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| Economy |
| Laid-Off Steel Workers Suffer from Stress |
| 2010-02-25 |
| This is an unusually well written and justifiably sympathetic feature written about effects on the health of older workers who become unemployed. One thing is noticibly absent from the article is the underlying cause -- that markets changed and these workers could not, and they suffered the consequences. An except: A growing body of research suggests that layoffs can have profound health consequences. One 2006 study by a group of epidemiologists at Yale found that layoffs more than doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke among older workers. Another paper, published last year by Kate W. Strully, a sociology professor at the State University of New York at Albany, found that a person who lost a job had an 83 percent greater chance of developing a stress-related health problem, like diabetes, arthritis or psychiatric issues. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #3 USW local 2601 might have something to do with the layoffs. |
| Posted by: Beavis 2010-02-25 09:41 |
| #2 P2K has it right. The public sector long ago violated the unspoken social contract, which was that in exchange for receiving guaranteed income stream and a MODEST pension regardless of political changes, public sector employees would accept from the taxpayers a MUCH lesser salary for any given type of work than in the private sector. It was intended by the Founding Fathers and the citizens of the late 1700's that public employees be a servant class to the private sector, not a ruling class. By organizing into unions and by other political tactics, public sector employees long ago violated the agreement, and now enjoy, guaranteed large income, completely immodest pensions, and sacrifice NOTHING in return. Recent statistics show that they make more (at least at the federal level) than private sector workers, and that their pensions and retirement are ridculoously huge and secure relative both to their earnings and to anything comparable in the private sector. Contracts only work when both sides benefit, but both sides also give something up. Public sector employees, in the main, now receive without giving up anything meaningful. To right this wrong, first step is to ban public sector unions outright. These organizations are, after all, a form of treason, groups organized in opposition to taxpaying U.S. citizens. After doing this, there are two possible resolutions to the public sector's violation of the social contract. 1. Reintroduce to the public sector the smallersalaries and modest pensions relative to the private sector - regardless of the effect this would have on public employees lifestyle and standard of living - but leave the guarantees of income/pensions intact. 2. Remove the guarantees for income stream and pension that now exist in the public sector, and introduce to public sector employees the same level of anxiety and stress and uncertainty that the private sector has, but keep the salaries and pensions the same (dollar-wise) should the worker be employed/retired. Personally, I would favor the first, but I could be convinced that the second is a better way. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2010-02-25 08:18 |
| #1 We hope this is the future for most of the Beltway. We can always dream can't we. |
| Posted by: Proocpius2k 2010-02-25 07:30 |