Wisconsin Teachers' Benefits, Uneaten School Lunches, Wall Street and War

Well, the Wisconsin Republicans passed their bill while the "Wisconsin 14" were across the border in Illinois trying to avoid having to have to vote.  And I agree that it is a drag that some of the kids on the free or subsidized lunch program don't eat their lunch, and I agree that it is a drag that the health care mafia and their lobbyists have the cost of US health care through the roof.  That is all terrible and inexcusable.  What is funny, however, is the current focus on the lower level earners, as if that were where the problem lay. If I were a normal person, and not a politician, and I wanted to focus on eliminating the waste of taxpayers' money, I would examine first the biggest and most heinous wasters - the Wall Street crowd and the military-industrial cabal that have impoverished the USA and most of the world.  Let's make some basic assumptions to put things in perspective - without doing any in depth research - just some quick and dirty googling. 

• The "bailout" could cost between $11.7 and $23 trillion; http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/tarp-j22.shtml and http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/29/useconomy-banking.
• Pursuing these illegitimate wars is costing billions a week. As of September 2010, total reported by the Congressional Research Service (http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf) is 
• $751 billion for Iraq and 
• $336 billion for Afghanistan; 
• I just checked and it costs $9.8 Bn in 2009 to feed 31 million children in 101,000 schools. Free meals if you are under the 130% poverty level. Sliding scale up to 185% poverty level. This I would think to be suspect as I would imagine that the food for lunch programs is probably sourced by overproduced farm products that would probably sit in an expensive warehouse until they were past their sell-by date and then fed to animals. http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch/aboutlunch/NSLPFactSheet.pdf.
• Paying for teachers salaries and benefits might cost about $6 billion a year.  I got this by multiplying the number of teachers in Wisconsin: 59,552 x the top end of the total alleged package of $100K equals $5,955,200,000 - almost $6 bn, to teach 873,750 students. http://www.localschooldirectory.com/state-schools/WI.

Now, all that said, this doesn't mean that we shouldn't cut back where there is waste.  However, it seems the thieves are busy picking all our pockets while they are pointing across the road saying "Look at those greedy bastards." That's how I see it.  

And this "us vs them" scenario (for which we always seem to fall) means that while we argue over crumbs, these fat bastards are eating all the pies. And we let them because we fall for the propaganda again, and again, and again.  

These are all misdirections.  I mean, if you knew that someone was taking $10,000 from you and that someone else was taking $1 from you, where would your conservation efforts best be expended? Further, if the person taking the $10K from you was the same person pointing out the $1 thief, what would you think?  Now, some people think that none of this stuff about joining together to demand an end to militarism and the growing fascism in the USA matters, as Jesus is coming back pretty soon, right? Well, even if this were so, these are opportunities to stand up for what is right, and an opportunity to be found doing the Master's service, and a chance for earning a "well done, thou good and faithful servant" pat on the back.  

The teachers in Wisconsin may be being paid more than someone else in their position, but the Wisconsin high school graduation rate is #1 in the USA, apparently.  So maybe the people are getting value for money.  And remember, the Republican Party saint, Ronald Reagan himself, spoke movingly about the necessity for free people to support collective bargaining.

Anyway, I think it looks like it that the "Wisconsin 14" knew they couldn't stop the bill, so they left Wisconsin.  I still think this was misdirection, arguing over pennies while the mega-thieves were taking everything. I trust no political party.  Everything should be decentralized and power devolved to a very local level, and the money should stay local.  Small is beautiful. But that is just my view.