Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

A comment from our very own Scott Buckner responding to the “Compensating Workers” item in Monday’s column:

Not only will workman’s comp rates be lower in Indiana, it stands to reason industries moving to Indiana also save a nice chunk of change on their unemployment insurance rate being a bit less than Illinois’ rate.
So workers get even more of a lion’s share of the screwage in a bigger variety of ways, especially if they go with their jobs to East Chicago: 1) Eligible for less workman’s comp, 2) Eligible for less unemployment payment (since you file with the state in which you work), 3) You also have to pay an Indiana income tax, since you work there, and 4) A small fortune to gas up the car now, since public transportation between Bedford Park and East Chicago is non-existent. And that’s provided they all have cars in the first place.
I’m just convinced now more than ever that business exists solely to fuck everybody, and then find new and exciting ways to fuck everybody even more.

BTW, I live right here on the precipice of the Illinois-Indiana border, and have lived here since the 1960s. So I kinda know shit that even John Kass doesn’t even know (even though me and him shared a newsroom in South Chicago way back when).
And as it happens, there are huge casinos along the East Chicago and Hammond lakefront you can take advantage of on the way home to take up the slack of getting fucked by your employer if you’re feeling lucky. America be beddy beddy good. Unless you lose, and you’re losing every single day if you think you’re on top of the world just because you “have a job.”
Jeez, people: Our American slaves had jobs and lifetime employment. Wasn’t much of living, was it?
And see, Steve? That’s the thing here. It’s all fucking bullshit.
[O]n LinkedIn, there’s someone in my circle that is (I’m guessing, she’s not a direct contact) working in some capacity as a booster for companies coming to Indiana, same as the equipment company form Bedford Park you mentioned on Monday. And truth be told, East Chicago seems to be a hotbed for this, for some reason, especially given what East Chicago has been historically since the 1970s, and without some Blajogevich intervention like in the East Chicago Mayor Bob Pastrick (and his city council people) days of the 1980s.
On one hand, this area needs all the help it can get, and every feather in the cap is probably well-deserved on general principles. But you are 100% correct – and why I even responded to your [Monday] Papers mention in the first place:
This may seem very simplistic and incredibly silly, but Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid was correct, as you were Monday, (and what I’ve tried to pass on to my own kids, having been an old-school journalist): “Things not always what seem.”

Thanks, Buck.
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Posted on August 25, 2015