Posted on 01/03/2019 5:48:52 PM PST by Kaslin
Public employees pay taxes. Yes, they are also paid out of taxes, but they are paid for work - which they give. Or should.
I spent 25 years in the military. I deployed far more times than I could count. I trained. I buried coworkers who died while training. And I was paid. For my service.
You cannot say public employees are a drain on the GDP without accounting for the work done in exchange for their salaries.
I strongly support reforms to make it vastly easier to FIRE public employees who do NOT work. I encountered my share of GS-13s during my military career who seemed to pride themselves on how little they did since they knew they could not be fired. THAT is evil and I’d love to see firing a public employee become simple.
But many public employees DO work. Not just the military. That some do not is evil, but do not pretend that no public employee works! My first job was manual labor for the US Forest Service and I worked by tail off! Minimum wage and I would collapse from exhaustion when I crawled home. That was 40+ years ago and I’m sure the USFS has changed. But there is still work being done.
Looks like one of the first things that needs to be gotten rid of is the public sector unions. The taxpayers who pay them should have some say in this; not some union. Pres. Trump is on the right path. Another thing that is disgusting & should be cause for immediate dismissal is elected officials who betray their oath of office & don’t uphold the Constitution. If we wanted to live elsewhere with a different kind of legal system, we could move there. American was founded for Americans.
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I haven’t had an increase in years yet they are on an indefinite paid vacation.
Trump needs to double what he's demanding for the WALL - maybe if the government stays shut down for a few years some of these folks might get jobs in the private sector. And yeah, I know they'll get 'back pay' but it would be worth it to have them leave.
Agree!
And, let’s start cleaning up the welfare rolls, as well.
NO WELFARE TO THOSE HERE ILLEGALLY!!
Since Pennsylvania usually has split government (GOP legislature, Democrat governor for all but four of the last 20 years), budget showdowns are common.
Not too many years ago, they decided to close things down to "punish" our area for electing (mostly) GOP legislators. The locals got together and decided they would keep it open with volunteers to do the jobs the government employees used to do. Not only did it work, it worked so well that similar operations took notice.
Pretty dense amigo. You (maybe), I and every other taxpayer from the private sector pays the CA state tax.
If Trump keeps the government shut down for a year or two those folks will walk away on their own... it’s gonna be a win no matter what happens... Trump should double what he’s asking for ... we don’t want dems giving in too quickly.
Trump is simply magnificent. He’s doing everthing we ask! Just too good!!
I don’t expect everyone will understand this fact.
Nancy Pelosi can disagree with facts, but facts are facts, and stubborn things.
Our gov’t has been deficit spending since Alexander Hamilton arranged for us to borrow (how much? class? Buehler?) from the Dutch to jump start a system he planned to lead to centralized banking (Aaron Burr shot him ten years too late, IMHO).
Gov’t, as evidenced by the method’s established by our founders is broke. It creates NO wealth, no value, no GDP.
Everything gov’t holds/owns is from taxes - duties, tariffs - which should in a sane and non corrupted world, go to pay for exactly what’s outlined in our constitution: national security, military and the post office - “general welfare” notwithstanding.
Gov’t doesn’t “invest.” It takes from creators and gives to buy votes and to pay salaries of gov’t employees who ARE a net drain on the GDP.
NO gov’t employee can pay tax if they are paid BY taxes. That W4 they get is a lie.
There is no more fundamental a fact than this.
Not sorry if you don’t get it.
I too was a public education and media victim.
“NO gov’t employee can pay tax if they are paid BY taxes. That W4 they get is a lie.
There is no more fundamental a fact than this.”
What YOU don’t seem to get is that the government employees - many of them - do WORK in exchange for cash. You cannot ignore the work performed and then call them a drain on GDP. YOu might as well claim private employees are a drain on their business. If true, the business would fire them. But while they are an EXPENSE, the WORK they do creates value.
You can argue, if you wish, that private business ought to run the military or defend the borders or regulate business, but you cannot ignore the work done to say public employees are a drain on the country’s economy.
Why does a private company accept the “drain” on their resources caused by paying employees? Hmmm? Because you cannot run a business without the people to do the work...
Seriously.
I typed that as slowly as I could in the hopes it might sink in.
COMPANIES create GDP value.
GOV’T SPENDS GDP value.
“The work” still costs something, which gov’t doesn’t create, it TAXES.
There. I typed even slower.
Don’t bother replying, it’ll only serve to plumb the depths of your paltry knowledge of economic reality.
“GOV’T SPENDS GDP value.”
Really? What would the GDP be if there was no military? What would it be if there were no police? What would the GDP be if there was no Air Traffic Control, or highways? Or if every road was a private toll road?
What would the GDP be if everyone had to send their kids to private schools, or had the option of not giving them ANY education?
What would the GDP be if there was no regulation of imports? How would unregulated rights to pollute affect the health of workers? And affect health care costs? What would happen to the GDP if we immediately stopped all Social Security payments? All Medicare? All food stamps?
What would the GDP be if there was no government at all?
You assume the government workers provide ZERO value to the economy. That is false.
“COMPANIES create GDP value.”
They create value in an environment that include government regulation of their competitors, government provision for the injured, disabled and old, government that provides at least SOME education to every person, etc.
I do not adore government. I’d love to see several departments in the US government go away. Entirely. But you cannot assume all government is a net loss on GDP. I spent time in Afghanistan where it is every man for himself. Their GDP sucks donkey dicks, in part because “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
That is chaos, and business does not thrive in chaos.
He can start by firing the “essential” TSA employees who have called in sick since the shutdown.
This fake story came from the same CNN correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, who was screaming senselessly at Trump after his Rose Garden appearance yesterday.
Four years out of college and she’s already two years in as WH correspondent? Shifting there after entertainment reporting experience at the Daily Caller—talk about going native in Washington!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaitlan_Collins
I was an IT contractor managing a team. The govie we worked for had to approve all of our code version upgrades to production. He had taped cardboard to the top of his cubicle to shield him from the overhead lights. From his arrival at work, to going home, he slept at his desk. It was my job to wake him to approve our work.
A high percentage of government workers spend almost half their time watching porn - are you sure he was sleeping the whole time?
Where we worked, that wouldn’t have made it past the firewalls.
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