WHO ELSE IN THIS COUNTRY GETS AN 11% WAGE INCREASE? NO ONE, BUT TEACHERS.

THE KUHNS REPORT

LAS VEGAS - Hello America, and how is the world treating you?

Wow! An 11% increase in salary. The teachers unions are at it again. Denver teachers ended a three-day walkout with this whopping windfall. Ever since the West Virginia teachers strike got them about a 5% salary increase and other benefits  many other teachers across the nation decided to cash in on the move. Arizona  soon followed West Virginia, then it was Los Angeles, and now, Denver.

I ask you, who else beside  the public sector employees get such a large increase in wages? NO ONE. Believe it or not, these  demanding teachers also will receive a guaranteed  "COLA", (Cost of Living), on top of the 11% wage increase, plus other benefits.

With these teachers unions and their various organizations across the country they always strike using the same old tired phrase IT'S FOR THE KIDS. That's baloney, don't believe it. It's only about the money, guaranteed cost of  living increases and building on their retirement, pensions benefits for their own financial gain.Nothing more.

Compare their salaries and benefits to the average Joe or Jane Doe busting their hump each and every day, working on their job with no guarantee of an annual cost of living and other lucrative benefits. Many of these hard workers work for minimum wage, with NO guarantee of receiving annual increases, no retirement plans, no vacation plans and could be fired, laid-off, and let go at the whim of their boss. And no severance  pay. The boss says tough luck John, or Jane , we don't need you any more, and that's all she wrote, the persons out on the street looking for another job.

Then there is the retired senior citizens across this great nation living on a fixed income, mostly depending on their social security funds to survive on. But they will never, ever see an  increase in their monthly check for 11%., not even close to that. These seniors who built this country only see an  occasional increase, maybe every few years.  They go without and increase in social security benefits for years at a time and then, when it does come they only see and increase of 2.1% and 2.7 %. and when the increase does come, Medicare takes it back by raising the share of Medicare annual fees. The seniors are lucky if they see a bump in the benefit of between $4.00 and $12.00.

Yet public  sector employees like the teachers, police, firemen and all others on the government dole gravy train bargain each year or so for large raises in  yearly salary, merit raises  and cost of living increases, vacations,  free or  low, low costs for heath care,--and the list goes on.

My position is: NO ONE deserves a super large increase in salary of 11%, plus other fantastic benefits. It's a slap in the face to all of us taxpayers that are on the hook to pay these public employees those retirements, pensions vacations, and health care while most of us have to struggle from day to day just to survive. It's ludicrous!

And at this writing I didn't even cover all of the homeless veterans in America that is left out of this mix. Ir's a sorry shame. - And, that's my opinion. Make your own decisions. You decide.

BRADLEY W. KUHNS, Ph.D., O.M.D.
Dr. Kuhns can be reached by email at:
bradleykuhns@gmail.com