Van P. Keele’s 23 September 2015 letter to the Bitterroot Star editor demands a response.
In a nutshell, jobs are not back! The real unemployment rate is actually 9.3 percent! That real unemployment rate includes both the 5.8 percent of people actively looking for a job and the 3.5 percent who want a job – but gave up looking. All that smoke about how many jobs Obama has created may be impressive for some – but not those who look for reality!
Van P. touts that you can thank Obamacare for some of the explosive growth in health care, expediting the hiring of innumerable health care workers and providing more accessible and affordable healthcare to many, many millions. He may be right that lots of people have been hired; however, health care and insurance costs have sky-rocketed and are simply not affordable when compared to previous costs! “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” was and is a lie. Does that sound like, as Van P. asserts, that health care is more accessible?
Keele wrongly states that job creation has been “hot” under Obama. The real unemployment statistic of 9.3 percent disproves that claim!
Van P. asserts that we all know that corporate executives make ridiculous salaries. That statement defies reality. The reality is that the board of directors of any corporation is far more capable of deciding a CEO’s pay scale than any of us.
Keele is concerned that corporations no longer put employees and products first. The truth is that businesses never have, nor never will, put employees or products first on their priority list. Management’s first priority is to be profitable, period! All other priorities are lesser in importance; however, in order to stay in business, keeping employees happy and providing good products have to be very high on the priority list.
Further, Van P. states that: “1.These disturbing trends and corporate behaviors need to reverse. Pressure must be applied, for corporations won’t change simply because it’s the right thing to do, 2. We need to roll back undue corporate influence on policy makers in state capitols and in Washington, 3. Workers need to once again effectively organize; municipalities need to pass progressive minimum wage laws, 4. We as a nation need to set a higher federal minimum wage, and close unfair corporate tax loopholes and overseas tax havens, 5. We need to elect more Democrats. Democrats fight for workers, while Republicans fight for corporate omnipotence and personhood (remember Citizens United?), and 6. Next Labor Day, think of the workers who made this country strong. Give yourself credit, too. Keep working hard and demand a wage that’s fair and just. Good luck.”
Boiled down, most of Keele’s statements are merely liberal progressive ramblings. Here’s a toast to all rationally thinking Americans who are sufficiently astute to see through Van P.’s ramblings!
Jerry Haslip
Victor