Unions are the most destructive left-wing force in America.
Via Newsbusters:
The AFL-CIO has not been bashful about its support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters. And the union giant recently posted an article by Tula Connell hyping a booklet entitled “Economics 101 for the 99%.” The booklet was produced for the Occupiers by a socialist group called the Center for Popular Economics.
Connell wrote that the booklet will clarify “such concepts as the role of the Federal Reserve and the so-called austerity war.” The booklet is intended to “to help the ‘99%’ make a coherent argument for why we need to change our economic course.”
A glance through the booklet reveals standard leftist pap about the evils of capitalism and how the glories of socialism will make the world a better place. Strangely missing are examples of socialism’s actual track record. Greece, Spain and Italy appear nowhere in the booklet.
(It does ask “why, if we are only to have a life expectancy equal to Portugal’s, we should spend over $4,000 more per person.” The simple answer: Portugal’s universal health care system is part of an unsustainable welfare state that necessitated a $100+ billion bailout by the EU two years ago. As a result, Portugal’s healthcare fees have doubled recently – not an easy pill to swallow in a nation where the average annual salary is $16,400 and income is expected to fall 3.25% in 2012. Other fun Portuguese facts: unemployment is 14%, a third of public hospitals are insolvent and, according to the Portuguese Society of Cardiology “1 in 4 Portuguese runs a high risk of dying of a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years, but only 30% of those at risk take adequate medication.)
The booklet explicitly promotes socialism to replace capitalism, and blames what it terms the “neoliberal paradigm” for the 2008 financial melt down. “Neoliberalism” is described as “tax cuts, attacks on social welfare programs, privatization, deregulation, ‘free’ trade, and anti-worker/union measures.” In short, neoliberalism is anything that moves power and resources away from the central government.