Walker's Union Busting Taking Economic Toll Already

Just call me Nostrodamus.

In a rant about the negative impact that Scott Walker's union busting would have on the economy, I had written:

The people that get hurt by this are the owners and employees of the small stores, restaurants and taverns, since those are the areas people first cut in their personal budgets. Then bigger companies will feel the pinch, like cable companies, as people realize that they'll need to cut back on luxuries. Also, big ticket purchases will drop, which will lead to things like more real estate problems and less cars being sold. And you know the companies aren't going to allow a hit to their profit margins, so that means they raise rates and/or lay off workers.

The estimates of people in the private sector that are going to lose their jobs just from this one bill is continuously being added to, but the latest I've seen is 31,000 people around the state will lose their jobs because of this decrease in flow of money. To be honest, even that number seems low to me.

Lo and behold, I was proven correct as usual as the first casualties of Walkernomics are being reported:

Kathy Spada said the opportunity with Kocourek was the main reason for closing, but that the economy had also affected business. When asked if the opening of Olive Garden in Rib Mountain affected business, she said any new restaurant can take a “piece of the pie.”

“The economy has made it tough for everyone,” she said.

And this is only the beginning, folks. It's about to get a whole lot worse.