State mandated union wages for school construction projects are costing Kentucky children just over $341 million based on current building needs, the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition reported Thursday evening.
That number is based on $3.1 billion in requests from the Kentucky Department of Education and a conservative estimate of 10.7% added to construction costs by the prevailing wage mandate.
Senate Bill 145 would eliminate the prevailing wage mandate for school construction projects. The Kentucky Opportunity Coalition posted a chart of available savings by school district.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Numbers and politics
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5 comments:
It's rather clear that "the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition" loathes and detests worker prosperity.
They evidently don't understand economics enough to know that the more money circulates the healthier is the body politic.
Obviously, they haven't ready Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Paper 30. He wrote:
"Money is, with propriety, considered as the vital principle of the body politic; as that which sustains its life and motion, and enables it to perform its most essential functions. A complete power, therefore, to procure a regular and adequate supply of it, as far as the resources of the community will permit, may be regarded as an indispensable ingredient in every constitution. From a deficiency in this particular, one of two evils must ensue; either the people must be subjected to continual plunder, as a substitute for a more eligible mode of supplying the public wants, or the government must sink into a fatal atrophy, and, in a short course of time, perish."
But then what do you expect of conservatives? John Stuart Mill pegged them right, when he wrote:
"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."
Hempy,
Your name sums you up perfectly since you were obviously smoking something when you wrote your note.
Since when is it the role of government and more importantly taxpayers to contribute money to the economy? More importantly why should taxpayers contribute an additional $341 million to a law that has been outdated since the New Deal?
By eliminated prevailing wage on school construction projects you actually create the opportunity for more construction projects by K-12 and public universities, thus meaning more people since local districts and universities will be able to move more projects forward due to the lower costs. It also means that money saved by school districts can go toward other needs.
To suggest that this is an "anti-worker" initiative is the same as me suggesting your "anti-education" because you obviously don't support taking action to address the 90,000 elementary, middle and high school students across Kentucky that will attend classes in buildings classified in "poor condition."
So put down the bong, switch off "Up in Smoke" and take the time to educate whatever brain cells you have left.
FYI; the $341 million is only from labor costs on K-12 school construction costs for prevailing wage. When you add in public university construction projects the labor costs swell to $600 million because of prevailing wage.
Anon:
Obviously you don't read much about economics. You might start with Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, in his book The Wealth of Nation's. He addresses these issues.
Paid workers are more productive than are non-paid or low paid workers.
You're simply spouting off your conservative economic philosophy that's rooted and grounded in feudalism.
Neither do you seem to have any understanding of the cannabinoids of the hemp plant.
You believe government propaganda about the cannabinoid THC (AKA "marijuana,") without ever having read any studies. The government spends about $1.5 billion a year spreading the kind of propaganda you spout. Such propaganda in fact encourages youth to try marijuana.
Had you read any studies, you'd soon learn that your claims are bogus and baseless.
No wonder John Stuart Mill wrote of conservatives. "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."
Husky:
That's good for the economy. Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist Paper 30:
"Money is, with propriety, considered as the vital principle of the body politic; as that which sustains its life and motion, and enables it to perform its most essential functions. A complete power, therefore, to procure a regular and adequate supply of it, as far as the resources of the community will permit, may be regarded as an indispensable ingredient in every constitution. From a deficiency in this particular, one of two evils must ensue; either the people must be subjected to continual plunder, as a substitute for a more eligible mode of supplying the public wants, or the government must sink into a fatal atrophy, and, in a short course of time, perish."
Today, we might say that money is like blood to the body politic.
The more it circulates the healthier it is.
The Bush tax cut, that was the largest redistribution of wealth from working Americans, sucked $1 trillion out of the economy over Bush's 8 years in office.
It resulted in an overall job loss, transferring a huge bulk of money to the wealthiest 1/2 of 1%, who then "invested" it, pulling 20% of the wealth out of the economy. That was the same amount that the wealthy sat on during Hoover's Great Depression. Typical Republican economics--rooted and grounded in feudalism.
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