Americans Just Took a Pay Cut As Inflation Outpaces Wages*WTF WIUnion

“Bernanke has created an environment of high corporate profits and falling wages, which makes it cheaper to hire and, voila, the unemployment rate goes down,” said Brian Kelly, founder of Kanundrum Capital.

“The Achilles heal of this theory is that it ignores the fact that productivity gains from automation (computers) are much easier to obtain than during the Depression. Therefore, if companies do not hire before inflation takes hold, then the entire experiment fails.”

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Remember--public employees are a burden on the shrinking private sector. They do not create wealth. And many public union employees' benefits and wage packages are roughly twice what private sector employees make, and they may pay little or nothing for those health and pension benefits. In Wisconsin (including the police and fire unions) they are harassing businesses, including small business.

More. Kudlow.

HotAir on recent polling on public unions getting a lot of play in the PC media (Note the Gallup sample is adults not registered voters, not even likely voters, pretty bogus):

Republicans, to no one’s surprise, back the governors 65/25. Independents tend to back the unions, although it’s a fairly even split, 40/45, while Democrats overwhelmingly side with PEUs, 19/70. Kuttner warns that this could start a rollback of GOP gains in state legislatures from the 2010 midterms:

Republicans may ultimately find that it was a strategic blunder to demonize unions. As more of the middle class feels the economic vulnerabilities of the working class, Americans are giving unions a second look.

Are they really? First, no new organizing movement seems to be sweeping the country in the private sector, which is what would qualify as a “second look.” Over the last several months, with or without PEU reforms, state and local governments have reduced headcount nationwide by over 400,000 in the last two years. That’s not exactly a pro-union movement. If anything, it’s more of a potential boundary setting on the pace and scope of PEU reforms

But even that’s arguable. Survey USA conducted a poll in one of the most union-friendly states in the country, my state of Minnesota, and found some fairly surprising support for curtailing PEU prerogatives. While opposing the budget-reform bill pushed by Scott Walker in Wisconsin as a solution in Minnesota, 38/55, there’s plenty of support for “right to work” legislation — in fact, it’s more than 2-1 at 63/27. That’s hardly a “second look at unions,” especially in a state known for its progressive politics.

It's about who controls public policy. It's gotta be We the People or this country has no future.

More. They wanted background on the Wisconsin organized labor efforts by public university employees. So what happens next? Death threats from the left, (natch): Mackinac Center Received Bomb Threats and Death Threats Over FOIA Request

HT Memeorandum.