I've heard a lot lately about how much teachers are overpaid. There is much talk about merit pay, especially from the new sources that are friendly to a corporate view of the world.   If only there were no teachers unions, we could fire any teachers who did not improve the school grades of a child.  If only there were no teachers unions, we could demand that teachers get paid for the results they produce and nothing more.  This is America where you have to work for what you get!  We are reminded over and over again by FOX news and the rest that in the private sector, we have all made sacrifices and it's not fair for teachers to get paid so much when they are not held accountable.  

Well, not quite. 

The "we" in the private sector who have made all the sacrifices are those of us who, in general, are middle class laborers who have watched our earning potential get chipped away at year after year by government policies sympathetic to the wealthy and toxic to us.  It's a real and present "transfer of wealth" that is slowing killing off the middle class.  Now that our unions are gone and with that, our voice in our government; the only voice of labor in American politics is that of the public service unions, most notably, the teachers.  It is not small mystery why the wealthty and powerful have now have targeted the teachers.  Theteachers are labor right's last stand.  Our last hope for an equitable economy and a pursuit of happiness that is a reality, not the "dream" that the Republicans speak of.

But I digress.  What about merit pay for teachers - just like the private sector?

Jeffery Immelt was CEO of General Electric and in a ten year period,  Jeffery managed to drive the value of the stock so low that his shareholders (the equivalent of a teacher's students), suffered a 58% loss of their investment.  What was Jeffery's merit pay for this ten year period?  He took home a handsome $125 million dollars.  Yeah, old Jeffery is really making sacrifices, just like the rest of us in these hard times.  $125 million doesn't go as far as it used to, but Jeffery will suck it up and make a go of it. 

In his ten years at Time Warner, Richard Parsons lost $60 Billion dollars of his shareholders money and Richard managed to put $113 Million in his wallet.  Ken Lewis at Bank of America saw W-2's totaling $180 million for ten years of his service that resulted in a 37% loss for the investors...and a government bailout!  

It's all here in Bloomberg Business Week 

Remember when we all wondered why the crooks and liars who created the financial mess on Wall Street were not fired on the spot?  Why did they all get to keep their jobs and even get a bonus?  We were told that you have to pay a high wage if you are going to retain talent.  Yeah, that's some talent.  I'd have to work my ass off to lose $60 Billion dollars.  That must be really hard work.  

So salaries in the multi millions to CEOs who have been a total Fuster Cluck in financial performance are not at the root of what's wrong with our society and our economy?  It's the teachers!  It's the teachers unions and their $52K salaries!  It's time to get out the Pinkertons and start cracking heads....bring back the good old days.  

I guess that in paying teachers a lower wage, we'll get the same level of talent?  I mean, what applies to a hedge fund manager cannot apply to a 7th grade science teacher, right?  It makes no difference what you pay a teacher, it's all the same?  

It seems that the Republicans are all in a tizzy about "burdening our children and grandchildren with debt" but not at all concerned about burdening these same kids with a lousy education.  

The union busting Republican goons in Wisconsin and Indiana and Michigan don't give a damn about your kids or my kids or any public school kids.   It's all about the money, our money, the fruits of our labor  that they want to see delivered to their wealthy masters. 

We need to keep up the fight that was begun in Wisconsin.

 There's a bumper sticker out that that says "If you can read this, thank a teacher".  I hope that in the years to come, we can print a new bumper sticker that says, "If you've got a good job at a fair wage - thank a teacher."