Budget Busting Compensation Packages Plague States
by Brian GarstThere are two distinct sectors in the economy: the private sector and the government sector. The private sector is the productive part of the economy. Competition in the private sector promotes greater efficiency, productivity and innovation than the public, or government, sector is capable of. Yet it is government employees who are the highest paid and have the most job security. This helps explain why so many states are facing acute, budgetary crises.
A new report by Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute highlights the sharp disparity between public and private compensation. Despite producing very little compared to their private counterparts, public sector employees of state and local governments averaged 45 percent more per hour in wages and benefits. And because government never shrinks, public employees are “rarely terminated for cost-cutting or job performance reasons.”
\Unionization appears to be a factor in public sector pay. With a few exceptions, Edwards shows that the states with the highest public pay advantage also have the highest share of union workers. But whatever the cause may be, the excessive pension plans provided by states has placed taxpayers in a virtual stranglehold. Unless cuts are made, they are the ones who will have to pony up to provide for public sector workers.
Rather than make the hard choices necessary to reduce these costs and alleviate the burden on taxpayers, states are increasingly turning to the federal government to bail them out. “The federal government is part of our budget problem,” California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger complained while making a pitch for federal dollars in his recent State of the State address. While it’s true that unfunded mandates can be burdensome for state budgets, they are ultimately just a scapegoat for reckless state spending.
Rather than heed the Governor’s call from California – and it is hardly the only state looking to Washington D.C. for aid – the federal government should make it clear that states must clean their own houses. Only when the spigot of federal dollars is turned off will state lawmakers find the political will to make drastic changes. A good place to start will be to reign in the excessive pay and pension plans of public employees.
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110 Comments
Here in Florida where I live, we have cut 1000 positions in the County and hundreds in the various cities. Government locally has to balance their books, the Feds just print more money. Unions-aren't they Democrat supporters? SEIU ring a bell?
The financial crisis proves that re-distribution by intimidation to the non-producers works. This what Odumbo is selling.
Good article! Never thought of it in those terms, but it makes perfect sense in explaining all the shortfalls around the country. Im my state, the Governor refuses to cut unionized benefits that would not affect the employees in the long term. I wrote him a letter and the response was that not only were they not cutting benefites, but they were actually greatly increasing them. At the same time he has no problem laying off other people. What a joke. Cut me a tax break.
The thievery and dishonesty runs amuck through our system. The system is the best ever, just look around. Now if we can lockup, shoot, hang, imprison, dispose of, the pieces of human doo doo that run it contrary to the will of reasonable sound Americans beause they deem themselves elite and us as simple maggots. we can find our way back.
Hawaii: 20% of the population have "gubment" jobs. They, with their families, all vote will the food stampers, union thugs, and communists. [Guess which party?]
I hope all of the anti-capitalism liberals realize that without a public sector (ie. capitalism) there can be no government sector. The government is like a tick, sucking the very lifeblood out of our economy. The bigger that tick gets the more blood (or in this case money) it requires.
Just try and cut pensions or government payrolls. Not a chance in hell. Government employees are permanently insulated by the very politicans that support them. Here in Chicago, patronage employees are what greases La Machine.
And on a federal level, do you think for a second that payroll costs for union government employees would be reduced under Obama? OBAMA? Not bloody likely.
I live in Florida also, and the job market here is very bleak! I have friends who have been looking for months, and there is nothing out there! Unions should be taken completely out of the equation…!!!
These government workers are the core of Democratic support. The Democratic party is the party of the bureaucrat.
This protection racket, gone unchecked, will eventually bankrupt all fifty states.
Government jobs should not be unionized. Period. Fair labor practices, which are the entire supposed purpose for which unions exist, are best achieved at the ballot box. Who better to trust with the well-being of civil service employees than the people as a whole? In this age of transparent media, unconscionable labor practices in the public sector will be quickly rectified by moderates on both sides of the aisle, without the need for a union.
Public employee unions are inherently corrupt entities involved in an extortion and kickback racket with the politicians they own. Corrupt politicians obey the will of the union and use it to launder taxpayer-funded employee perks, through union accounts, back to their re-election campaigns (by way of mandatory union dues).
Here's a fun fact: labor unions are specifically exempt from penalty under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act. When the RICO Act was written in the 1970's, the politicians behind it saw enough similarities between unions and the Mafia to exempt the former from laws designed to rein in the latter.
The message from Big Government to us: It's not racketeering when we do it.
I also live in FL, and our sheriff had a $400,000 budget surplus… so he gave everyone a bonus, then spent $37,000 on a new Camaro for the anti-drug cop to use in the government school. Yeah, the sheriff is a Democrat…
A silver lining to our recession economy? Just like when the tide is out you can see the rocks, so too when our economy recedes we are better able to see the waste and abuse. Public employee unions are one of the biggest rocks hiding in the surf. I for one would like to see each and every state that has budget deficits like most 'blue' states go through bankruptcy so that they can throw out those bloated union contracts and get to something we can all live with. Trouble is that with the dems in congress and the POS POTUS in the crotch pocket of Andy Stern it will not happen. First thing we need to do when conservatives take back control is to do like Reagan and bust the unions. Unions destroyed our manufacturing base, don't let them make our bureacracies worse than they already are.
These slimebuckets in congress are no different than a drug addict with incureable cancer.
The current financial crisis was not caused by the stimulus or any other kind of government spending. If anything it was caused by the failure of the government to properly regulate the financial markets to prevent bad actors from taking on risk that exceeded their ability to cover in the event of failure.
If you are going to receive government insurance you must submit to government oversight.
in chicago, they need to cut back, so the non union employees get to be sent home for long weekends pay free, while the union guys don't have to spare a thin dime. new laws need to be enacted limiting pay of government non producers, and also limit the hidden perks in pensions, and insurance.
that scumbag who may have killed his wife, drew peterson was supposed to get 76 grand a year just in pension. that is outrageous for a municipal cop, with 26 years on the job. my sister served 26 years in the military, was a chief master seargent, and gets less than half of that, oh, she was a cop in the air force.
Spot on. How can there be good faith negotiations when the employer isn't spending its own money?
Unions sent manufaturing jobs overseas. So they are now looking to unionize the jobs we have left- why do you think they are pushing so hard for government run health care or "the public option"? Because then all health care workers will be government workers and -with Obama as Union Boss-in Chief- they can unionize all those new workers in one fell swoop. THAT should lower health care costs!
In California, not only are our state legislators paid well (majority Democrats), but their staff is as well. In 2009 in he middle of a continuing budget crisis, they gave most of their staff a 15 to 20% pay increase. One of the senior legislators was asked why he increased his cheif of staff's pay to around $120,000, he said that he didn't want to risk losing him to the private sector! State Democrats are also notorious for appointing their spouses to sit on commissions that meet once per quarter, yet pay $100K+ per year. Meanwhile, they pass the largest state tax increase in history. Unfortunately, the California Republicans are bunch of wimps and do very little to stop any of this.
What rubbish! Not enough regulation? As in, the government didn't act to prevent garbage loans? What an absurdity! The government pushed garbage loans as hard as it could!
The crisis was caused by the government actively encouraging- indeed, in some cases forcing- lenders to take on (or pass through) absurd levels of risk they never would have considered but for Federal action. Fannie & Freddie represented 90% of the secondary mortgage market, and it was they who, with effective control of industry lending standards, lowered lending standards through the floor. Couple that with the 1995 amerndments to the CRA, and lawsuits by ACORN and other to force even the sensible banks to make junk loans, and a ticking time bomb of toxic debt was created.
There may be something to that… sort of a perfect storm of collusion by left and right, but for different reasons. The right wanted to deregulate as a matter of ideological principle, and the left to give access to their constituents (lower income voters) broader access to home ownership.
I don't know what you can do when both sides are determined to enact a bad idea. I guess you hope your president has the wisdom to recognize the dangers. Bill Clinton failed that test.
It's a circular congame.
Democrat Politicians give huge compensation packages to public sector workers (unionized).
The unionized workers make huge campaign donations to the Dems.
The reelected Dems funnel more money into the union coffers and expand unionized government employment (note the drive to unionize TSA now).
Big businesses suck this up because they are bought with earmarks and other government funding, as well as the regulations which prevent smaller, nimbler competitors from growing.
Rand was right – our country is under assault but Cronyist Looters.
URGENT: I WANT FRED THOMPSON TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012!!!
URGENT: I WANT FRED THOMPSON TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012!!!
URGENT: I WANT FRED THOMPSON TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012!!!
Clinton and the Republican congress repealed the depression-era safeguards provide by Glass-Stegall allowing banks to merge with security brokerage houses and take on non-traditional banking functions. Then both sides pushed for lax credit standards that got out of hand when oversight was underfunded in the Bush administration.
The result was there were government insured banks taking risks that were traditionally left to brokerage houses… with the tax payer on the hook. They designed new investment vehicles like securities that were derivatives of bundled mortgages intentionally left unregulated. Then insurance companies writing unregulated insurance policies to cover any potential losses.
We can argue about how we got to this point. But the only way to ensure it doesn't happen again is to decide which markets put us at risk and regulated them up. We can start with these unregulated hedge funds. This is a $50 trillion industry that didn't even exist 20 years ago and now has become too big to fail.
To big to fail means you can't let it fail… and that demands government oversight.
I'm with Bohemond here. The conventional wisdom insists it was a lack of regulation which I find generally to be indicative of the opposite of what's been asserted being the real factor.
In other words, excessive government interference, social engineering, and generally meddling at all where it should not be meddling is a much more likely cause. Not that it's the only cause, not that you can simply resign blame en masse so simply, yet the point remains. The behavior was encouraged if not downright mandated or generally coerced by Congress and various interests.
I am a government worker. I work for the Federal government. I am anti-union, and refuse to join. That being said, my position pays decidedly LESS than my position would in the private sector. Further, due to my position, I am not allowed to have ownership of many lucrative stocks, thus limiting my ability to provide for my retirement. I do not feel that my pension (which is not very lucrative) is excessive, nor do I feel it would be appropriate to have it taken from me when it would have been stupid of me to have taken this position had that not been offered to me. However, there are problems with some compensation levels–I know that some of the support and janitorial staff make more than those they work for solely due to their having been there forever. Before you attack ALL government workers, you should remember that you expect us to be good scientists/doctors/etc., but, as in the private sector, you do get what you pay for. Those with the qualifications you want to protect your health and safety need to be wooed from the private sector somehow. I can promise you it is NOT with better facilities and better pay (as my facilities and resources were better in graduate school, and as I stated the private sector would pay me more). Though, when cuts do have to be made (admittedly this does not happen often), unfortunately the cuts are not done according to productivity or accomplishments–they are done with respect to seniority. We can blame that on the Union. I'm rambling now, so I will end, but I ask that you try to remember that not ALL government workers are lazy and overcompensated.
\” We can start with these unregulated hedge funds. This is a $50 trillion
industry that didn't even exist 20 years ago and now has become too big to
fail.
To big to fail means you can't let it fail… and that demands government
oversight.
\”
You mean like hedge fund king and master market manipulator George Soros?
With or without the repeal of Glass-Steagal, the markets would or would
not have been poisoned by toxic mortgage debt as a function- solely- of
whether the toxic mortgage debt was created in the first place: a creaton
of the Federal government.
And if the government would have let the capitalist market finish the process that had been started, the companies that fell would have been sucked up by other, stronger companies but the government butted in and started buying a massive %age of these companies (GM, BOA, CITI) and now they shout that government saved the day. I don't buy the to big to fail bull$hit!! Define too big. The small business owners that drive the economy haven't gotten any kind of bailout. Just mandates coming down the line that you have to provide healthcare or pay a fine!!
Amen to that!!!
um, my husband went from $250K to $100 K when he moved from the private sector (investment banking) to work for a city. he is also about to take a 20% paycut in the form of furloughs, increased health care costs, and no COLA (he has not gotten a COLA in 3 year). he also works with MANY card-carrying Republicans/Conservatives. so, I am not sure where you are getting your "facts"
highly skilled, productive, innovative & intelligent people often move from the business world to the public sector because they want to serve their communities!
BTW- we live in CA
At least when drug addicts see and admit to the problem they start to recover. These politicians see and admit to the problem and then do what they can to make it worse so they can profit from it!!!
I have worked for the FAA for 20 years. Prior to that I served 5 years in the US Navy. I have worked and trained very hard at my job in aviation and frankly, the skill set of my trade is not available in the private sector. I am not a union member, and have never voted for a Democrat. Ever. I am an active Tea Party protester and am a member of a locol 912 project. I am a conservative and always have been as are many of the people I work with.
Aviation safety is, rightly so, a function of the government. Yes, there are many federal and state employees who abuse their positions, but lumping all of us together is a dangerous practice that many commenters here have in the past criticized the the left of doing.
20 years ago when I chose a career in the public sector, I gave up the opportunity to participate in the rewards of entrepreneurship, specifically the potential for unlimited income based on free market principles and hard work , for a job I love. In return, I will some day retire on a federal pension that I have earned. In the mean time, I hope you appreciate the job I've done to keep you and your family safe each time you've traveled.
What is more justified: paying Americans to perform government services or paying FOREIGNERS who have attacked and killed Americans (USS Liberty)? NONE of you people will have any credibility whining about government costs until you take care of the black hole of aid to Israel.
Amen brother (or sister) someone needs to pull a Reagan and fire them all
We do tend to generalize … but only because the generalization mostly fits. Of course there are good government employees and thank God for that. My feeling is that there might be more if unions were not allowed.
The repeal of Glass-Steagall standards was of course a disastrous move. But the major player you failed to mention in this fiasco is Bill Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury, Larry Summers. You know, the same Larry Summers that is now Obama's "top economic adviser."
So we have an administration being advised by the same elements that helped create the banking crisis in the first place. Makes you fell all warm and secure, doesn't it? How's that hope and change working out for you?
Reading the "gubment" employee posts here are a good laugh. "I'm worth more!"…………..Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight! Typicals losers who can't make it in the private sector. Parasites all!
Ummm. Why, exactly, should I not take this personally?
"JCH wrote: Reading the "gubment" employee posts here are a good laugh. "I'm worth more!"…………..Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight! Typicals losers who can't make it in the private sector. Parasites all!"
Here's a bank-busting compesation package of your own: http://www.mymoneyfish.com/u/fishing4dollas
You are right there FarmerGal. There are idots on all sides. Perhaps JCH is the exception that proves the rule.
Eventually parasites will kill the host! Then what?
Government can spend money on tin hats for all i care – as long as that's what they were elected on. It's the spending more money than it has that's the problem.
At least Israel isn't out there day in and day out actively trying to defeat us?
Unless you're just a jew hater. Then you make sense.
Arizona is asking for the $1billion that we have spent locking illegals up per the demands of the US government. Think that lesbian in charge of Homeland Security will pay up to the state she just left…not a fricking chance.
I hear ya. I work for a county government and every day I bust contractors asses to get the public the best bang for their buck. I make about 85% of what I could in private and the benefits here truly are abyssimal. There are no bonuses or merit raises and since you're not allowed any performance based wage increases, most employees work about as hard as it takes to not get fired. End of story. I suppose it is only worse for state and federal employees. I am not part of the union and live in a right to work state full of illegal aliens which also drives the wages down.
In our county government, there is over 100 people making over $100K a year. That's over $10 million a year just for 100 salaried people. Our county manager makes more than the Obama. Our police chief makes over 300K a year. Where's justice in that?
Downtown buildings are mostly owned by the government and approximately 38% of the city's inhabitants work for government.
Scary huh?
Oh, what's the matter Dhasselhoff? Is the old tired standby excuse of "It's all Bush's fault" not really working anymore?
Then we disagree. History shows that every time we cave to pressure from the right to deregulate financial markets it blows up in our faces and then we have to go in and put even more draconian restrictions on them. I don't care if it was deregulating the Saving's and Loans or the repeal of Glass-Steagall deregulated banks and financial markets are license to steal. And when the FDIC insures a bank without oversight it is the taxpayer who is on the hook.
Games are no fun without rules. And rules are meaning less without a ref.
You mean besides the USS Liberty attack, the Lavon Affair, spying on us and selling the secrets, selling our missile technology to China, stealing nuclear material from the Savannah site and making illegal WMDs and otherwise bankrupting the US to fight wars with countries that don't bow down far enough for their sake?
When you can't blame it on Bush… just go back to blaming it on the Jews.
Here in Ca. They have what they call prevailing wage government jobs, state and federal…They pay about twice or more of the going rate, which is nice if you are on the receiving end…which is really impossible as you also contribute to your own pay through taxation (and usually cry about the high taxes you have to pay)….But that is the logic of government and people on the take, kinda like Obama's spread the wealth around??? Go figure…And here is a real kicker…The winning bidder for the job can sub-contract out to another company, and avoid paying the workers the prevailing wage, guess who many of them hire…illegal immigrant workers (oops! forgot they are called H-1B visa workers, who can by the way displace a US citizen worker.) usually for less than the going rate…wonder whose pocket that extra money goes into…you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, sound familiar? Cheat, cheat, cheat all the way around…government cheats us, the bidders cheat us, and we are left scratching our heads wondering how to be included in the gravy train so we can cheat ourselves! Vicious circle… check out the link and there are numerous other sites on the subject as well…and we wonder how California went broke! Now we have an Administration that is trying real hard to follow Ca's example of over spending.
http://www.housingfinance.com/ahf/articles/2002/0...
Our tax dollars go towards a homeland for Jews. Anyone else get a homeland paid for by US tax dollars?
Absolutely!! I have never been able to ascertain how these negotiations can be said to be held in "good faith" and have asked several public sector union members who simply cannot answer.
Yes, the Karkarians do. Look it up, history boy.
Give me a break……If a person "truly" works for the state because he wants to "serve", he has no right to complain about reduced pay, increased cost of health care, no COLA. Only a fool would make such a choice.
Suck it honey and let your husband "serve".
No they don't.
Really? Weird, because I just made that up. Can I sue the band?
Yes, Native Americans! Relax, I'm being fecitious people. Does financial aid to rebuild Germany and Japan post WW2 count? How 'bout Afghanistan and Iraq? Didn't we give some substantial dough to Serbia, Croatia, every country in Africa? What does it matter we are financially subsidizing a fourth of all the countries around the world now anyhow. Go back to blaming Bush, at least all the equally uninformed liberals will be able to agree with you.
Just a question.Why to government employees pay income taxes?
Correction: why DO they pay taxes?Is that not double taxation?
There are PLENTY of Americans willing to do the government workers job at half of what they make.. Unions have sent all the manufacturing jobs overseas and broken the backs of the American Taxpayers. In New Jersey our Real Estate Taxes will soon surpass our Mortgage payments, all to Fund Teachers never ending wages benefits and pensions which INCREASE EACH AND EVERY YEAR………
Hopefully your new governor can start to fix some of that
not complaining, just giving you the facts
Don't care – I guess you cede my point.
Aren't the Israelis on par with the native Americans? At least we SAW the native Americans on the land – some nefarious group makes a claim their ancestors lived there (even though they are 9th century converts) – that doesn't seem so strong a claim.
"Does financial aid to rebuild Germany and Japan post WW2 count?"
Since we did the damage, no.
"Didn't we give some substantial dough to Serbia, Croatia, every country in Africa?"
Nothing compared to Israel.
I take it your "solution" was:
'But the only way to ensure it doesn't happen again is to decide which markets put us at risk and regulated them up. We can start with these unregulated hedge funds. This is a $50 trillion industry that didn't even exist 20 years ago and now has become too big to fail."
The fact is this is not a solution at all. This is more akin to reacting to a rash of bank robberies by instituting regulations to keep the bank robbers honest.
To begin with, there is no such thing as "too big to fail." That's just gov't double-speak for "it's so big we want to own it". Where you start with the financial sector is to reinstate a Glass-Steagall standard, rebuilding the wall of separation between commercial and investment banks. But you don't stop there. Beyond that, an HONEST government would need to step in to drag the largest investment banks and insurance underwriters into bankruptcy reorganization, separating out all legitimate debt (based on physical holdings in the real economy) and placing it under protection, and writing the bogus derivatives debt off the books.
The next step would be the gradual dissolution of the Federal Reserve System, which has only served to devalue the currency by 95% since its inception, and re-instituting the issuance of currency by Congress through the revitalized commercial banking system for use in the real, physical economy (business, infrastructure, industry, property development, etc.)
The real point is that you don't control the problem of thieves by empowering one set of thieves to regulate another set of thieves. And although I didn't have time to write a full dissertation on this "fix," suffice it to say that these would be among the first steps needed in order to reinvest the wealth of this nation back into the people of this nation and out of the hands of the financial/governmental oligarchs. Couple that with a cultural renaissance, educational improvements, and a unified vision for the future and you have the "beginnings" of a real solution for the country.
Simple, right?
Fred Thompson's globalist pedigree – http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55...
and even IF everything you say is absolutely true on its face, your hubby's situation still represents only a microscopic percentage of govt employees.
Yes, they do…How many really rotten teachers are protected by the union through tenure? I say kick out the unions and we will all benefit, even our children, because if a teacher fails to perform in teaching at a high level they could be terminated, which is not the case now. Then you have policemen…not all, and I do not mean to diminish them and the work most of them do…but where I live way to many people get shot…or should I say overshot! One man was threatening suicide…not a worry our City Police took care of that for him, and almost emptied their guns into him, sad to say that does not seem to be the exception here…Now you know why they need unions!
I don't think it is accurate to blame unions for jobs that have moved overseas. The difference between a union worker at $20 per hour and non union worker at $15 is significant, but the countries taking these jobs are doing it for a few dollars per day. Sometimes less. The answer lies in fair trade policies that factor in the differences in the cost of labor, safety and environmental standards. American productivity is still our ace in the hole.
GOOD LORD, MAN! What is with your PSYCHOTIC FIXATION -NO, OBSESSION- WITH THE USS LIBERTY?????? Was your entire family on board or what?! Every FREAKIN' THREAD you comment on has some reference to that unfortunate incident. If you can't get over it, at least find SOMETHING NEW TO BITCH ABOUT!!!
We got it- you hate & distrust Israel, Jews, Zionists and everybody and anybody who doesn't hate & distrust them, too. Please come up with some new material or find a new site to peddle your annoying, but wholly unpersuasive, B___S___.
New Jersey is second to Californication as far as bankrupt deficit ridden states. I lived in that corrupt wasteland for 53 years and just escaped a week ago.
I have been a resident of the great Mountain West for all of a week now and I am feeling reborn, energized and optimistic for the first time in a long time. New Jerseys out-of-control property taxes, fees and regulations are fueled by $100,000.00 union teachers/administrators, cops and firemen with gold plated benefits, health, pensions and early retirements.
Democrats have ruled the state with its 600 some towns(fiefdoms) for decades and have caved to nearly every union demand. The existing system is simply broken unsustainable and is driving everyone over 50 out of the state. I finally escaped and I'm lovin' it.
What is your obsession with supporting a foreign country that attacked us? Why was this covered-up?
There were people's fathers and husband on board.
[...] latest article on Big Government looks at this, and [...]
Cannot remember who quoted this but I think it is very fitting!
Republicans are "the stupid party" and the Democrats are "the evil party." Every once in a while they get together and hatch some policy that is both stupid and evil. This is called "bipartisanship."
Amen!!!!!
Employers seeking to create jobs must deal not only with problems from existing unions, but the threat of unionization itself.
Will investors or lenders be willing to pour tens of millions of dollars into the capital costs necessary to hire new workers if unionization through legalized thuggery can blow their margins and render their investment unprofitable and worthless overnight?
Quality jobs are not being created because employers have to worry about unionization, cap and trade, health mandates, trial lawyers, bureaucracy, new taxes, and other governmental nightmares.
Creating good jobs requires significant investment, be it from the private sector, or with public money "liberated" from the private sector.Jobs cannot be created when regulatory overload threatens to transform what would have been a value-producing enterprise into a subsidized pet project delivering little more value than digging and re-filling metaphorical holes.
Here's a way to get compensated properly: http://www.mymoneyfish.com/u/fishing4dollars
I'm not sure where you are going with this line of reasoning. Do you want take away the rights of workers to unionize? Perhaps we need to restrict their rights to address employment grievances in court too…
To me, the right to collective bargaining is as basic as the right to assemble.
As this economy recovers there is going to be plenty of money available for investment. It has been sitting on the sidelines piling up while at the same time our toaster ovens and blenders are wearing out. Employers need to figure out the best way to meet that demand and pay their workers a living wage. They most progressive employers don't fear unions because they take care of their people and unions never have an opportunity to get started.
I think health care cost containment is the key to our future competitiveness. Not legislating unions out of existence. There is no such thing as a good job that doesn't pay you enough to buy health care, a nice home and educate your children.
I don't think we can remove the historical banking standards that had protected us for 50 years, and then when the banks meltdown just say, oh well, that didn't really matter anyway…. so ignore that and just pay attention to my favorite boggy man.
Once we gave brokerage houses banking functions without banking rules, the end result became predictable. Byron Dorgan tried to warn us.
Hedge fund rules would apply to everyone including Soros. What is it with your people and George Soros?
Speaking as someone who is currently unemployed, I'd like to add that it is virtually impossible to GET a government job – especially the Federal government – if you are WHIT,E if you don't have 20+ years of experience working for the government or if you are not politically connected. In fact, several of the questions asked on the government application relate directly to how many years of experience do you have doing EXACTLY the kind of government work you are applying for. If you don't have that in your work history, forget it. So how is someone who has been very successful in the private sector supposed to compete? Oh yeah, right, YOU'RE NOT!!!
Just wait until the government controls all health care, doctors, hospitals, drug companies and YOU, the PATIENT! Boy, that will certainly improve things! More ACORN, more SEIU, more paper work, more S%%T!
Do you believe that government pressure to take excessive risk was a component in the crisis?
It's time to cull a lot of government employees including the POTUS, Pelosi and Reid.
You're a great example of how our system of freedom should work. I escaped MD many years ago to the Mtn West and have never looked back. More people need to vote with their feet and we will watch the failed states dissolve. Those left will need to pick up the pieces but the union (of states) will be stronger.
I find the notion of public sector employees organizing to be reprehensible and obscene on it's very face, on pure principle. You know the inherent problems with the idea, let alone muddling through all the real life crap they pull. Since when does big labor get to hold a public entity hostage like this? Since when should cops and teachers be Unionized? Do they really need to be protected and represented by a 3rd party between them and their very own government? I believe not.
First and foremost, an unwritten "too big to fail" policy has been in place for decades among the large banks and the GSEs.
This isn't a new policy, either. The second largest failure (behind only WaMu) was that of Continental Illinois, which went bust in 1984 after years of reckless acquisitions and imprudent lending brought on by Continental's implicit government guarantee.
The same such implicit guarantee extended to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have since received unlimited commitments for taxpayer assistance from the Treasury.
Warren Buffet recently highlighted one of Berkshire's comparative weaknesses – did you know that BRK pays more to borrow money than the ailing Citigroup? BRK is healthy, and does not enjoy the lower cost of funds available to an ailing firm sucking at the public teat.
The FDIC's long tradition of incompetence and reactionary behavior has removed all concerns of bank health from most of the public, small business included.
The financial sector suffered from mis-signaling brought on by reckless government intervention. The responsibility for bad decision making was shifted away from stakeholders and to the taxpayer in the greatest act of cronyism in the history of mankind.
Free and transparent markets fix the problem of excessive risk by removing the taxpayer funded bailout option from firm stakeholders who would use it to recover from losses caused by installing degenerate gamblers into positions of leadership. If these firms were forced to stop gambling with public money, you can be assured that whomever provides the capital and liquidity that the taxpayers and Federal Reserve don't will not stand for reckless lending and corporate largesse.
you're an idiot and one-note troll. go away.
The public service unions will continue to crush taxpayers with their life long Cadillac health care and pensions for life costs and the cities, counties and state governments are unwilling to put a stop to it. It destroyed California…and it will destroy other states as well.
"Competition in the private sector promotes greater efficiency, productivity and innovation than the public, or government, sector is capable of. "
The truth is the government produces NOTHING of any tangible value. It only consumes capital from the private sector. It has no need to be efficient because there is no need to be profitable. It is innovative only in the methods it uses to preserve itself and to make itself larger.
Lots of comments complaining about generalizing or providing examples of taking less pay. Lets not take criticism of the whole quite so personally. I'm sure there are thousands of productive government employees. The problem is that you are overshadowed … completely overshadowed by those who are not.
You can have public employees paid x10 what private ones are if you want. But they should be open, accountable and above all within budget! There's where you can measure you're "bang per buck". In my experience, public is never better than private, and we pay these wages even if we don't have the money to pay them! Stupid…
He limped out once already. He's done.
Thanks for your work, but where will your funds come from for your federal pension? I hope it's in no way guaranteed more than my private one. If so, who chose the level of this pension? If we're two trillion in debt, can the government chose not to pay it?
Public sector work should be quite rightly rewarded at a level equivalent to it's worth to society. The majority will always work hard, and minority will spoil it for all…
I provided a solution to a problem that is still here with us today. Shortcomings that have been demonstrated in the real world are glaring at us demanding a fix.
So, what is your fix?
ATTENTION CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: Go to http://www.unplugthepoliticalmachine.org
It's an initiative that will prevent public union (taxpayer paid) money from going to EITHER party for politicial purposes. We need all of you to sign the petition, we have to get 1M signatures by April 1 to qualify for the Nov ballot.
I did – I see a band by that name.
Which Amendment was that that gives "the right to collective bargaining?". Just curious. It is this line of thinking that makes businesses want to leave the US. If you continue to strong arm businesses, the business owners will make the tough choices, leave the US or shut down. Then I suppose one of those Union Workers will pick up and start the business on his own. Invest his life savings, work long hours for little or no pay until the business becomes profitable "if it ever does". Yup, collective bargaining….a basic right. Why is that again? Do you not have the right to go look for work at another company if you don't like the one you are in (slavery was abolished).
So, what is your line of reasoning? Are you a business owner? Or…a Union Member who has never taken a bigger risk in your life than to pay dues to a Union who strong arms an employer for you. In your happy little world, who will run those businesses? Who will take those risks? It's easy for those 9 to 5 employees that can go home at the end of the day without a care in the world. What about those business owners that will now have to contend with all your collective bargaining demands? Guess what!!! We quit, leave, retire, move our companies to a more favorable country. Why work your life away so that others can claim your profits as "Their collective bargaining right".
The right to organize is not in the Constitution. It is provided by legislation that is based on our right to assemble.
We cannot surrender our standard of living to extortion from bad corporate actors. They have the right to move their businesses anywhere they want. But if they want to do it in the United States they should pay a living wage.
Employers have a lot of power over us that is easily abused. Unions are one way to even the odds. Sometimes it just takes the threat of a union, but that option should always be open.
Or…..start up your own business and take those risks yourself. Become the employer if you think they have so much power.
I'm not interest in starting a business, but I do want to keep an eye on those who do. They risk their capital but also the livelihoods of those who they convince to come to work for them. If they don't want that responsibility they can pick another endeavor.
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