Unwritten views on the fight for unions in Wisconsin

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Data from this mind-blowing chart

1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire  – 146 workers killed

What have unions ever done for us?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKqWje7itKc[/youtube]

Paul Krugman on the power struggle in Wisconsin:

You don’t have to love unions, you don’t have to believe that their policy positions are always right, to recognize that they’re among the few influential players in our political system representing the interests of middle- and working-class Americans, as opposed to the wealthy…

There’s a bitter irony here. The fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, as in other states, was largely caused by the increasing power of America’s oligarchy. After all, it was superwealthy players, not the general public, who pushed for financial deregulation and thereby set the stage for the economic crisis of 2008-9, a crisis whose aftermath is the main reason for the current budget crunch. And now the political right is trying to exploit that very crisis, using it to remove one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence.

So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t.