Nick Balzano, president of the Service Employees International Union’s Allentown chapter, may have picked the wrong target for a threat of legal action by the union. Balzano threated the city with a grievance filing after Boy Scout Kevin Anderson, 17, says he cleared a walking path in an east Allentown, Pa. park so people could walk along the river. That should have been a job given to union employees, Balzano, claimed, and is threatening a legal filing.
The union was complaining that 39 SEIU members were recently let go by the city, which then allowed this scout to earn his scab badge. He is quoted as saying that the union would be “looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails … There’s to be no volunteers.”
Anderson is a member of Boy Scouts Troop 301 of Center Valley and worked for more than 200 hours creating the 1000-foot path in Kimmets Lock Park along with fellow scouts, friends and parents. He is a junior at Southern Lehigh High School.
I think that the SEIU should insist on the garbage be put back and Anderson charged under National Labor Relations Act as a lesson to any scouts who would try something horrific like this again. Indeed, the federal government should look into how scouts have been supplanting cross-guard employees by helping elderly citizens across streets. The menace of scab scouting must be confronted before every footpath in America is cleared.
Below may (or may not) be a picture of the confrontation between the scouts and the union:
For the story, click here.
“A tool and its misuse are not the same thing.”
I think John Bobbit made the same claim. LOL
I just say, light my fire and I will provide the music. A fiddlin we will do.
“Should not the creator be deserving of the same contempt? In fact more for the simple fact that it should have known better?”
By that rationale every gun manufacturer is guilty of murder.
A tool and its misuse are not the same thing.
Corporations are a tool. They are optional. Other tools or other forms of the tool are better options.
Government is a necessity. It is not optional or there is anarchy, invasion and/or disintegration of the social networks that define a society.
“I’m only bad because I’m created that way” is dangerously close to the logic of Jessica Rabbit. And just as two dimensional.
Byron and Reverend,
You either avoid or miss the point. Government per se is neither good nor bad. It is a function of who controls it. For the most part corporations by dint of their wealth have had undue influence on Government and in that sense government has acted on their behalf. However, the corporations would fare far better if a minimalist government structure was in place. The reason is obvious, the would be allowed to operate in an unfettered environment and would move quickly towards monopolization of everything. There would be no “free market” because in truth corporations hate the concept. “Free markets” cut down on profits and price fixing. Government can be the last resort in protecting the majority of people from the predations of the most powerful. The question isn’t the utility of government, it is the ability of the interests of most of the people to be served by it.
Buddha:
I dont think the Reverend is a big fan of corporations as evidenced by this:
“Corporations are, for the purposes of Rights, anyway, considered a Person – this is so bassackward it’s almost unbelievable that somebody could be so stupid. An Un-Natural Frankenstein-Monster-esque conglomeration of parts can use the same Natural Rights a Natural Person has, in order to hide evidence of their misconduct.”
I think he is saying what you are saying except he thinks government is the problem while you think corporations are the problem.
The problem is the unholy alliance of the 2. But I would say that government is more the problem and you would say that corporations are more the problem.
Government created corporations and thus Reverend Dracos’ analogy to Frankenstein, Government is the doctor, the creator of the monster you despise. Should not the creator be deserving of the same contempt? In fact more for the simple fact that it should have known better?
Ahhhhh . . . the smell of corporatist apologists. Smells just like fascism.
You keep on dreaming Rev. that the world can work without rules and I’ll just save you seat in Hell.
“Well some good came of it.” That’s the same kind of rationale the medical community used when integrating the information the Nazis gained on human physiology into modern medicine. And you hang yourself on your own words. “[W]hen properly used”. The Corporate Fiction has been misused almost since inception, sport. Or do you think Jefferson developed his hatred of corporations for no good reason. They are an inherently dangerous legal concept. Come on. Tell us how you are smarter than the smartest man to ever hold the Office of President. I also want to hear how severe economic disparity has ever led to anything but trouble for that shit, pardon me, creme floating to the top when people at the bottom start suffering. Ask the French how well that worked out while you’re ordering your cake. Ask the Romans what happened when the poor got too hungry. But you go right on ahead thinking unrestrained capitalism isn’t fascism and I’ll go on thinking people like you are part of the problem, Mr. Rationale For Greed. Your rationale is that incremental increases in efficiency merit giving away rights of natural humans and giving a fiction equal or superior rights can only make things better because the government has never done ANYTHING . . . except provide the fundamental systems and infrastructure society requires to survive and tell you greedy fascists to pay taxes on your ill-gotten gains. How dare they tax the money you stole! And to pay for things outrageous like schools, libraries and roads. That alone shows how staggeringly blinded by greed you are.
Preach it somewhere else, Rev. Materialism. Byron may be easily distracted by arguments with dollar signs and sparklies attached but some of us have much greater flexibility in focus.
And a hearty Amen Reverand
Wikiman, Unions have been around and legally recognized in the US since the middle of the 19th century; they existed and agitated for beneficial change (12 hour workdays!) before they were recognized though. Check your namesake for the time-line:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_labor_unions_in_the_United_States
It’s ok, Byron. . . they might be “kicking your ass,” but they have their shoes on the wrong feet.
The Great Depression was caused by the Federal Reserve and lengthened by Government Interference. . . prior to this, all that ever happened were minor recessions that soon worked themselves out. Using pretty standard fearmongering, Big Banking (Goldman-Sachs, JP Morgan, etc.) used propaganda to lie to the people, that Corporate Monopolies would fix the problem – and the Fed was born. . . the Depression being the Fed’s retarded child.
Prior to the Fed. . .
In the late-1700s, a quality loaf of bread cost approximately $0.05.
In the early 1800s, a quality loaf of bread cost approximately $0.05.
In the early 1900s, a quality loaf of bread cost approximately $0.05.
Post-fed, a quality loaf of bread costs approximately $4.00 – an inflation rate of approximately 8,000%.
Henry Ford worked the bugs out of assembly-line manufacturing, which lowered the cost of building a car – the Model T’s price dropped from its original 1908 cost of nearly $1000 to under $300 in 1927 because of this. A 2011 Ford Fiesta, the closest equivalent to the Model T, will run $12,000-$16,000 – an increase of 4,000%-5,300%.
Corporations are, for the purposes of Rights, anyway, considered a Person – this is so bassackward it’s almost unbelievable that somebody could be so stupid. An Un-Natural Frankenstein-Monster-esque conglomeration of parts can use the same Natural Rights a Natural Person has, in order to hide evidence of their misconduct.
The bailout-and-takeover scam currently being foisted off on us is simply a continuation of the failed policies of the past – right down to the Propaganda Machine working overtime to convince the undereducated that everything is hunky-dory, or will become so, as long as “they” are allowed to continue baling and taking. . .
The sad part is, you guys believe it – and so, “they” will continue to work their Nibor Dooh magic – steal from the poor, give to the rich.
So, yes, the Vast Majority of the economic problems we’re going through today can be traced, in a direct, unbroken line, straight to Government Interference.
Gyges:
It is a tribal gift passed on to me by my granmother who was 1/128th Cherokee or so she made a point of telling us.
It is to bad it wasnt 1/2, that would have been worth some money. Dont they run some Casinos?
For You For You For You For You For Byron,
Well done.
Gyges:
Earl Grey?
4 U Byron:
what is your point?
I disagree with the overall philosophy of the stimulus, the particulars are irrelevant. You miss the larger issue when you focus on typos or the ignorance of the data entry person for the website. So send me a video that is speaking to the philosophical argument against the stimulus.
I also think Bush’s bailout was a joke and inappropriate.
However I doubt Pres. Obama does not know that there are 50 states, it was an obvious mistake and of little importance when disagreeing with his overall ideas about the nature of government and its proper function.
I also think Bush and the country club republicans are responsible for the mess we are in now.
Send me a video quoting Madison or Jefferson.
but thanks for trying.
Byron,
I wash just rehashing the thinking that got me to go from the current incarnation of Libertarianism to Jeffersonian Liberal. Jefferson and the rest of the founding fathers had every reason to hate corporations, who exactly do you think the Boston Tea Party was supposed to hurt?
It doesn’t function well at any size and it is dangerous in its Leviathan sized incarnation.
Byron,
One lives to be of service. Happy hunting.
Bryon,
Do not leave out part of the book named Ford and the machines. It speaks of Henry Ford and his role with the Union and mostly not to nicely. His role in Playing with Adolph Hitler too. I might ad not to nice either. The unions have been around for sometime, they just were not formally recognized in this country until, well you gotta give that US loving SOB Senator from Wisconsin his credit too, Joe McCarthy.
Gyges/Buddha:
I am doing a little research on corporations and their history. I am currently reading on a left wing site called “reclaimdemocracy.org”. Interesting stuff.
I have to check it but if they are right the founders were afraid of corporations and limited their power. In fact it appears to be a severe limitation of power.
It also looks like the evolution of corporate power is parallel with the evolution of federal government power. So I understand now why Buddha is making the connection with Fascism.
Here is a paragraph that really made me think about corporations:
“Like many Americans, I’m but a small-time investor, with investments in my 401(k) account, and that’s about it. I doubt the CEOs of the various corporations in which I own stock see eye-to-eye on many political questions. In Citizens United, a momentous case that is scheduled for re-argument on Sept. 9, the Supreme Court may hold that a corporation has a First Amendment right to spend its shareholders’ money on campaign advertisements that advance its own political agenda, without the knowledge or consent of ordinary shareholders like me. My retirement savings could be used to defeat health care reform, resist new regulations on financial instruments or combat environmental controls; other than liquidating my 401(k) holdings, there would be almost nothing I could do to prevent this. ”
I think this is really outrageous, I would not want a corporation spending my money on issues that I disagreed with. I don’t disagree that Lobbyists of any stripe whether corporate or private, should be made illegal. I think that would be a good start to the de-politicalization of business and the de-corporatization of government.
Anyway just a start on the inquiry. I got tired of you guys kicking my ass on this. So I will get to the bottom of it.
Byron,
You’re missing the point. Corporations are by definition a creation of the government, and have been from the very beginning. No corporation can exist with out the government. Individuals and groups can provide goods and services without the government, but they won’t be corporations.
Gyges:
I am not anti-corporation just anti government in bed with corporations through lobbyists and corporate welfare.