Steven Harper Piziks

Eight years ago, the State of Michigan (led by the Tea Party GOP) decreed that public school teachers needed to pay an extra 3% of their paychecks into a retirement fund that would pay for their medical care after retirement.  The new deduction would start immediately.

This was a lot of money.  I lost more than $100 per paycheck.  And I felt it.  I was newly divorced, had three sons to raise by myself, was paying off debts that arose from the divorce, and now I was going to be short $200 per month.  $200 was about what I was paying in utilities.  A lot of teachers were in the same boat.

The Michigan Education Association sued.  The law, said the MEA, was unconstitutional.  The constitution expressly forbids levying a tax against a specific class of people, and the 3% was a tax only teachers paid.  Additionally, there was no provision in this new law that actually required the state to use that money for medical care.  This meant the state could grab the money and use it for literally anything, and no one could require it to be paid back.  The Attorney General and Governor Snide (sorry--Snyder) totally promised that the money would only be used for retiree health care, but since Snyder and the legislature had already raided the School Aid Fund more than once and diverted the money to non-educational uses, their promises were hollow and stale as an Easter basket bunny.  So the lawsuit progressed.

After two and a half years in the courts (during which I lost 3% of my salary), the judge ruled for the MEA and put a stay on the law.  Yay!  The deductions stopped.  Also yay!  The MEA demanded that the money be returned to the teachers.  But the state, led by AG Bill Schuette, immediately filed an appeal.  Of course.  The money wouldn't be returned until the appeals were exhausted, though the deductions would end. 

The money was put into an interest-bearing escrow account.  Keep watching that word "interest," kids.  It'll be important later.

Bill Schuette spent thousands and thousands of taxpayer dollars defending this lawsuit.  He appealed to the appellate court.  Years (that's "year" with an -s) later, the appellate court ruled once again for the MEA and the teachers.  The money, and the interest it had accrued, must be returned.

And Schuette appealed again.  This time to the Michigan Supreme court.  No money returned to teachers.  By now, Schuette had spent money like water on this case, and was getting close to a million bucks spent defending a case he had lost twice.  However, the Michigan Supreme Court was stacked with Republican judges, and he clearly hoped for a ruling in his favor.  The MEA continued to fight, even as we all held our breath.

The Michigan Supreme Court sat on the case for nearly TWO YEARS.  They didn't hold hearings, they didn't make rulings, nothing.  And no law required them to.  They sat, and sat, and sat.

And then at last they announced they would hear the case.  Schuette and his expensive law team made their case, as did the MEA.  The judges sent everyone home so they could think.  Months and months passed.

Meanwhile, $550 million of teacher money sat in this interest-bearing escrow account, gathering interest.

Finally, the court issued a ruling.  With little fanfare, a firm majority of the judges came down in favor of the MEA.  The law was unconstitutional and was struck down.  The money must be returned to the teachers, along with all the interest accrued.

Yay!

And then . . .

Bill Schuette played a "fuck you" card.  He decided that nine months of the two and a half years of deductions weren't covered by the court's ruling, so the state would keep that money.  So now the MEA has to sue yet again.  Schuette is a nozzle on a douche bag filled with liquid sheep shit.

Meanwhile, we teachers all got individual notifications of how much money was being returned to us, along with how much eight years of interest was worth.

Me?  I'm getting $5,100.  Good.  Finally.

But wait--now I have to pay taxes on it all at once.  More than I would have if it had come to me in pieces.  Way more.

And the interest on that money?  The money that the court ruled was STOLEN from me?  The money that was held in an interest-bearing account for EIGHT FUCKING YEARS?

$42.

You read that right.  $4-fucking-2.

Why?  Well, said the state with a sly grin, the interest on that account was 0.5%.

If you ever wanted proof of a GOP war on teachers and teacher unions, you have it here.  The deliberate targeting of teachers for theft.  The constant delays on a case the GOP knew it would lose.  The "fuck you" cards they keep playing.

0.5%?  What the fuck kind of account gives 0.5% interest?  None, that's what.  (Michigan law requires at least 2.9% for such things, by the way.)  Not to mention that if =I= had put that money into my own retirement account for eight years, I'd have earned a minimum of 6%.  Over EIGHT YEARS.

The Detroit Free Press reported on it here. https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2018/01/24/michigan-teachers-interest-refund/1059408001/

No, I'm not happy to get the money back.  (Saying "Thank you for the money" is like telling the guy who stole your car and returned it eight years later, "Thank you for bringing it back."  You may as well say, "Would you like to fuck me with a pitchfork while you're at it?")  I'm pissed that the money was stolen in the first place, and I'm pissed that some of the money is STILL MISSING, and I'm pissed that the state is playing monkey games with my money.

The GOP is a sickness.  It needs to be ended.  The GOP is ruining our people, our state, and our country, and here's tangible proof of it.

Amazon is opening a new store:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/technology/amazon-moves-to-cut-checkout-line-promoting-a-grab-and-go-experience.html

They call it "grab and go."  You walk in, grab what you want off a shelf, and walk out.  Ta da!  No lines, no waiting.

No human beings.  No jobs.

It's not that simple, of course.  A chip in each item sends out a wifi signal that notices when an item is moved, which theoreticallhy prevents shoplifting.  The shopper stops at a subway-style exit area, scans a smartphone app which alerts the store to his or her credit card information, and a computer totals up the items the shopper is carrying.  The shopper's card is debited and a receipt comes by email.

So far it's one store, but you can see Wal-Mart hopping on this bandwagon, can't you just?  No cashiers or baggers to hire.  Just people stock shelves and be as unavailable as possible to customers who want to ask where the bananas are.

This spells the end of retail workers.  You can see this coming to store after store after store.  Retail jobs will be as dead as coal mining, and millions of jobs will vanish.

The conservatives I reluctantly follow are snarking that all the minimum wage workers who have been advocating for a $15 hourly wage are responsible for this.  Rather than pay a higher wage, you see, the stores have decided to develop technology that lets them avoid paying wages altogether.  So it's the fault of those bleeding-heart liberals.

No.  Not at all.

It's the fault of rapacious, unchecked capitalism and the lawmakers who allow it to continue.

Amazon (and McDonald's, which has put order kiosks in some restaurants) was working on this technology long before the $15 movement came to light.  And this would have happened with or without the $15 movement.  Ask a corporation this question: "Would you rather pay your workers A) $15 per hour, B) $7 per hour, or C) nothing?"  Which answer are you going to get every time?

Yeah.

This has nothing to do with raising the minimum wage and everything to do with CEOs wanting to increase their own salaries.

If you're in retail, get out now.  Unless you're the owner.  Then you're sitting fine.