Attention Glenn Beck: Capitalism, not unions, is the problem (great artwork too)

[Omaha Steve]

http://peoplesworld.org/attention-glenn-beck-capitalism-not-unions-is-the-problem/

by: John Rummel

March 4 2011

DETROIT - People in Detroit do not usually pay attention to the senseless claptrap coming from Glenn Beck. Around the country more should follow that wise policy. However our local custom changed this past Monday.

That's when Beck on his Fox News show singled out this proud city, pronouncing that Hiroshima was rebuilt thanks to a free-market spirit but Detroit lies in ruins because it has been corrupted by liberals and unions. Beck claims those unions made Detroit uncompetitive.



You might say steam is coming out of folks' ears here over this. People are outraged in this union town, built by the toil of working people, black, brown and white. Not missed by anyone in this majority African American city is the racist inference that Detroit's residents are the root of the problem.

Now, it's true, Detroit has come a long way down from its heyday, when it was a bustling city with crowded streets, stores filled with goods and people who stood in line to buy them.

The same could be said for many other cities throughout this country. And not just the cities. One can get off most any interstate, travel the rural roads and see town after town (with mostly white populations) with empty main streets and boarded up stores.

What went wrong?

It certainly wasn't unions. They have helped keep the American dream alive longer than it would have on its own. When there were ample union jobs and decent wages, working families had the ability to jam the stores, eat in the restaurants, and go to the movies. Those jobs and the incomes they provided were the life support for many small businesses, and the big ones too. Detroiters were among the best customers for Big Three cars.

FULL story at link.

[handmade34]

1. what went wrong??

I grew up in Michigan and most of my family worked at Oldsmobile... (my 83 yo mother told me recently that she NEVER went w/o health insurance) There is no one reason for Detroit's problems and the Unions and liberals are certainly not what caused the downfall.

[Skittles]

2. if you get that ridiculous chain mail re: Hiroshima / Detroit

be advised the pictures are not even Hiroshima - they're the wealthy city Port of Yokohama in Japan