If Pearl Harbor happened nowdays...

[BILLY D.]

Originally posted by fabsroman
I was talking with my wedding photographer the other day and he happened to work for Giant, a grocery store in several states around here, as a cashier. He told me that he was getting paid $30 an hour and $45 on holidays to work as a cashier back in 1987 when the union actually had power. If I had known that back in 1987, I wouldn't have gone to college in 1989 and worked at a hot dog stand for $5.00 an hour. I would have become a cashier for Giant. Utterly amazing to think that a cashier could make that much money back then.

The USA has many things wrong with it, but I still think we could industrialize if we needed too. Hopefully, it would be in time.

Where is most of our military stuff made? I would guess right here in the USA, but I have no exact idea.

fabs

for some reason my bs meter is pegging out on that wage quote. no doubt we could industrialize again if we had to. look at all the empty factory space we have sitting around. my hometown is a mere shell of what it used to be. general motors is all but gone. gm had three major divisions there when i was young now all thats left is one delco plant with about 1/3 the workers and a delphi plant.

to my way of thinking what has really killed american factory production is the epa. why should a company spend million upon million to cut emisssions when they can ship the work off to some foreign country and not have to worry about it? but we may get caught up in that before long with the kyoto accord.

in some ways the unions have outlived their usefulness. especially the safety issues they fought so hard for. i think back in the 30', 40's and 50's they were important and did a fair to middlin job for the workers. of course i can't speak from experience about this subject presently. i'm like will rogers, "all i know is what i read in the papers".

when i was in the military equipment was contracted out and bids submitted on what was bought and had to meet strict production codes on quality and quantity. yes i remember the $600 toilet seats. every once in awhile some things did slip through the cracks. no pun intended. i could tell you some real horror stories about government procuremet. talk about a boondoggle. goat rope extraordinaire.

as for the resolve of the typical american one only has to go back to the days of "rosie the riveter". now talk about somebody that got the royal purple shaft ribbon with a barbed wire cluster, those ladies were it, they worked for a lot less than the guys got.

some other time we will star on the education issue. i might be able to cover that one in a hundred pages or so.

well got to get up early to go pheasant hunting in the morning and it's 0315 already. see ya later.