Big Business

Who would have ever thought that we'd see a union vote for a contract that lowered wages and promised cutting up to 1,000-jobs?

That's what happened at Harley-Davidson of York yesterday. Harley threatened to move the plant to Kentucky unless they got what they wanted. I think they're still waiting for funding from the state to help convince them to stay too.

When I worked for a large local printer they wanted to build a plant in Northern New Jersey to attract more New York business. But once they learned of the real estate and construction costs in Northern Jersey they dropped the idea.

Until someone came up with an idea to fool the state government. Word would be let loose that they were planning on building in North Jersey and taking hundreds of jobs with them, even though they had given up on North Jersey completely.

The state trying to save jobs lined the printer's pockets with funding if they would build locally. They did. The building is barely used. What a scam.

Is there a similar situation going on now with Harley? We know they threatened to leave. But who knows if that was serious or just a threat? The state was eager to find funds to keep them here. The union was eager to conceed much to keep them here. Would it actually be cheaper to build a brand new plant in another state rather than retrofitting the existing plant here? Perhaps.

I don't like being so suspicious. But I've really seen too much to be anything but. Let's face it...can you really have nine cars all individually worth around $100,000, and an indoor basketball court, if you're living an honest life?

I'll always remember boating out a "creek" to the Chesapeake Bay with my Uncle. He caught me staring at this mansion on the water. It was HUGE! It had three-garages on the water for extravagant boats.

He said, "Jim, let me tell you. You can't get all of that and live an honest life. Trust me. I tried."