Though it has faded from US press coverage (for reasons I believe are fairly obvious), Greece continues to experience serious strife and unrest as their economy collapses around them. Greece’s government spent themselves to the point of having no other options but to cut jobs, pay and benefits to the multitudes of government union employees. The main instigators of the violent part of the nation’s strife are members of government unions who are demonstrating against the cutbacks to overly generous pay and benefits that Greece’s socialist governments have provided their government-employed citizenry over the years.
Any American capable of thinking beyond the first order of issues, or able to question liberal US media bias, can easily grasp the parallelism of our nation’s current path with that of Greece (and many of the other European nations with the same sort of Socialistic employment tendencies). I would hope most citizens have done the following analysis themselves since the press certainly has not.
Most recently, the House approved yet another bailout for those states that have proved incapable of controlling their spending on government worker pay, benefits and pensions (to be paid for, in part, with billions of dollars in tax hikes on the U.S. private sector). A typical Socialist move – plunder the private sector to benefit public sector workers, thereby ensuring an increasing, and well paid, venue of voters to maintain the Socialist momentum. A great strategy, until you run out of private sector money.
According to government statistics and numerous studies, personal incomes fell in the U.S. last year, except for government workers. Cities like Washington D.C. experienced rises in personal income due entirely to the growth of the federal government. Nationally, private wages fell 6% in 2009 while government pay rose 2.6%Federal employees' average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn.
While some claim the difference between private and public sector compensation is due to education and experience, the Heritage Foundation found that after controlling for education and experience, federal employees get paid 22% more per hour on average than private sector workers. Factor in federal workers’ benefits (which is a cost born by the taxpayer for a very long time), they earn 30 - 40% more in total compensation. Not only has federal employee pay and benefits far outpaced the private sector, but the private sector has lost millions of jobs (6.8%), while government jobs have exploded by the tens of thousands (10%).
Instead of forcing federal, state and local governments to make the hard decisions on government worker positions, pay, benefits and pensions, our current Administration is adding dependent voters to its rolls by bailing them out. Again, a great Socialist plan, right up until the nation is bankrupt and there is violence in the streets because Government workers can no longer live off the private sector’s tax trough.
Just ask Greece.
I think most of the Industrial Wold Powers powers have figured that out. I'm sure our two largest overseas creditors have. The reaction to Obama's proposals at the G 20 made that clear.. But the American people might want to pay attention.. A great deal of America debt is held by Americans in Bonds. A huge portion of it is in unenforceable bonds held by the various Trust Funds
ReplyDeleteI find my self questioning the Heritage Foundation on this one. If you control for education and job, I am unconvinced that Government workers make more than public sector workers.
ReplyDeleteFor example a super senior engineer with 20 years of experience can only earn $129,517 (GS-15 step 10). Less than 0.5 percent of Government workers at at the GS-15 level and few of those are at the GS-15/10 level.
A large portion of engineers in the private sector easily eclipse this rate of pay.
The government no longer is involved in low paying jobs like janitorial service, data entry and similar.