[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

I agree with you Bytor, restructuring existing benefits, salary, and hiring packages is quite necessary when pressed by fiscal crises as in Detroit HOWEVER, I must disagree with pushing workers to pick up extra workloads. Right now the average American worker is already stretched thinner than anywhere else in the developed world. American workers on average work more hours than other places, and the workloads they have tend to be heavier. Most people I know are already doing the job of two or three people, so you can't squeeze blood from a turnip.

I think its important for businesses and corporations to pay their share, which they don't. This is not some kind of Liberal talking point or media conspiracy, it is an ontological reality. American corporations do NOT pay enough taxes. Shit, the local refinery in the school district I work in didn't pay over $3,000,000 in local taxes through gimmicky accounting. Its the second largest refinery in California. Surely Chevron can afford to pay its bills, I pay my bills, you pay your bills, our neighbors and co-workers by and large pay theirs, why not companies, businesses, and corporations? That is the cost of doing business, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If business fills the coffers with the more appropriate tax revinues, and if they chose to invest rather than divest in the community (this means hiring, not outsourcing, this means building locally, not moving to the cheapest states and countries to build), then this can work in tandem with public sector workers renegotiating future salary and benefits packages. However, simply put, aside from very obvious instances of corruption, government contracts with its workers should be honored. Further, companies should be a bit more patriotic and be willing to contribute to the home front. Its fine to be profit oriented, but at what cost? This is the country where those business leaders live, why want to live richly in a country or municipality that is broke?