More On My Public Sector Fat Cat Obsession
by Veronique de RugyOkay, I will admit that I am obsessed with this one particular truth: The stimulus bill and all the stops that the federal government pulled to save the economy and create jobs didn’t not help the private sector employees. On the other hand, it did show support for its own employees.
Encouraged by Reason Magazine’s founder Manny Klausner, I made this chart this morning based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data that shows the change in employment in the private and the public sectors during the last two years.
Warning: the number of public employees is on the right hand-side of the chart and the private employees are on the left.
Warning 2: This chart is not claiming that public employment was ever higher than private employment.
However, it is showing without a doubt that during the last two year the number of public employees has increased from 22.3 million in January 2008 to 22.4 million in January 2010, after peaking at 22.6 million in July 2009. Not that impressive you will say. Well, excuse me but it certainly beats being a private employee during that same period of time. The number of private jobs decreased from 115.5 million in January 2008 to 107 million. That’s a lose of 8.7 million jobs in the private sector while the public sector gained almost 100,000 jobs.
The data doesn’t lie my friend. Now, let’s me ask this question again: who are the big losers in this recession and who has ultimately benefited from the big government intervention in our economy?
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87 Comments
Excellent chart.
That is only for the numbers of jobs.
If you do a similar chart, showing the disparity between the private and public sector pay scales, it will make your blood pressure go up. We do not employ those people. WE, take them to raise, for life.
Great idea, also the pensions and 'health care' comparison, IMHO
Public sector pays way less than private sector. No one complained during the manufactured "boom" times.
"do a similar chart, showing the disparity between the private and public sector pay scales"
I'd also like to know how many private sector tax payers it takes to support each public sector employee.
Neither R's or D's want to cut employee pay or staff, and many from both parties work as tax feeder parasites in many a government organization.
The only way to determine market wages for government monopolies is to continually adjust the wages to a point where no one wants the job. At that point one will no the market wage.
[...] recession and who has ultimately benefited from the big government intervention in our economy? Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this | // Posted by Justin at 1:28 PM Tagged with: Big [...]
It's going to be way worse in about two month's when those of us that have tax return money coming can't get it because State's and the Federal government don't have the money to pay it.
Let's review again…. If you don't have the money, you can't spend it, lend it, give it away, etc….
The Obama experiment is not just living on borrowed money it's on borrowed time as well.
That is pure dee bullshit, and you know it. The average private sector job is about 41k. The average public sector job is about 78k. That is almost double, and that is just for menial paper pushers. CONgressional salaries are about 177k, excluding the perks for life.
Don't you dare state something false, and just because it goes unchallanged, think it will stand as fact.
Too friggen many!
Sorry, but this chart is very sillt to look at.
What you really wanted to plot is the percentage changes of government workers and private employees. Then you would have a chart that illustrated your point more concisely.
As a stretch objective, you could have breakout lines for state, local, and federal workers, and maybe a second breakout of teachers, police, and firemen.
I guess that chart just did not work for me at all, sorry for the overly critical thinking.
I'd like a chart showing how many union workers are employeed by the government vs. how many in the private sector. And while we're at it, let's get some information on how big the bonus' are for the union leaders.
There's nothing to worry about with the feds. They'll just print up some more money to cover the refunds.
Oh sure, those dollars might not be worth the paper they're printed on, but hey, at least "95% of us received a tax cut," right?
Perhaps we can overlay incomes of Union Leadership since 1999. And let's not stop there. Add exponential moving averages, stochastics and the MACD.
You know. We really could have fun putting this together. And it will not make any of us feel better but at least we can prove why Andy Stern & Co. should be facing a firing squad for treason.
IMHO.
[...] » More On My Public Sector Fat Cat Obsession – Big Government. Easy AdSenser by Unreal [...]
"More On My Public Sector Fat Cat Obsession by Veronique de Rugy Okay, I will admit that I am obsessed with this one particular truth: The stimulus bill and all the stops that the federal government pulled to save the economy and create jobs didn’t not help the private sector employees. On the other hand, it did show support for its own employees."
Does anyone honestly believe that the same thing didn't occur with Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, going back in history to Alexander the Great, Hanibul, on and on! WAKE-UP AMERICA! The government can't even save itself this way.
Remember this…almost all government jobs are UNOIN jobs! Just one more way for Maobama to prop up the unions. Just hire people that suck off the public teat and provide union dues that turn into campaign donations. The government ends up supporting the government. Pretty slick!
Senator Inhofe is on Cavuto right now, talking about wanting Al Gore to testify about his Global Warming "Hoax". It is about damn time. Cavuto just said he has called Al Gores offices, and the calls have not been returned.
You need to show your work on that one 'hoff
[...] 23, 2010 Like some kind of chart-manufacturing econo-robot, Veronique de Rugy is back again with another look at stimulus and employment over at Big Government. The red line shows the trend of public-sector employment, the blue line is private (with different [...]
a socialist economy is founded on political favors, how do you think people get govt. jobs..merit HA!
More corroborating evidence of the prevailing madness. Thank you for your chart.
At the very start the reason most people get a govt. job is some sort of political connection or favor. then like welfare a govt. job rots the mind
Great Chart! This is just what the government wants! More and more people on the Government TITTY!!!
It won't last though! I am just about broke, if they take one more dime from me then I will be on the government titty also!
I wonder what they will do when everyone is working for the government? Where will they get their money (Stolen Tax Money)?
When the government sector finally crushes the private sector…. who is going to be paying the taxes to pay their salaries?
Don't hate, Veronique–these are the best and the brightest and they are worth………less.
It's crazy to me that America is losing jobs while its goverment is expanding more federal jobs? Did every one of these Idiots ride the short bus?
Averages don't mean anything – the jobs are rarely overlapping…….except for…..let's say…military thugs. Care to compare a grunt's pay with a BLACKWATER employee????? Go ahead.
Care to source that?
Funny, coming from a guy who never sources anything.
dhassle, put your dunce hat back on and go sit in the corner
That graph is a crime against humanity. Axises are cut off. Axises have different scales. TOTALLY different scales. Please try again, using percentages this time. I think your point will still be made, but not using pointless graphs.
No doubt the "green phone" (biodegradable bottles connected by hemp string) is out of order at Al's office.
As the chart shows–at this rate how does the government think it is going to pay for all these "jobs saved"??
No wonder the little buses have dark windows–these idiots don't want you to see who is causing the disaster…
Freddy – Don't apoligize for thinking, there isn't enough of that going on these days. But I hear its a new trend that's catching on.
I think the hemp string was put to another use.
They'll keep riding it, right off the cliff–With us tied to the bumper.
True…if you look at compensation as a whole including retirement and benefits, the disparity would be mind-boggling.
CL…Great point with "WE take them to raise for life." That is why we must stop the growth of Government (especially with Obummercare) because once the thousands of jobs and agencies are created, we will raise them for life too, no matter the magnitude of failure!
The numbers are the numbers, whether the jobs overlap or not. If government was the size that it should be…much smaller…then the comparison wouldn't be as valid, but there are janitors, receptionists, managers of waaaaaaaay too many levels, etc. Averages do mean something on a scale such as this!
[...] here to read the rest: » More On My Public Sector Fat Cat Obsession – Big Government Posted in Cat | Tags: create-, economy, economy-and, federal, federal-government, obsession, [...]
The bottom line is that it takes a whole bunch of private sector jobs to support even ONE public sector job. The government HAS to know this. It appears they are willingly strangling the golden goose.
The one thing that can not be measured is the affect the change in the atmosphere that creates jobs in this country.
Job growth in the small business sector????…. Hell, they don't even have a hardware store to buy the shovels to take advantage of the coming shovel ready jobs.
The CEO that will be signing the vast majority of tomorrow's paychecks is Obama.
V,
Good start but (as mentioned above) a *really* sexy chart would plot the % changes – based on a rough eyeball estimate it looks like the political class' army of voter hirelings saw its ranks shrink by .7% while the free market employees saw their ranks slashed by 7%.
In other words, free market employees were impacted *10 times* more than the familiars of the political class.
CAS127
Absolutely – I think the Congress should take a 50% pay cut. We'll see who the "public servant" and who are the statist blood suckers. You're right, both parties have NO will to do the hard things, make the hard decisions.
Lib666………Very true, …saw it with my own eyes in Txz, when gov good-hair was appointed.
His A&M buds or their wives must have cashed in big. My DIL was working for State Comp-
trollers office. A new employee showed up, the regulars knew the office was not short staffed
& their boss had not been interviewing. Turned out this gal was driving 3 hrs daily, for a job
as a office receptionist, & was unqualified for even that position. She couldn't learn to use the
phone system. Her husband had been a college bud of Perrys'. Stayed about 3 or 4 yrs, never
was able to qualify for a promotion. She turned out to be a dud, but think of all the other ones
we didn't know about who kept their positions & were promoted & are still working for the state.
I wonder how many will be squeezed out if Perry gets beat.
Amazingly, the origins and purpose of all this chaos are predicted and accounted for in the best selling, prophetic, political Conspiracy Thriller book, BLACK ROAD 2012, which I bought on amazon, and was a real goose-bumpy, totally absorbing ride: http://tinyurl.com/amazon-BLACK-ROAD-2012
One chart to show the deterioration of the American economy in the past 15 or so years…..
To many X's in the formula Freddy, but I do agree the percentage picture might have been a tad more focused.
BeefSupreme:
"It appears they are willingly strangling the golden goose. Why?"
Answer: They wish to eat a fine golden goose dinner with the mint jelly here and now because their greed demands it. They are blind to the aftermath by killing the egglaying foul and destroying its young.
Very *poor* chart. I get what you're trying to say, but you're really twisting the statistics here. Your axes are not drawn to equivalent scales – according to you chart (without seeing the exact numbers), I estimate that private sector employment fell 7.6% during this time period, while public sector employment rose 0.47%.
Nothing wrong with the chart since it is properly labled. As your are well aware the writer is showing you the change in employment over a period of time. It is a trend line. It is obvious that the public sector trend line is fairly flat.
It is as expected, because it is easier to dismiss private sector employee is a down turn. I'm sure if the writer had used a longer period of time, we would also see it is easier to ramp up and hirer new private sector employees.
I appreciate the their has been no hiring spree in the public sector, as media comments have implied.
May I suggest that, rather than a blanket "all government employees suck" diatribe, which is a populist attack on a broad group of mostly highly-dedicated people, we try to narrow the focus a bit?
I'm one of those government employees. I manage a contract that helps train helicopter pilots for combat. I am surrounded by government service instructor pilots, air traffic controllers, crash investigators, classroom instructors, etc. We (most of us) have a specific set of skills, education, and training that allow us to do this well.
This rush to judgement should be tempered with the knowledge that not all of us are lazy, good-for-nothing, overpaid burdens to the country.
Where I work, a 20% reduction in the number of government employees, or their pay, would equate to a 20% (maybe more?) reduction in our ability to produce pilots.
Which government employees' jobs should be targeted first?
Good post, I favorited your site so I can visit again in the future, All the Best
[...] The Mercatus Center’s Vero de Rugy shares some data on the employment effects of ’stimul…. Bottom line: priming the private-market’s pump with all that fiscal stimulus doesn’t appear to have done much for the private-market’s dynamism. [...]
[...] Openly Fraudulent StatementLet’s Hope that Joe Biden’s Prayers are Answered…. Ooops, Too LateMore On My Public Sector Fat Cat ObsessionGuards suspended over posting about prisoner abuse on FacebookFired Brockton cop accused of stealing [...]
It certainly was not obvious to everyone commenting here that the public sector trend line is fairly flat.
from Zander: Great Chart! This is just what the government wants! More and more people on the Government TITTY!!!
from Paul:More corroborating evidence of the prevailing madness. Thank you for your chart.
This chart is deceptive. People will look at the picture and not the underlying data and make outrageous statements. As some others have already said, the point could have been made better with a better chart, then again, maybe not.
Freddy is exactly right. Following his recommendations would make the same point, and with a higher degree of intellectual honesty. Also, it would be useful to have the same graph by state or, if not that, aggregations of states. Finally, Freddy locked on the differential results one might expect by separating the police/fire and teachers.
[...] » More On My Public Sector Fat Cat Obsession – Big Government [...]
Yep, we see a 13% total Y-axis on one side, a 1.8% total Y-axis on the other. Lies, damned lies and statistics.
[...] Here and here are more arguments to convince your little ones. [...]
[...] Here and here are more arguments to convince your little ones. [...]
[...] Here and here are more arguments to convince your little ones. [...]
Not to beat a dead horse, but at least this shows how it can be done…
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/31/reason-the-...
[...] have been complaining (here and here and here) about the fact that public employees are the beneficiaries of the stimulus (especially the [...]
[...] harder than it used to be. Well, that’s if you work for the private sector. As I am mentioned here, since the beginning of the recession, the private sector have lost many jobs while the public [...]
[...] activist groups such as ACORN. Billions of Stimulus dollars to “save” or create jobs were extended primarily to the public sector leaving the private sector with an ever increasing rise in unemployment. Earnings for government [...]
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