Friday, August 13, 2010

What About the Workers?


The Republican candidate for governor Nikki Haley visited Aiken recently touting her "Less Talk. More Jobs" platform espousing her belief in limited government involvement in small businesses' affairs among other talking points. Evidently, she is a Charlie McCarthy for conservative job creation (more leeway for businesses), ideas and talking points (emphasizing the small businesses of S.C. as the cure all for our wilting state economy). Basically, talking points we've been hearing for the past quarter century from Republicans ( Democrats are guilty too). However, Republicans running for office, not all, but most, sound more robotic than Dems in my humble opinion. Ms. Haley, when speaking to a crowd, sounds like she's trying her best to fit within the all white male Republican party of S.C. - even though she's supposedly anti-establishment - daring not to veer off course. Very few of her views, if any, sound anti-establishment. In fact, all sound like a broken record: no gov't intrusion, tort reform, cut taxes, 2nd admendment rights, etc. etc. The only thing revolutionary about her candidacy is that she's a woman of Indian descent running in state where Strom Thurmond was a senator for most of his racist, white supremacist life.

On thing that strikes me is the lack of talk about workers. Instead, Haley focuses on the small business owner. Everything is about making it easier on the business; nothing about how the current crisis affects workers. Her platform is about jobs but for whom?

Maybe, she hopes to get people back to work by cutting the capital gains tax as she has proposed. I wish I could believe this but any further tax cutting seems a bad idea in a broke-ass state with a small tax base. Keeping money within businesses that they would pay in taxes does not emboldened the owner to hire more people in my book. But then where is there tax relief for the worker? Again not a word about the S.C. citizen unless it has to do with supplying labor for small businesses.

Right-to-work= No unions= no capital gains tax=CHEAP LABOR

Support for technical schools: supply labor for businesses recruited to S.C.

Support for state colleges: nada a word. Maybe a liberal arts education isn't as important as learning a trade? Perhaps, I'm not being a snob, just discerning, one makes you THINK and question politicians.


I think Haley needs to brush up on her Marx. Sigh.



Fin.

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