We Need To Keep Collective Bargaining In Wisconsin Because ... $101,000 Just Isn't Enough!

Welcome to the new corruption, same as the old corruption:

Ace of Spades HQ: "It's hard to make ends meet on that.

There is always the cry that teachers have to buy 'supplies' for their students out of their own pockets. I can't help but think there's a reason for that -- that each year, a greater proportion of dollars earmarked for education goes to salaries, and is deducted from supplies.

$60,000 in actual money salary plus $41,000 per year in benefits package.

In a normal negotiation, management is a genuine adversary to the workers. Workers have a strong interest in getting the highest salaries possible, but management has a countervailing interest in keeping them lower.

This doesn't happen with the Government Worker Unions. In that situation, the money isn't even coming out of the hides of those negotiating with the workers -- the money comes from a third party, the taxpayer. So there's not a particularly strong incentive to negotiate vigorously on behalf of people who aren't even in the room.

Add to that the fact that a piece of every dollar granted the government workers is going to be paid back to those doing the "negotiating" and there's an actual incentive on the government side to increase salaries.

So both parties at the negotiation have incentives to increase salaries. The one party with an incentive to keep salaries down isn't in the room and is excluded from negotiations.

In business, if an agent of the business makes a deal which is bad for those he represents but benefits him personally via an under-the-table payment, we call this a kickback, and it's a crime of corruption.

In politics, though, it's not just legal but increasingly crucial to the Democrat Party's survival."

These numbers were for Milwaukee but Ace notes that there are some Wisconsin school districts where average compensation is even a bit higher! Yiminy H. Crickets!