Lynne Abraham to Michael Nutter: Gun Laws Unconstitutional, Will Not Enforce

[tmg19103]

Originally Posted by GunLawyer001

You lost me right there, there's no factual basis for that belief. American business has never had a dominant culture like that. Japan used to, but no longer does.

When did American businesses have such a partnership or contract with workers? When the mine operators ran company towns that pushed their workers further into debt while they worked 80-hour weeks and got black lung? When union busters hired detectives to machine-gun striking workers? When it required Federal legislation to limit work hours, pay overtime rates, and get a day off once in a while? Did the Molly Maguires rise up to demand a lower co-pay and free child care, or was there a deeper problem?

At the end of WW II General Motors was the brightests jewel in America's massive post-war industrial crown. In 1946 Charles Wilson, the president of G.M. and Walter Reuther, the president of the United Auto Workers got together in what became known as the "Treaty of Detroit". The auto workers were all but guaranteed a 20% increase in living standards over the next 5 years. This contract had huge ripple effects accross America, and by the 1960's, more than half of union contracts in the nation had copycat provisions calling for annual improvement factors and cost of living adjustments, putting the nation's workers on a steadily rising escalator. With labor unions representing one in three workers and threatening to unionize millions more, most non-union companies adopted a me-too approach to keep workers happy so they would not unionize. The contract that Wilson and Reuther negotiated created the world's largest middle class and ushered in 30 years of economic prosperity no modern country has ever seen. Worker productivity more than doubled from 1947 to 1973 - soaring 104% while median family incomes also rose 104%, after accounting for inflation.

This "social contract" that began with unions was preached by presidents of most large American companies. In 1948 Proctor & Gamble president Richard Deupree stated: "steady, year-round employment is right from the standpoint of the employer, so right from the standpoint of the workers and so right for the country as a whole".

Executives after WW II followed the advice of Elton Mayo and other sociologists and industrurial experts who supported "the human relations perspective". Its philosphy, based on extensive studies at Western Electric and other corporations was simple: the surest way to get the most productivity out of your employees (and to prevent unionization) was to keep them happy.

G.M., Ford, G.E., Xerox, Kodak, I.B.M., P&G, Western Electric and many others provided jobs for life, great health benefits, employer paid pensions and vaulted America to super-power status that the Soviet Union could only match from a military standpoint while American workers were paid so well that there collective purchasing power sustained massive economic growth until foreign imports started to take over in the 1980's.

So yes, American business did have dominant business culture like this and any studied research will find academics referring to it during that time as a "social contract" between workers and their employers.

[tmg19103]

Originally Posted by GunLawyer001

Get car insurance, pay your taxes, don't steal, don't sell drugs, get a job, and the government will earn its keep by keeping the vultures off your back.

Thanks, but I'll pack for my own protection, rather than relying on the government to protect me. If it were not for the government and its incompetence we might well have a safe and polite society and no need to carry for personal protection. In the meantime, I will take personal responsibility for my safety and the safety of my family - which is as it should be.

[General Geoff]

You wanna solve Philadelphia's problems?

1. Birth control in the water supply.
2. Legalize (or at least decriminalize) most types of (now-illegal) drugs.


Drug dealers would be put out of business real fast, if a legitimate market opened up and sold better wares for cheaper, and on the up-and-up. Minus the drug trafficking, gangs simply can't survive, or at least not in the way they currently do. Another major effect of legalizing most types of drugs is that probably over half of the population of our prison system is there because of drug-related offenses. It would clear up more room for *real* criminals, like murderers, rapists, extortionists, etc..