block50-- You mean the governor who quickly apologized for saying "idiot" about the cop? Should every news item here at Vindy.com be prefaced with that video? Is it possible that Hagan's comment also is newsworthy? And did you note when Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams praised Governor Kasich for his incredible response and efforts to help in the wake of the recent shootings near YSU? Or are you so blinded by partisan bias that none of this matters to you?
Someone who refuses the Rolls Royce he's entitled to while hanging onto the Cavalier he earned did, in fact, refuse something significant. I'm not surprised Betras and Redfern wouldn't note the qualitative difference and its significance--they're politicians--but news organizations and news analysts ought to.
Right, Fudputer, there's been addiction and gambling in Youngstown for so long we should just bring in an entire industry that is proven to feed corruption and gambling. Smart. We should enable bad activity rather than do what we can to prevent it.
How 'bout we open a topless strip joint in your living room? I mean, if it's all about choices, then we should just trust in people's better nature not to show up and objectify women and violate your personal space just because it's your living room...
Anytime they have to use "it'll create jobs" or "tax revenue" to sell something that has failed to pass time and again, check for the pig behind the lipstick.
It's opportunity costs and addiction, people.
Gambling transfers wealth to the casino owners--who almost never live in state or nearby and who therefore don't re-invest their money in the local economy.
That same money could have gone to local businesses owned and operated by local residents.
In both cases the government gets its tax cut, but in one case the money actually spent for entertainent stays local while in another case it leaves.
then you have the issue of gambling addiction--a very real problem which can lead to other problems.
The Lottery was supposed to generate sooo much money for our schools. Yeah. About that...
Casinos don't produce anything that draws outside dollars into the local economy and cause dollars to leave the local economy. If you want money to come into the area, make it a favorable business climate once again so businesses that produce wealth (rather than strip it away) are enticed to come around. That'll put dollars in workers' pockets and in the government coffers without the side effects of corruption and addiction that come with casinos.
The secret ballot is a sacred institution in our society. Union pressure on employees--yes, it happens--is every bit as sinister and wrong as tainted ballots by business owners. Card check won't make unionization fair, it will throw the balance radically in the other direction where union strongmen can (and do) pressure and trick people to sign up for something they do not want.
Measures to reduce the ability of business owners to manipulate the vote, sure. Stripping American workers of their right to a secret ballot on something as important as whether or not to unionize, that's un-American.
Valley poboy-- You say we can't compete. That's a strange claim considering until the economy took a dive when the housing bubble burst the unemployment rate was at a 5.8%, an enviable number by global standards. Prior to that, interesting to note, is that the unemployment rate began to drop from its 1993 level of 6.9% to 6.1% in 1994, the year NAFTA was passed, and then fell for 6 consecutive years to 4.0% in 2000. Since then it hovered in the 4.0-5.8% range until the latter half of last year when the housing bubble burst.
You say we cannot compete, but unemployment figures like that suggest free trade actually contributed to lowering our unemployment level.
(My stats come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat1.txt )
Oh, and TB, I agree that the rise of workers' movements was an important component of the development of the American economy. Indeed, the recognition of hard work and the just compensation for work done, plus improved workplace conditions and just labor laws, regulations on what employers could demand, harrassment laws, etc. All these things had, and have, their place in making our economy the envy of the world.
But!
But those things can and do go overboard. Extreme examples abound beyond our shores to show either end of the spectrum. Europe's economy is about dead because of overbearing regulation of work hours and mandatory vacation time and requirements imposed by the government on emissions and all sorts of activities of business. Profit motives (tarred with an unfairly broad brush as "greed") have definitely played a role in the moving of manufacturing jobs to other countries, but so have overbearing and honestly unnecessary regulation regimes that make the cost of doing business, even for companies with every intention of doing good by their employees, prohibitive in a competitive market.
So yes, advances in labor laws have been a good feature of our economy within their reasonable bounds, but they are every bit as susceptible to abuse as profit motives and greed.
Bob Hagan Facebook comments
block50-- You mean the governor who quickly apologized for saying "idiot" about the cop? Should every news item here at Vindy.com be prefaced with that video? Is it possible that Hagan's comment also is newsworthy? And did you note when Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams praised Governor Kasich for his incredible response and efforts to help in the wake of the recent shootings near YSU? Or are you so blinded by partisan bias that none of this matters to you?
February 20, 2011 at 1:14 p.m. permalink suggest removal
Boardman residents oppose roundabout at Mathews and Sheridan
Oh please, oh please, oh please let them put in a round-a-bout or anything else that will improve that intersection!
February 13, 2011 at 5:34 p.m. permalink suggest removal
Rep.-elect Johnson spins a yarn
Someone who refuses the Rolls Royce he's entitled to while hanging onto the Cavalier he earned did, in fact, refuse something significant. I'm not surprised Betras and Redfern wouldn't note the qualitative difference and its significance--they're politicians--but news organizations and news analysts ought to.
December 10, 2010 at 10:22 a.m. permalink suggest removal
Ohio casino jobs promise is misleading, study says
Right, Fudputer, there's been addiction and gambling in Youngstown for so long we should just bring in an entire industry that is proven to feed corruption and gambling. Smart. We should enable bad activity rather than do what we can to prevent it.
How 'bout we open a topless strip joint in your living room? I mean, if it's all about choices, then we should just trust in people's better nature not to show up and objectify women and violate your personal space just because it's your living room...
October 1, 2009 at 10:12 a.m. permalink suggest removal
Ohio casino jobs promise is misleading, study says
Anytime they have to use "it'll create jobs" or "tax revenue" to sell something that has failed to pass time and again, check for the pig behind the lipstick.
It's opportunity costs and addiction, people.
Gambling transfers wealth to the casino owners--who almost never live in state or nearby and who therefore don't re-invest their money in the local economy.
That same money could have gone to local businesses owned and operated by local residents.
In both cases the government gets its tax cut, but in one case the money actually spent for entertainent stays local while in another case it leaves.
then you have the issue of gambling addiction--a very real problem which can lead to other problems.
The Lottery was supposed to generate sooo much money for our schools. Yeah. About that...
Casinos don't produce anything that draws outside dollars into the local economy and cause dollars to leave the local economy. If you want money to come into the area, make it a favorable business climate once again so businesses that produce wealth (rather than strip it away) are enticed to come around. That'll put dollars in workers' pockets and in the government coffers without the side effects of corruption and addiction that come with casinos.
September 30, 2009 at 4:48 p.m. permalink suggest removal
Girard center offers computer classes for displaced workers
Can anyone define "Displaced workers"?
June 1, 2009 at 2:49 p.m. permalink suggest removal
America Fights Back rally in Warren draws 1,500
The secret ballot is a sacred institution in our society. Union pressure on employees--yes, it happens--is every bit as sinister and wrong as tainted ballots by business owners. Card check won't make unionization fair, it will throw the balance radically in the other direction where union strongmen can (and do) pressure and trick people to sign up for something they do not want.
Measures to reduce the ability of business owners to manipulate the vote, sure. Stripping American workers of their right to a secret ballot on something as important as whether or not to unionize, that's un-American.
May 3, 2009 at 10:10 a.m. permalink suggest removal
America Fights Back rally in Warren draws 1,500
Dear UnionForever: who employs those working men and women, the union? Or entrepreneurs and business owners?
Policies that make it harder to open and run a business make it harder to hire workers --union members or not.
May 3, 2009 at 10:04 a.m. permalink suggest removal
America Fights Back rally in Warren draws 1,500
Valley poboy-- You say we can't compete. That's a strange claim considering until the economy took a dive when the housing bubble burst the unemployment rate was at a 5.8%, an enviable number by global standards. Prior to that, interesting to note, is that the unemployment rate began to drop from its 1993 level of 6.9% to 6.1% in 1994, the year NAFTA was passed, and then fell for 6 consecutive years to 4.0% in 2000. Since then it hovered in the 4.0-5.8% range until the latter half of last year when the housing bubble burst.
You say we cannot compete, but unemployment figures like that suggest free trade actually contributed to lowering our unemployment level.
(My stats come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat1.txt )
May 3, 2009 at 9:01 a.m. permalink suggest removal
America Fights Back rally in Warren draws 1,500
Oh, and TB, I agree that the rise of workers' movements was an important component of the development of the American economy. Indeed, the recognition of hard work and the just compensation for work done, plus improved workplace conditions and just labor laws, regulations on what employers could demand, harrassment laws, etc. All these things had, and have, their place in making our economy the envy of the world.
But!
But those things can and do go overboard. Extreme examples abound beyond our shores to show either end of the spectrum. Europe's economy is about dead because of overbearing regulation of work hours and mandatory vacation time and requirements imposed by the government on emissions and all sorts of activities of business. Profit motives (tarred with an unfairly broad brush as "greed") have definitely played a role in the moving of manufacturing jobs to other countries, but so have overbearing and honestly unnecessary regulation regimes that make the cost of doing business, even for companies with every intention of doing good by their employees, prohibitive in a competitive market.
So yes, advances in labor laws have been a good feature of our economy within their reasonable bounds, but they are every bit as susceptible to abuse as profit motives and greed.
May 2, 2009 at 11:01 p.m. permalink suggest removal