Posted on 03/10/2009 8:32:40 AM PDT by epluribus_2
New Idea: Give all Federal Employees of any level an upper limit of the average national income of american citizens. There will be an incentive to promote, foster, and encourage business success instead of demonizing it. At the same time it would discourage government employment as a lucrative lifestyle. And there would be less incentive for bureaucrats to keep a captive poverty class for votes. States would want to follow suit. We (citizens) would save (b)millions.
Brilliant! It might solve many many problems! Imagine if Congress were dependent on the economy doing well!
“...there would be less incentive for bureaucrats to keep a captive poverty class for votes.”
This is why it would never fly!
LOL! Tell that to the FLEOs who are on food stamps or sneak back into their duty stations after work because they can't afford anywhere to sleep.
I've worked with folks in San Francisco who had college degrees and had to try to get along on $29 k a year to serve their country. I don't think they'd call it a lucrative lifestyle.
Starting with POTUS, VPOTUS and Speaker of The House.
Exactly!! Communism, socialism,etc are SUPPOSE to have an even playing field with everyone making the same...sounds so nice and fair, right? Well, we all know what happens:
10% are super rich and have all the power
90% are super poor and have no power or rights.
We essentially become like Israelites who became complacent or “comfortable” being enslaved. Hey, they had food and water, right? Well, that’s how they thought.
Anyway, doctors, lawyers, salesmen, clerks, deadbeats, criminals...all will be making the same amount of money! Still sound fair? I thought NOT!
See, the end of capitalism is the end of work ethics, morals and values. There would be no incentives to excel or succeed! The scary thing is KIDS are being brainwashed from an early age that an “even playing field” is fair and everyone wins...BS!
It starts when kids play sports or any kind of competition...they either tie or all get a trophy. I mean come on, let them know what it feels like to “lose” and let them realize that “hey, it’s not that bad.
Not all govt employees are nonessential slugs
Now, Congress- that’s a different story
For every congress critter that gets an earmark in the “stimulus “ or omnibus bills-— no salaries over $250K, no private jets, no limos, no parties ... until their earmark is repaid by future taxpayers
same treatment as any business that props itself up with Govt handouts
It depends on the gov’t worker. I’m a federal employee and I’m somewhat overpaid for the absurdly easy (for me, not so easy for some of my coworkers) work I do. But there are other gov’t workers, computer programmers and engineers, who could make more in the private sector.
Horrible idea. There are some people with real skills and that do work hard employed by the federal government that do real work some of which can’t be done anywhere else (folks in the intel community for one, NASA, some DOD civilian jobs). An engineer, scientist, doctor, or lawyer (like patent lawyer) is not going to work for the government with that kind of salary and there are jobs that require those skills that only the federal government can do. Nor is that kind of salary cap going to attract good managers. Not to mention that most of these jobs are in expensive areas (Metro DC area).
if the average government salary is arounf $78k while the average American salary is $38k.
hmmm... a $40k per year drop... for 14m employees... this will save America $560 BILLION every year.
yup... definitely an area where i would ‘trim’ if i were in charge
Much better idea: make better use of the civil service examinations.
Great. That would drive out the most competent federal employees, and only the lazy slugs would remain. The government would be even more poorly run than it is now.
i have news for you... the fedgov does not employ the best and brightest. mostly just people that want job security
i have never run into any adaptive, creative fast thinkers.
I stayed because I like it. I will double my pay the first year after I retire.
I agree there are leaches around that produce nothing, and collect a pay check, but you will find those people in all business.
I agree there should be term limits on the congress critters. So many of them are far out of touch with reality. I doubt any of them could tell you what a gallon of milk cost.
i have never run into any adaptive, creative fast thinkers.
You might (or might not) want to qualify that statement. For a majority of the Dept/Agencies, yeah, that's true. There's a LOT of people who sit behind desks and gum up idiot work all day long, for 30 years.
They tend to be in useless agencies like FDA, DOT, Energy, N.E. Arts, etc. But we shouldn't have those agencies to begin with, so cutting the salaries would only be solving a portion of the problem.
If you think about Defense, L/E, Intel, etc. - groups that actually do what the Gov. ought to be doing, there are a lot of smart, dedicated, talented people in those ranks. They already earn less than they could in private industry in order to serve our country. Slashing their salary would really force many of these folks out of service just in order to provide for their families.
I total, I agree with your sentiment for many folks in the Gov. but there's sizable sectors where that doesn't hold true.
Better Idea Cut 50% of the Non-Military government workforce.
and nothing can touch your benefits and wonderful holidays and vacation and medical......
if we had known what we know now, one of us would have been a federal employee.....we counted on a well known American industrial company that had existed for many years to be my husbands retirement and medical, and he got the proverbial shaft bigtime...
I totally agree with you to a point. I would only require that of elected officials. People run for offices to serve their country so there should be no more incentive needed. For instance, if you’re elected Senator or Prez, you will make well over $1M for your term. That’s BS! ALL elected offices should pay exactly the same amount, the US average.
Government employees should be paid what ever the US average civilian pay is for a similar job.
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