Ever wonder where your tax dollars really go? Cops? Firemen? Schools? Courtesy of the libertarian Reason magazine: take a look down the drain:
There was a time when government work offered lower salaries than comparable jobs in the private sector but more security and somewhat better benefits. These days, government workers fare better than private-sector workers in almost every area—pay, benefits, time off, and job security. And not just in California.
According to a 2007 analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Asbury Park Press, “the average federal worker made $59,864 in 2005, compared with the average salary of $40,505 in the private sector.” Across comparable jobs, the federal government paid higher salaries than the private sector three times out of four, the paper found. As Heritage Foundation legal analyst James Sherk explained to the Press, “The government doesn’t have to worry about going bankrupt, and there isn’t much competition.”
As Texas Guinan used to say in welcoming visitors to her nightclubs, like the El Fey and the Silver Slipper: Hello, Suckers!
Your overnight thoughts welcome here…
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Seems the government sector is where the growth in the economy is…How long will it be before the private sector is so devistated, it cannot support even a minimal public sector? At the current rate, not too long, maybe 3 years……Obama please resign…It's our only hope…
I don't know where these numbers come from, I've been a government for 32 years. If these numbers are in fact true.
They've been skewed by overtime. as their are many government agencies which have been working short-handed since 1992. When many of the Civil Service employees were bought out (retired) or switched to the FERS retirement system.
But $59,864 annual is rather absurd. I mean just take a look at the (GS) schedule (federal wage scale).
here is a USA today article from December
For feds, more get 6-figure salaries
Average pay $30,000 over private sector
By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY
The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.
Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.
Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.
The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.
When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/2009121...
They Go To Administrating You!
There Is No Such Yhing As A Govrn'mt.. Union!
Back in the day, the Soviets had an elite caste : the nomenklatura.
Of course, the Soviets never would have dreamed of the enormous, unsustainable numbers that we are playing with, as the USA Today article mentions.
These, keep in mind, are the people who claim that they can, and will, "bend down" the health-care "cost curve" …
Rowing Canada Gets' 1,000,000,00 Per Year
$800,000.00 Never Leavea Ottawa.
It Takes 800,000 To Administer $200,000.00
Look Me Up?
Good Thing WE Got the Olympics.
I love it – attack Middle Class salaried AMERICANS while ignoring the $10 Billion we GIVE to a FOREIGN country that has attacked us in the past and makes enemies for us. Then you wonder why everyone hates Neocons. Stop invading countries (for Israel) then we can reduce all that military spending. All we really need to do is something we AREN'T doing – guarding the border.
You certainly spell and puctuate like a gov't worker.
Recent example.
Cash for clunkers.
Total cost per transcaction: $24,000.
Clunker grant: $3500 to 4500 per transaction.
So… We, the taxPAYERS, PAID $20,000 to give out $4500.
Obama bureacracy in action.
What a waste of OUR money. Where did it go? Tell us WHAT YOU DID WITH OUR MONEY!
Stop these thieves NOW!
I worked the past year as a govt. contractor and got paid $57K for it. The actual govt. employees in my dept. made from $80K-110K per year.
During my prior 7 years in the private sector I made $35K for the exact same job, and I had to work up to that from a starting wage of $28K.
The govt contract has now ended and I'm again looking in the private sector and I'll be lucky to make $40K, assuming I can find a job at all in the current economy.
An addendum: The dept I was in was overstaffed for the amount of work we had (hence the contract not being renewed), yet it's budgeted for 3x as many govt. employees as actually exist, and in the last meeting I went to before leaving there, the Director was talking about their hiring plans for the following year.
So don't buy the "short-staffed" excuse. They might be short of what they're budgeted for, but still have more people than they have work for, but becuz they only have 17 when "budgeted" for 50, they'll still claim short staff, in spite of only having work for 12.
Case in point here in Kansas City. In the private sector the average carpenter makes roughly $14-$18 per hr. My brother is working on a project the the government mandates Davis Bacon wages be paid. So the contractor has to pay him $47.50 per hr for something the private sector would pay less than half for. They are paying the guys to carry out the trash and sweep the floor on the project $36.50 hr. Not bad to push a broom.
This is an area that definately needs to be corrected. Eliminate a lot of these wasteful jobs.
The civil service is borderline criminal with the social hiring practices…………
Thank you. An age ago, I got a 2 week job delivering mail to a state government office as a temporary. I was completely unnecessary (they had enough delivery people without me) but to be fair I saw plenty of hard workers and empty desks as well as slackers. The ratio was 4 slackers, 1 hard worker, 3 empty desks. But you can be sure that it's the hard workers without political pull that were endangered come budget cutting time.
Fixing government pay so it's not richer than the private sector has nothing to do with neo-conservatism or foreign policy (unless you want to drop the diplomatic pay scales of our embassy in Tel Aviv). Ask any paleo-conservative and he'll be on board with government workers earning in total pay than in the private sector.
Government workers are enablers, support staff at best. It's the private sector that actually creates wealth. When the support staff is paid more than the stars and has better pensions, there is something wrong. It a world with deficits higher than a trillion dollars, cutting the foreign aid budget down to zero wouldn't save us fiscally. Fixing government payroll would make a bigger dent and it needs doing.
We have JFK to thank for this. Where and when did the American voters agree that unionization of government entities was one, legal, and two agreed upon by the electorate. Unionization of government employees should be challenged as unconstitutional not in theory but in the practice of our Democratic Republic. As far as I remember, the government is not an entity with a name on it but the people of this country. People who perform duties in government work for the people. When was it ever brought up on a referendum or presented as a law that the government could actually vote on. Unions should be disbanned and declared illegal when targeting certain professions or industries. They should onlt be allowed to organize for collective causes at most. From my point of view, this was the beginning of the end when government was able to inflate itself to the "Too big to fail" status that it now has. Twenty-five percent of GDP is appalling.
I don't know….it seems to me that having a a government employee union…. is like the mafia having a front operation for laundering money…and charging them protection..from themselves.
If the leftist Democrats are such magnanimous benefactors…why is it always the unions run by their political lackeys that come to the table and force more inane conditions down our throats?
Sounds like an inside job to me.
the myth of the underpaid, overworked civil servant is a hoary one, for sure. don't forget public school teachers and admin, too.
My husband works for a Gov. Contractor for the Air Force. He gets payed a little less (about $2,000 per year) than the private sector for his job title. BUT. . .whenever they have to bid for the contract, his company, the last 2 rounds, has been told they did not bid high enough. Not high enough by about 3 million dollars. So the company takes back their bid adds a few non-needed jobs positions, a few more goodies that the machanics want, like new tool boxes, and they re-submit. winning the contract with a higher bid. It is disgusting, since he has worked there many positions have been added, that are not needed, and add no value to the overall quality of the product delivered to the government. In fact the last time bidding happened the owner of the company was told he might even lose the contract because they had bid too low, the gov. was looking at how they could maintain their high standard for such a low cost, they suspected fraud!
Eventually, something must come to a head over this. This is unsustainable — even in the short term. I'm not even talking about the impact on our children and grandchildren here. Public pensions are grossly underfunded at cities and counties across the country, and taxpayers simply can't provide enough tax basis to sustain this. We must prepare for economic armageddon, because there just isn't enough money in the private sector to pay the taxes needed to sustain all these government employees.
For example, during 2009, the individual income tax revenue and the federal budget deficit were nearly equal. Remember, that's just the DEFICIT — alone! The implication of this is that in order for the federal government to pay its own way (eliminate the deficit), individual income taxes would have to be DOUBLED on every single person in the country. There aren't enough rich people to pay for everything. That's just a simple fact! And doubling the income tax still wouldn't even fully fund the public employee pensions. That doubling is just to eliminate the annual deficit. Paying all these expenses from the tax base is an economic impossibility! We're headed for an economic train wreck — SOON!
Right after Hell freezes, Missy
Love (Your money),
Barry
Sigh! I've said this before in response to similar articles: If Uncle paid me by the hour instead of a straight salary, he wouldn't be able to afford me and most of my coworkers. Drive by any US Government Agency building in DC at 5 PM and you will see thousands of people streaming out. Drive by the same building at 7 or 8 PM and you will see the lights on in the offices where thousands more responsible people intent on doing their jobs right continue to work.
If you want to get rid of government waste, start with "affirmative action." If the alleged "support staff" (read: secretaries and other administrative assistants) in DC was cleaned out by relying on annual reviews written honestly instead of by managers fearful of equal opportunity lawsuits (and that is a very real threat based on documented history), the government payroll would shrink drastically; at the same time, hard workers who are supposed to depend on those alleged support staff could then rely on people who actually work instead of yakking on the phone. The legacy of EEO has created a massive payroll of hangers-on who actually retard work instead of facilitating it.
I wish I had a dollar for every night I missed dinner with my family, or got home too late to have dinner, doing clerical work not in my job description others, who boogied at 5 PM, should have done. I could retire now, debt free.
Our retirement is no longer the cushy 50% for 20 years, 75% for 30 years it used to be. It's now 1/3 agency retirement pay based on high three years, 1/3 Social Security, and 1/3 Thrift Savings Plan. Most of us do the work because we love it and think we're doing something truly worth doing, serving our country. The so-called job security we're supposed to have is there so we can avoid being pressured to go over the line whenever a political appointee decides to push past laws and regulation. It works most of the time. You just don't hear most of the stories.
It's like Churchill said about Democracy: "It's the worst form of government except for all the others."
how gubmint works. once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. congress said 'someone may steal from it at night" so they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job. then congress said "how does the watchman do his job without instruction?" so they created a planning dept. and hired two people, one to write instructions, one to do time studies. then congress says "how will we know the watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" so they create a quality control dept. and hire two people. how are these people going to get paid, create a time keeper and a payroll officer and hire two people, who will be accountable for all these people? so create an administration section and hire three people admin officer, assisstant admin officer and a legal secretary. then congress said we have had this in operation for one year and are $18,000 over budget we must cut costs, so they laid off the night watchman.
the above post was in an email i received. so is the following what is the reason for the dept of energy? created during the carter administration. in 2009 the budget for the dept was 24 billion it had 16000 federal employees not counting contract labor. anyone remember what its purpose is for yet, in 1977 the dept of energy was instituted to lessen our dependance on foreign oil. another shining example of gov t efficiency.
People would do well to remember that the primary purpose of the bureaucracy is to preserve the bureaucracy, and in doing so, any benefit to the people it purportedly serves is purely incidental.
JFK allowed government workers to unionize. That was the beginning of the end, right there. Now it's to the point that it's nearly impossible to fire a government worker for poor performance. Many of them are virtual dead bodies who just take up space and draw a paycheck. I saw this a lot when I was with FEMA.
To get an idea of how ridiculous this is, consider the idea of allowing military enlisted men to unionize. It's positively absurd. Back before JFK's time, the idea of allowing government workers to unionize was considered equally preposterous (As it should be!).
Nobody whose job is paid for by tax dollars should be allowed to be in a union. Period. Not police, not anybody. And, promotion and salary should be based on objective performance metrics, with a threshold below which the employee is automatically terminated.
People would do well to remember that the primary purpose of the bureaucracy is to serve the bureaucracy and that any benefit that would fall to the people it purportedly serves would be purely incidental.
Instead of blaming the Government for providing decent vacation and sick leave, as well as good pay, perhaps we should look at the private sector's refusal to do so. I'm grateful for an employement package that compenstates me fairly and offers sick and leave time comparable to only what "executives" get in the private sector.
Excellent! Thanks for the chuckle. God bless you. Well, it is Sunday.
For every slug, I'll show you dozens of hard working individuals. There are good reasons to be anti-union (eg. the UAW), but I've seen the Government Unions protect the rights of individuals that would normally be powerless against abuses by management. Another benefit to the no firing without documented cause, is that a manager must learn to acutally manage!
In China they were called Mandarins who controlled and then eventually led to the destruction of the dynasties.
Where do I aplly for that temp position?
What about those $5000 toilet seats?
You are a bigot and an ignoramus. I hope those terrible invaders from Mexico continue to give you nightmares about those terrible JEWS who are ruining your life.
How does anyone become as stupid as TheFonz? Public schools, which are run by Union teachers
The government produces nothing; instead, it uses federal taxes but produces NO revenue as does the private sector. The private sector produces revenue upon which taxes are paid. You ask don't federal employees pay taxes? Yes, but they were paid from our tax dollars, so they pay taxes on what we provided to them. If there were no private sector, where does one think the money for government would come from?
There are some hard workers in government and that's how things get done. Unfortunately their positions are unionized so people get laid off based on seniority rather than the quality of their work.
Yup…………………"gubment union hack"……………Typical Dem………….."Shut up and pay me with your tax dollars!"
and that happens in non-union parts of the government as well….
last in=first out during any reductions in force….
Speaking as a contractor for the military and working with many congressionally approved new civil service hires. Yes they do earn higher wages than their civilian counterparts(like me). They are not MILTEC employees, they are civilians hired through USA jobs. And, they are not the sharpest knives in the drawer either. They earn more, get more time off, better perdiem for travel, better medical benefits shorter days, overtime, etc.
The government also has many contractors in the rank and file to support the civil servants in getting the tasks accomplished. But, the reports do not entertain you with that information. Primarily because we do their jobs at less pay, fewer benefits, salary vs hourly, and work with chinese handcuffs most of the time because we can not represent the government, but we can ensure the contracts are followed per their statement of work for goods and services.
JSC
Look for a job with gov'ment….Not too many in the Private Sector…And that's the nub of the problem…The day of reckoning can't be far away..
Touche'
The problem did not lay with the the existence of the Mandarins. The problem was with their use. The first Chin emperor called all of his Mandarins together in a circle and placed a deer in the center of the room. Standing behind them, he went around, one by one, and asked, "This is a horse, is it not?" He also had an executioner with him. If the Mandarin disagreed and said it was a deer, he was beheaded on the spot. The emperor kept going around the circle until all he had left were Mandarins who all swore that the deer in the middle of the room was a horse. To this day, when disdaining a cynical lie, the Chinese use the term "deer posing as horses." During the Boxer rebellion, european (and American) attempts to colonize China, the corruption of the Dowager, the youth and confusion of the last emperor, Henry PuYi, the corruption of the court eunuchs, who were stealing the court blind, impending war, and so many other factors led to the demise of the Mandarin institution. In general, the more just the dyanasty, the more effective the Mandarin's. The two most compelling examples of this are the Tang and Han Dynasties, which were also the only two institutionally Taoist dynasties. Mandarin's, by the nature of their education, were strongly Taoist in thought, though there were numerous loose exchanges and borrowing of information between them and the Fo Jia (Buddhists).
This needs to change, and in no uncertain terms.
Dear ben
You sir are correct, hit the nail square on the head. government workers do RETURN some revenue back to the government in taxes. the rest of their salaries +benefits are paid by the private sector. Government employees are percentage payers. the positive side of government employment is in spreading their paychecks into the sevice industry. this tends to help stabilize local economies. The danger is when the public sector grows to large, coupled with excessive government taxation/regulation/interference of the private sector. Im afraid we are moving in this direction to fast and it will kill the golden goose at some point. Its already happening at the local/state level.
WYATT
What about 'em?…
WOW!! Now I understand….
WOW!! And I thought Mandarin was just a language…I can't wait to incorporate the "deer posing as horses" in my next analogy….
WE get shaken down with taxes as high as a cat's back, with a metaphorical gun to our head, to support these lame, lazy, inefficient and unaccountable government (some with GREEN CARDS!) employees. Time to put these worthless government do-nothings on the bread lines. Nothing more useless and worthless than a government employee.
The private sector CANNOT AFFORD to pay the kind of "perks" that "government" employees get because the private sector has to TURN A PROFIT. Government employees DO NOT create value, they REARRANGE value, OUR value. Government employees should NEVER be paid comparable to the private sector. NEVER. There is accountability in the private sector, where there is NONE in the government. It is PREPOSTEROUS that OUR tax dollars support this nonsense. Government employees could not make it in the private sector because there is just too much accountability, and they would not be able to survive. We in the private sector are SICK and TIRED of supporting your ilk.
Does anyone have a link to the 2007 article? To my knowledge, the BLS doesn't collect or publish data for federal workers.
There are a lot of things that you guys take for granted. Like the court system. The only difference between the low-point in human government – the USSR – and us is that we have a system of redress. They had a Constitution. Like Bush said, it is nothing but a piece of paper. Of course the globalists who admire systems like the Chicoms and the Soviets would love to eviscerate that and other systems that make our American experiment possible and they can do it, as Newt the Neocon said, by letting it wither on the vine. The NWO types find it just as comfortable within the ranks of the "liberals" as well as the neocons.
This religion of knee-jerk government bashing and embracing of all things "private" has resulted in entire roads in the US sold off to foreign companies (oh, yeah, they said "private" – nothing about "American.") These foreign companies then toll the road that was already paid for by the tax payers. You guys need to get out of your Ivory Towers.
And saving $10 Billion dollars by cutting foreign aid is significant as I showed by the amount of Americans that could be employed! The *deficit* has only surpassed a trillion because of Barry – normally it is in the order of a few hundred billion.
There is no "fix" because government payroll isn't broken. It is lower than the private sector despite the skewed numbers where Ross here wants to compare government jobs with an average of the private sector that INCLUDES burger-flipper jobs. Government doesn't hire burger flippers. You guys need a crash course on statistics!
I run rings around you intellectually, that is what bothers you so much. Eventually you may wise up and realize I was right. I used to be like you.
The solution, proposed by the commucrats, is Health Care. You see, it's really not about "Health," or "Care." It's about putting the mechanism in place to skim egregious taxes from the productive workers and businesses of the nation.
Here in Illinois, about 200,000 private sector jobs were lost in 2009 while the total number of government workers remained constant.
A lot of charitable organizations are having a hard time now because of the Cash for Clunkers program. They lost a revenue in 2009 – vehicle donations.
Also, poor people who would have been happy to have a decent used car just to get to work were deprived of that opportunity.
All this is in keeping with Obamunism. All giving should come from the government, not private effort.
As long as we keep following the same parties of least resistance instead of our founders fathers plan of minimalist government, as long as we keep allowing both Democrips and Rebloodlicans buy our votes with money stolen from other AMERICANS and borrowed from other countries we will continue to be an expendable commodity to those NON-servants of the public in both state and federal, governments.
It is time to oust both sides of the same evil coin (D's&R's) from our state and federals halls it will continue to be HEADS THEY WIN TAILS WE THE PEOPLE LOSE!!!
frustration makes poor spelling and grammar. Hope point remains clear. THROW THE BUMS OUT…
[...] Civil Service Police Officer Examination | The Sleepy Policeman » Your Tax Dollars at Work: the Civil ‘Service’ That’s Eating A… [...]
What about the OSHA and EEO staff to make sure the watchstaff is safe and that there is no discrimination?
And of course they need some nice brochures in 27 languages, so there's the PR staff to consider.
ObaMarx wants to allow the TSA to unionize.
This is payback for the powerful special interest groups (unions) that got him elected.
No we have Obamandarin.
"There is accountability in the private sector, where there is NONE in the government.:"
Really? How do you explain Enron, Worldcom, S & L scandal and the recent excellent "corporate management" of AIG? Please…..
"If there were no private sector, where does one think the money for government would come from? "
Good liberals know that all wealth comes from the government. To them, private enterprise is a major annoyance (like the Constitution).
With Obama pretending to be the new Lincoln, pretty soon he'll probably declare that he knows that Washington and Jefferson really meant to institute Obamacare but just ran out of time.
Here in CA it's even worse…13% unemployment + 5-6% more given up looking.
All living off the spouse for the foreseeable future…
We have a small business, contracting/construction, my husband is the only one left. He thought retirement was a given. Now out of the question.
Business , in general, now down 60-70%…In the '79-'82 recession business was off perhaps 40%, but he kept everyone working, although for less money
Now, forget it…Just horrible…Obamba please resign….
The whole modus operendi of the Progressives is to destroy the capital base and cause irriparable harm to the financial system so that they can blame Capitalism and insert their system known as Communism/Marxism/ fascism/progressivism, or Slavery.
I think they went OUT OF BUSINESS…
I think the current term is, "Obamunism."
We need to have import tariffs on goods manufactured in low-wage countries, so Americans can have private-sector manufacturing jobs. (These will be good private-sector union jobs.) We need to amend the Constitution to prohibit public-employee unions. We need to end illegal immigration.
None of these things will come to pass. So, just pray and remember that our citizenship is in Heaven The Lord raises up nations, and the Lord decides when they will fall. Please pray real hard.
The US Dept of Energy was created under Carter when we imported aboput 40% of our energy needs, to find a way to stop the dependence of the US on foreign imported Energy. It has succeeded spectacularly and now we import over 70% of our energy needs. The budget of the Dept of Energy is 29,000,000,000 and some change. It has 16,000 employees and 100,000 out side contractors. What the hell do 16,000 people do in the Dept of Energy. There isn't that much paper is there?
Fire 50% of the government employees and reduce the pay of the rest by 20%.
"Governments produce nothing; Theyhave nothing to give but what they have first taken away."Winston Churchill
The people being paid the locally prevailing wage are not Government employees. They are private sector (most likely union) carpenters. Of course, the taxpayers will foot the bill for $36.50 per hour broom pushers.
Just to add my 2 cents, since I have SO many as a state employee… I work as a programmer at a research university, I have an MS in computer science, for which I'll be paying off loans for a loooong time to come. You bet I see plenty of folks who shouldn't have been given jobs, much less at the outrageous pay for what very little they do. It's a "who you know, and what you publish" game.
The nature of my job is such that hardly anyone knows I exist, I don't wear a suit, and very few people at the university could understand what I do even. I make about $30,000/year less than some of my classmates who are in the private sector, I haven't had a raise in 2 years despite exemplary reviews, and my particular department is not only understaffed but our boss is a tightwad with high morals about money so it's a real struggle even to get printer paper. Meanwhile we hear about other folks getting big raises, bonuses, trips, training, so on and on.
So I guess my point it, please don't paint us _all_ as taking advantages. Some of us got in this hoping to make a difference in the world, to do unique and challenging work, and just smiled when friends asked didn't we want to be rich. I am truly sorry about the stinkers out there, believe me, when I have to keep my 10 year old clunker going because I simply cannot buy another one, I get aggravated at some of the stuff I here.
Well, anyway, thanks for letting me vent.
Fonz
It's really too bad that you've basterdized your obvious intelligence and writing ability, to be nothing more then a two-bit hate monger…. A mind is a terrible thing to waste…
and how did you get +14 pts today when you had -65 yesterday????.
"Then you wonder why everyone hates Neocons."
I don't hate Neocons and I don't wonder much about it. I DO wonder what is a Neocon. I eventually realized that it is simply a hate word and has no meaning to pretty much every person that uses the word. A "conservative" is simply one that conserves, and without knowledge of what is being conserved (preserved, saved, not wasted) the word has no useful meaning.
Thus, if "conservative" has no particular meaning, then neither does "new conservative". Only in the context of something that one can choose to waste (use liberally) or save (conserve), does it make sense.
Thus we can see the semantic roots of "liberal" means one that does not save anything at all, or the thing being discussed — whether it is money, laws or Constitutional rights. Conservative is the opposite; it is the philosophy of NOT wasting or changing money, laws and Constitutional rights.
OOps, misspelled:
"So I guess my point it" –> should be "is"
"…stuff I here." –> should be "hear"
Sorry!
Part 1
Hi all. We had the same thing happen up here in Canada as well. When Pierre trudeau was elected in the late sixties he (and the Liberal Party) decided that government was going have a greater role in people's lives (Trudeau was always a socialist lite). In order to do this they felt that they had to attract the brightest people from the private sector. As a result the completely revamped the pay scales (this also made the various unions such as PSAC formed in 1966 very happy) became were competitive with the private sector but the jobs had the added benefit of job security (it's almost impossible to get fired) and very generous benefits (including a pension program that is second to none).
.
Part 2
Over the years the private sector salaries have fallen when compared to government equivalents so if someone is motivated purely by compensation the government is the place to go. From time to time a hiring freeze is announced to placate the public. What actually happens is that instead of being "hired" a person is given a contract (or hired as a "consultant") so that the official reported head count does not go up but the actual number of people working does. In general the wages paid for these contracts is quite a bit higher then the regular salary in order to compensate for lack of benefits. It really is quite the game
Okay, I looked. Now what? ("perhaps we should look at the private sector's refusal to do so").
That's what I thought. Looking is not doing.
Anyway, let's try a thought-experiment. Every place you see "government" put "the people". You are grateful to "the people" for providing decent vacation and sick leave and you wonder why "private sector" does not do likewise.
The difference is this: The government collects taxes because it *can*; the private sector must depend on customers, any of whom will go somewhere else if you try to impose upon that customer the cost of providing decent vacations and sick leave.
The accountability of the companies you mention lies in the fact that they are no longer around, except when we the taxpayers have a gun held to our head and are FORCED to subsidize the viability of disasters like GM, AIG. Since you mentioned it, where was the "government accountability" when Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac were FORCING banks to provide subprime (undeserved by their financial ability) loans? Where's the accountability among the post office and amtrack, both of which have never turned a profit to sustain themselves? Enlighten me.
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It sound like your boss needs a promotion
Wow! Thanks for the info.
Most Alaska State employees are members of government unions.
Depends on where. People who work in a department that supplies a vital service but where graft is not currently possible will be overworked and under paid.
I refuse to believe that the private sector can't afford to give decent vacation and medical leave time. The millions that go to CEOs and other executives tell me otherwise.
Thanks to a Public selected Commander, who has chosen to move the country to Socialism and gorge the Federal Government with and abundance of paper pushers, we paint all Employees as lazy bums on a free ride. It isn't a free ride. I worked as an electronic Tech. I came in with more Electronic schooling then the people I worked for at a pay that was just above TV Repairman. I worked on the Electronics that kept the Test projects flying. I got to spend months away from the family while being trained on New Radar System. Climbed on top of a tower during during the approach of a Hurricane to check equipment. I could tell hundreds of situations, but the point is not all Employees are alike. Yes, there are lots of waste of skin, but there are just many there to protect your backside and work their ass off.
Actually, I'm a conservative Republican….and no, not a RINO.
The difference is you and 100,000 like you are UNNECESSARY…You need to understand and admit you have a problem before I can help you…
I read the "Down the Drain" article as well as this one and what came to my mind was something my bible teacher taught me. He said everybody is aware of the seven original sins. He said there is an eight one- the spirit of something for nothing. I think that is what we see at play in every level of government and the people who work for it. In the down the drain article,
"One would think that a “3 percent at 50” retirement would be a good enough deal for most people. Most workers in the private sector would probably jump at such an opportunity. But many public safety officials aren’t satisfied with a system that allows them to retire with 90 percent or more of their final year’s pay at young ages. They feel compelled to game the system in ways that stretch or break the law."
I agree with the people on this board who say this cannot go on much longer. our country is being turned into a cost-to-coast extended version of "The Office".
What you say here is correct and the previous 30 posters who said the same thing, are also correct…
You are absolutely correct in your observation concerning "civil service".
As a young man I remember that in the small town in which I grew only those not capable of holding a regular job ended up working for the village. High school bulies became village police, while drop outs worked the street division.
It was liberal government that chose to boost lesser talent into the middle class via government pay.
So now we have postal carriers making $70,000 a year and college graduates in industry out of work.
they got caught didn't they ?
Every federal employee except the military is over paid.
I think that those of us who live in states with initiative and referendum need to think up amendments to our state constitutions to nullify the existing union contracts and bind the government's hand from giving away the store in the future. Not sure exactly how to word such an amendment but that's my basic idea. These pension plans alone are killing state budgets.
Resistance is futile. All will be assimilated.
I as a business owner need to create the product, pay all the bills, taxes, ins., wages, …. If I am lucky at the end of the day I can pay myself enoughy to buy a loaf of bread!
Dumb people….. Even a mother pig has the good sense to stop feeding one or more of her young if she has too many mouths to feed, can't say the same for government workers!
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