...pay attention boys and girls...herein is the story of the Carlyle
Group....recipient of billions of your governments checks...and other
Republican donor enterprises that get 20,000 to 1 return on their
poltical donations....pfui!

"The end of the Republic as we have known it, ended in the election of
2000"...Gore Vidal

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-stern/restoring-the-promise-of-_b_62864.html

Andy Stern|
Restoring the Promise of the American Dream
Posted September 2, 2007

The promise of America is that if you work hard, you will be rewarded.
You will be able to provide for your family, own a decent home, afford
quality health care, and enjoy a secure retirement. It is that promise
that built a thriving middle class. It is the American Dream, and it
has inspired generations of women and men who helped make this country
great.

Today we are living through a period of profound economic change. We
have new ways of communicating, new methods of production, new means
of generating wealth, new global competition. And while many of the
ways we used to do business have changed, the American Dream has not.

Today, in 2007, that dream is at risk. We stand at a moment of
unprecedented economic opportunity, but that opportunity is not being
extended to all. Tens of millions of Americans are working harder than
ever just to stay afloat. The latest Census Bureau report shows that
wages are dropping and more people lack health insurance.

On the other hand, a handful of incredibly wealthy people are
prospering beyond all comprehension. Private equity CEOs are making on
average more than $650 million -- or more than 22,000 times what the
average American worker brings in. Put another way, it takes the
average American worker one full year to make what a wealthy buyout
CEO makes in only ten minutes.

The buyout industry and the big banks are cutting the heart out of the
American economy. Global buyout corporation the Carlyle Group (the
Bush family favored holdiing) is taking over one of the nation's
largest nursing home chains, ManorCare. As part of the deal,
ManorCare's CEO Paul Ormond will personally profit up to $186 million
dollars, money that could have gone to hire more nursing home aides to
care for our loved ones. Even worse, ManorCare will pay no corporate
taxes while it is owned by Carlyle. The lost federal, state and local
tax revenues over the next five years? More than $600 million. There's
a credit crunch on, and massive lenders like Bank of America are using
their size and market dominance to run up fees and credit card rates,
deny loans to working families and minority communities, and lay off
workers.

This Labor Day, a greater percentage of the economy is going to
profits than to wages, and a majority of parents believe their
children will be worse off economically. Tens of millions of people in
the U.S. are working harder than ever before, but they're still
falling behind.

We are at a crucial moment, a moment that makes us ask what kind of
country we want to be.

The answer to that question must include more workers uniting in
unions -- the labor movement. Unions have always been the best
anti-poverty, best pro-health care, best pro-family program around.
Unions have done more to help working people experience economic
success than any other program.

This week, a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research
and Inclusion showed that workers in the lowest-paying jobs make about
16 percent more when they are members of a union, and they are 25
percent more likely to have health insurance or a pension plan.

Now, more than ever, as new technologies and new ways of thinking
about efficiency have reduced workers to a line item on a balance
sheet, unions are not only relevant -- we are indispensable.

As the economic landscape has shifted, the labor movement has needed
to adapt to these new realities. I am proud to report that the 1.9
million workers united in SEIU stand at the forefront of the evolving
labor movement. In recent years we have pioneered new models of
organizing, like uniting workers in nontraditional employment
situations. Since 1999, 400,000 home care workers have changed state
laws throughout the country to give them the freedom to unite in a
union.

We have established new relationships with employers who are willing
to reward work, while continuing to hold accountable those who are
not. We are acting on new ways to secure health care and retirement
security that reflect rather than deny the new economic reality.

The bottom line is this: the American economy is not a zero-sum game.
There is no good moral or economic reason why all workers cannot or
should not share in the success and prosperity they helped create. We
need to restore the promise of the American Dream. And that means
choosing what kind of country we want to be.

-Andy Stern, President, Service Employees International Union