Resolved: That Scott Walker's recent budget bill is a wonderful, much needed idea

My opponent makes it abundantly clear that he is not a fan of the Democratic Party. Saying Democrats oppose any "capitalistic" or "pro-business measures is one of the most asinine, baseless assertions I've read. The auto industry is not very relevant to the resolution. However, my opponent completely misrepresented the situation. It's pretty difficult to address all the mistruths within the constraints of this debate, but there are several things that need to be clarified. The total compensation and benefits, calculated by GM, was indeed $73.26. My opponent incorrectly labels this as a wage, when it is much more appropriately described as the cost of labor and pensions for retirees. In reality, the average unionized GM worker for is compensated about $55 per hour. [5] The average wage earned by those workers is around $29 per hour. [6] Legacy costs will only go down in future years, as UAW and the Big Three reached an agreement in 2007 to cover retirees' health care expenses. Additionally, blaming legacy costs when they only represent about 10 percent [5] of the cost of making a vehicle is not a valid reason for why the quality of American vehicles is worse, considering American car companies sell their cars for about $2,500 less than their Japanese counterparts. Again, these car companies have been poorly managed for the past 30 years. The United Auto Workers are not to blame for that. One of the primary incentives for teachers to enter their profession is the benefits. Taxpayers pay for these. In return, teachers provide a valuable service to society. Expecting the teachers to contribute toward their health care and pension plans is reasonable to an extent. Not many people are debating this point, and the unions accepted those concessions. However, taking away teachers' rights to negotiate benefits is yet another encroachment on workers' rights, and it will only reduce incentive. My opponent completely failed to address the majority of my argument, and I extend that argument. I. The Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill reflects a disturbing trend in the private and public sector over the past 30 years, which is not wonderful or needed for America's middle class. Union membership has dropped from 24.1 percent in 1979 to 11.9 percent in 2010. [7] This is clearly not due to one reason. Automation has played a significant role in the decline of unions. This has happened in my home state of West Virginia, where machines now perform many of the tasks coal miners used to perform. Some unions have been poorly managed, and membership has declined as a result. But this is a symptom of the decreasing bargaining power of the middle class and the increasing influence of the rich. It reflects the increasing economic inequality in America. The result has not been good news for the American worker. While the amount of wealthy per worker grew by 63.7% from 1980 to 2009, there was only an 11.2% growth in median wages. [8] Since 1976, the top 1 percent of income earners' share of total income has grown from 8.9% to 23.5% in 2007. [9] Last year, we saw a Supreme Court ruling protect large contributions to special interest groups. In addition, we saw an extension of tax cuts to the rich when the government desperately needs that added revenue. We have seen bailouts to big banks and large corporations. We have seen millionaires continue to sit on their cash reserves, even when there are millions of Americans who have fine productive capability. Our economy is not built on the contributions of the top one percent. The livelihood of the other 99 percent is incredibly important, and that's evident in our slow recovery. The middle class hasn't had enough economic power to get the economy moving once again on its own. Continuing to strip away rights and power from them is not going to benefit this country. [5] http://www.nytimes.com... Remaining sources in comments.