Manny Mondays: Intra-class Sheeple Warfare Edition

Happy New Year and Monday morning everyone! As we enter the '11 new year, one of the many looming crises that could have truly dire ramifications on keeping the social fabric of this nation from coming apart is starting to get more attention in the MSM. It's the coming state and local government budget crisis that is likely to come to a head in the coming years, and one that has potentially several significant social repercussions.

As usual, the narrative in the MSM is mostly written from the elites' perspective, which is not an accident, as the intent is clearly to keep the Sheeple fighting amongst ourselves for the remaining table scraps after a small group of people take increasingly more and more for themselves, while claiming there's "no money" for everyone else. The austerity middle finger for the Sheeple, 6th & 7th homes, a 3rd yacht, caviar and an endless supply of useless Tiffany jewelry for our "betters".

I get the sense that this topic is going to be increasingly "in the zeitgeist" in 2011 and one that will only gain momentum over time at least partially because it conveniently takes the focus off of the real culprits in terms of what ails this nation, namely those in power on Wall Street, in the corporate suite, and in Washington. This week's Sunday NY Times has a front page article on this very topic.

Here are a few highlights from the article:

Across the nation, a rising irritation with public employee unions is palpable, as a wounded economy has blown gaping holes in state, city and town budgets, and revealed that some public pension funds dangle perilously close to bankruptcy. In California, New York, Michigan and New Jersey, states where public unions wield much power and the culture historically tends to be pro-labor, even longtime liberal political leaders have demanded concessions — wage freezes, benefit cuts and tougher work rules.

What's interesting (and not that surprising) is that, according to the article, conversation and focus has seemingly turned away from Wall Street and is now squarely on the public unions and their employees:

These battles play out in many corners, but few are more passionate than in New Jersey, where politics tend toward the moderately liberal and nearly 20 percent of the work force is unionized (compared with less than 14 percent nationally). From tony horse-country towns to middle-class suburbs to hard-edged cities, property tax and unemployment rates are high, and budgets are pools of red ink.

A new regime in state politics is venting frustration less at Goldman Sachs executives (Governor Christie vetoed a proposed “millionaire’s tax” this year) than at unions. Newark recently laid off police officers after they refused to accept cuts, and Camden has threatened to lay off half of its officers in January.

And shock of shocks, contrary to our friend Lou Mish and other intra-class warfare types who claim that public union "free-loader" employees are somehow getting rich off of their pay packages, it seems that studies show this is simply not the case, for the most part:

A raft of recent studies found that public salaries, even with benefits included, are equivalent to or lag slightly behind those of private sector workers. The Manhattan Institute, which is not terribly sympathetic to unions, studied New Jersey and concluded that teachers earned wages roughly comparable to people in the private sector with a similar education.

Go read the whole must-read article here:

Public Workers Facing Outrage as Budget Crises Grow

Meanwhile, for an, ahem, alternative viewpoint over in la-la-libertarian land, Lou Mish wants all fire departments and possibly police departments to be all volunteer. I honestly don't think this post is even worthy of a response as the absurdity of it speaks for itself and shows just how truly unhinged some of these libertarian types have become from reality but I had to post it. Shit, if it were this easy, maybe all lowly service blue collar workers should just work for free, especially those that aren't Mish's rich client base who clearly "deserve" everything they've "earned" in their careers and lives? That should work out just swell for our communities and the country as whole, right?

In Praise of Volunteer Fire Departments (Do we really need paid union fire departments anywhere? What about police?)

Eventually the Sheeple are going to tire of battling each other for the meager table scraps left over for us by our betters to battle over because eventually they'll be nothing left. The elites will have it all and subsequently have the world that they longed for all along (or so they thought). Once that happens, to whom do the Sheeple turn their/our ire? And what will be the social ramifications of it all? I'll leave you with this quote from the article to ponder it all:

A white-haired retired undercover police officer, whose wrap-around shades match his black Harley-Davidson jacket, pauses outside the Washington Township municipal building to consider the many targets. He did not want to give his name.

“Christie has all the good intentions in the world but has he hit the right people?” he says. “I understand pulling in belts, but you talking about janitors and cops, or the free-loading freeholder?”