Thank the Liberals for your work benefits

By Curt Andersen (Green Bay News Chronicle)

A recent remark by a conservative about liberals made me wonder how that person managed to ignore the 16 year Circus of Spending under Govs. Tommy Thompson and Scott McCallum.

Since the person that made the remark had a college degree, I had to wonder just what he learned in college, other than Party Hearty 101. As my dad used to grouse, "They send these kids to college and they learn to be smart alecks."

Perhaps some people have not given much thought to how their bread is buttered, directly or indirectly. Let's start with those college guys. Taxpayers subsidize university (and technical college) tuition, and though different in each state, Wisconsin pays a minimum of 14 percent of real tuition costs. That subsidy is the result of liberal policies, not the penny wise, pound foolish conservative variety. Yet, so many kids go off to college without knowing that. The liberal idea of free public schools took root more than a hundred years ago. Public schools are a big part of why the United States is a strong nation today. The liberal GI Bill allowed hundreds of thousands of veterans to attend college and get much better jobs than they would've had otherwise.

Unions grew from liberal seeds. While corporate cynics sniff at unions, they should thank them instead for their fabulous salaries and benefits.

Every benefit unions got -better wages, increased safety, sick pay, vacations, medical and dental insurance, pensions, and the famous 8 hour day white collar workers got, as well. Better pay has allowed people to buy bigger homes and the furniture to fill them. Sales of merchandise increased, creating more jobs. The pay increase allowed people to buy a new car every so often, increasing the number of jobs at every increment of auto manufacture.

Vacation time, brought about by unions, brings an annual 30 billion tourist dollars into Wisconsin, creating more jobs and allowing even more people to live comfortably and buy more merchandise, again creating more jobs.

Liberals pushed for safety improvements, which have allowed more people to work in dangerous jobs without losing fingers, limbs, eyes, hearing or lives. The need for safety measures promoted development of new products and created new markets and new jobs.

Doctors and dentists can live in relative luxury because of medical and dental insurance. All of the talent in the world is useless if customers can't afford needed care. Sick pay, when used right, keeps disease from spreading at crowded workplaces. Social Security keeps handicapped and older people from living in squalor. Liberal policy is what allows hunters and fishers to ply their hobbies.

The liberal idea of common property gives folks access to hunt and fish on state and federal lands and waters. Some sportsmen wrongly credit this benefit to conservatives.

It's amazing to think that some of our hoity toity brethren believe they are where they are because of innate talent. They must get over that. Taxpayer subsidies landed these folks on third base, and they think they've hit a triple.

Benefits from liberal thought and action are why other countries envy the United States. Those benefits are now being eroded by so called globalization that pits the workers of one nation against the workers of another. When even blue collar workers support this destructive idea, we are all in big trouble.

Andersen is a lifelong resident of the Green Bay area and a Navy veteran. He owns a small business and is an adjunct instructor at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. He is vice president of Clean Water Action Council.

Reprinted with permission.