Oh my.

You know I can't imagine how mistakes like that happen. Why can't The Seattle Times recruit decent copyeditors when they require a three-year internship for a slim chance of getting a low paid, thankless job.

Our latest contract got my job classification an 8% pay raise, with a 3.9% COLA on top of that. The agency I work for (City Light) is self-supporting. Actually, it contributes to the general fund, which just goes to show that you can have a profitable enterprise while delivering a low-cost, labor-intensive product. After all, our electricity rates are among the lowest in the nation.

Gotta love the unions...

fnarf, that's rent seeking; changing the rules of the system to benefit you more without any additional output on your part.

On the other hand, if you've ever worked a standard 40-hour workweek: thank the unions. If you've ever had a weekend off (Sunday AND Saturday), thank the unions. If you've ever seen a nice little bump in your paycheck thanks to overtime wages: thank the unions. If you've ever been injured on the job and not had to worry about getting fired as a result: thank the unions.

It's no joke.

Dude, the Horatio Alger myth is just that - a myth.

Mr. X, I understand Microecon just fine thank you. I don't quite understand what you're getting at though with rags to riches stories though. I'm against unions for the most part because i think they are way over idealized without looking at the actual cost and implications of them. Are they all bad? No. Are they all peaches and sunshine? No. I simply err on the side of them being mostly negative in the long run especially when their industry is given legal monopoly.

kalak, i actually hate mandated weekends because of the effect it has on stock markets.

No, he's not. He's one of those middle class fools who believe they're going to make it rich some day, so fuck all of those middle class protections and safeguards. They ain't gonna need 'em.

Unions don't protect the middle class if they are uniformly uncompetitive against non union labor. Also, I support raising taxes on rich people on the principle they have more to lose in a society that doesn't have some semblance of function. The safeguard is providing access for low and middle class people with the means to improve their lives by building infrastructure and technological improvements.

You're terrible at trying to divine my opinions and stances on issues.

Oh dear, Bellevue - I thought you had higher reasoning skills than this. I can see where I was wrong.

Of course, I was not suggesting that a unionized labor force automatically led to lower prices. That would be silly, dear - almost as silly as supposing that the cost of generation is negligent, even when the source of generation is "renewable". You must not know much about regulation, being from Bellevue Avenue and all...

The idea I was trying to get across, dear "Belle", is that organized labor need not add unduly to the cost of an end product - especially when that end product is owned by the people, with no annoying stockholders to get in the way.

Perhaps it could be that they (the stockholders) are the real problem? No, of course not. It's always those pesky unions. Workers, after all, have no right to bargain: They should be happy with whatever they get.

Poor Belle - always going after that green light at the end of the dock....