least something was done (albeit not in a satisfactory manner).

In the case of Wisconsin: The problem is Governor Walker (and his fellow Republican) lawmakers are not willing to negotiate with Democrats. They act like they have the right to do anything to cut the costs. Including taking this extraordinary, unusual action of targeting unions in order to trim costs. That's just a recipe for disaster. Its already has been seen on the streets of Madison, Wisconsin. That's what I don't like about those Wisconsin Republican lawmakers. Not compromising with the opposition can only take one so far before things blow up. Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers have no choice but to go AWOL, and I believe that they had no choice but to do so given what Governor Walker being a hard-head in terms of being inflexible with compromise. Horrible move on his part. Small wonder why a lot of people think he's an idiot.

And as history goes in the United States, compromise is what saved certain crises from breaking out within the nation (exception: Civil War).

Also...do note that unions wanted to give up a little of what they have - in terms of pay - as a way to compromise. But nope. Governor Walker squashed all of those proposals and said his proposal was the only way to go.