For 20 years, I lived in Chicago. Can't imagine why.
Chicago lost its bid for the Olympics and instead, right now, is hosting a teachers' strike. The teachers only make an average of $75,000.00 a year -- that's AVERAGE salary, mind you -- for working 6 hours a day, 9 months a year.
The AVERAGE income of families living in Chicago -- those who pay for the schools -- is $47,000.00. That's for working 8 or more hours a day, at least 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, and possibly with a second job on evenings and weekends.
What's wrong with this picture? The tail wagging the dog?
I used to work with a woman whose husband tried to be a biology teacher in Chicago. However, his biology degree apparently was too specialized. He got a classroom of troublemakers and described his job as something between a gangland arbiter and a detention hall monitor. He said he spent all his time trying to keep the students from fighting each other and/or destroying public property, or ducking under his desk. He didn't get any support when he suggested improvements. He was told the situation was hopeless.
Not his fault? Perhaps not his, personally. Let's blame it on a system that kisses union butt and has allowed itself to be bullied and intimidated for decades by a bunch of loudmouths who, judging by their picket signs -- can't correctly spell monosyllabic English words. And their competence is reflected in half-literate students, only about half of them ever graduating from high school. But they do keep the state prisons busy -- perhaps "redistributing" the work of public school teachers to the guards at correctional institutions. After all, Chicago now leads the nation in its murder rate.
But Chicago's the same all over, not just regarding the schools. The Daley Machine -- going way back to the 1950s and '60s -- made Chicago "The City that Works" by buying off the unions. The democrats bought union votes with contracts that included whopping big pensions and all the health insurance they or their families could choke on.
Everyone else is paying for it now. And Chicago doesn't work worth a damn anymore.
The State of Illinois is no better. First of all, Quinn and the other "big fish" in Springfield all come out of Chicago. Mike Royko used to say that without Chicago, Illinois would be Iowa.
Wishful thinking?
So Illinois is carrying almost as much debt as California -- a call to action to Assembly members... who promptly raised taxes, and not just personal income taxes, but taxes on corporations. Apparently hoping to drive out whatever productive commercial organizations remain in Illinois. They had to give Caterpillar, among others, a raftload of tax exemptions to keep that company from straying to North Dakota -- which is much more business-friendly.
Currently, I live about 10 minutes from the Wisconsin border, and since Quinn's tax increases, watched one of the area's largest employers quietly -- and wisely -- move its headquarters and main operating plant into Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, just north of the boundary line. Likewise, I suspect the better teachers in Illinois will be quietly exploring the opportunities available in Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Lake Geneva. I mean those who are more interested in teaching than in sitting on their butts until they retire, so they can sit on their butts for a few years more.
And by the way, the Illinois tax increases were a perfect example of why raising taxes -- even if only on the rich, who fund US business through investment -- only works to drive business out. No business leads to no jobs, which means no revenues for the greedy piggies in DC.
The classic downward spiral, like dirty water circling the toilet bowl. Exactly like it.
Save the Republic.
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