Posted on 02/09/2018 7:43:30 PM PST by ducttape45
I am writing this partially because I really want to know where the Freeper community stands on a whole on the issue of government workers and partially because of my disgust for certain members of the Freeper community.
There is a member on a another post who I won't mention (but who I'm sure will make his/her presence known here) who thinks that just because I work for the federal government that I should be forced from my job and unto the streets begging for money. This person apparently has a very low opinion of anyone who works for the US government. Over the past several years I've encountered many more like this person.
Yes, I work for Uncle Sam, but I am also a military veteran of 10 years (United States Air Force), and I've been in the employ of the US Government at a local military base supporting first a civil engineering squadron and now an air refueling squadron.
I do not make a whole of lot money. I am a GS-05 and I barely scrape in $24,000 a year. I'm paying on bills that I racked up helping to put my kids through college. I do not regret ever doing that because they are all very successful now in their adult lives, yet, as a single father I barely have two nickels to rub together most of the time. So to hear Freepers wish me "out on the streets or working at McDonalds and Walmart" just because they hate the government so much, I feel like I'm being lumped in with the crooks on Capital Hill. The vitriol that has been spewed at me by members of the Free Republic community has been nothing less than totally disgusting, yet at the same time I give credit to the many who have been very supportive.
Now don't get me wrong, yes, I know there ARE crooks on Capital Hill. I will be the first person to agree with you. I've seen folks here locally take advantage of the system. They have two retirements going and are still working part time racking in the dough. Yes, it's wrong, and I'll be the first person to stand up and say so. That's also part of the reason why I'm still a GS-05 because many years ago I dared to stand up to the system and have been kept from promoting ever since. I see the cronyism and nepotism that takes places on a government installation and it sickens me to the core of my being. Yet, I'm being lumped in with them. I see the wasteful spending going on, yet I'm being lumped in with them. I see people working in positions they have no business working in, while people (like myself) are being kept from being in positions they are more than qualified for because we don't suck up to higher management, yet I'm being lumped in with them. I see the evil in people like Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Obama and his boyfriend Michael, yet I'm being lumped in with them when I'm nothing like them nor will I never be!
So it's reckoning time, members of Free Republic. Do you honestly feel that every single person who works for the federal government is evil? Is this "guilt by association?" Are folks like myself to be branded as "less than human" because we work in an office or in a capacity that many of you find reprehensible? If so, and if people like me are not welcome here, then I'll leave Free Republic. There are many great people here, to be sure, and if I am forced to leave because of the bad apples then I will be the less for it, but I will not tolerate the hateful attitudes and insults of those bad applies any longer if those feelings are representative of Free Republic on a whole.
It's time to make your positions known. Are you anti-government to the point where you could care less for the good people who work within government, or do you have the capacity to realize not everyone who works for the US Government is out to scam and steal from the tax payer and is just trying to make an honest living?
Regardless of subject, any response with such blatant disrespect and personal attack is NOT acceptable. Those that express themselves with such vitriol do not deserve any acknowledgement (response). I often see these type of attacks from liberals that cannot communicate.
Whomever this individual is, it is not the norm on FR. Please do not allow it to change your view of FR. And ignore those that are disrespectful. Thank you for your service.
I don’t think much of federal workers involved in areas where fedgov doesn’t belong. Fire them all, I say.
OTOH, you are involved in national defense, which is one of the few areas fedgov does belong.
I say you’re underpaid:)
Well, I certainly don’t question your work ethic. And I never believed in purgatory until hearing of your proximity to military while wearing the cement boots of bureaucracy.
But I hope, if nothing else, your experience informs you WHY Freedom does not want govt, in particular the feds who are the least responsible and least approachable level of govt, running anything more than absolutely necessary.
I thought about one other point I wanted to say. Most of us NEVER get to really know the people working in the high profile government positions (i.e., Congress, POTUS, etc.) but many of those people that we do interact with regularly like license office, post office, county offices, don’t always make a good impression and may come across as bored, unfire-able and bothered that they have to actually work for the folks paying their salaries (taxpayers). I think it is those people who cause the resentment and dislike of “government” workers. So, like I said, if you do your job to the best of your ability, are honest and appreciative of those you serve, then nobody should automatically lump you in with the bad ones. We have to have government employees - our nation wouldn’t work without them - pun intended.
It’s the 99.99999% of government workers who give the .00001 like you a bad name.
In my Post two decades of the US Marine Corps, I chose to be a Support Contractor to a US Govt Agency.
My observations:
- Minimal accountability for even large $$ screw ups.
- Minimal concern for anything but not being embarrassed at the table, at that moment and then the ugly goes down the memory hole.
- Almost no understanding of how business works (purchasing, supplying, providing, infrastructure, contracts) leading to constant lack of process or monetary efficiency.
- Refuse to document key processes or procedures since knowledge is power. Even if written down, will not read them or follow them but will instead rely on Tribal Knowledge.
- If you F it up = you get moved to another position or become one of the countless ‘closet people’ who contribute nothing other than file grievances. Can’t fire you.
- Why do Federal Civil Servant’s need a Civil Servant Union? See my comment on filing endless petty grievances to enhance the ultimate retirement benefits.
- The good people who care get crushed for making the others look like the idiots they are.
- The Senior Executive Service (SES) is 50/50 depending on the discipline(s) expected to oversee. Very few have any real business acumen commiserate with managing the size of organizations they are budgeted to. See my comments on lack of monetary efficiency and add a lack of effectiveness.
- Countless rework to justify many Closet People’s existence on the books.
- Many were excellent SMEs or skilled professionals who were too lazy to keep up with technology changes over the past 20 years (computing to manufacturing) and cling to paper processes.
- Aging workforce shaped like a mushroom top, and will not, nor can be forced to leave so that fresh out (new/young) talent can get in. Older workforce is reluctant to train the new workforce. See my comment about Knowledge is Power.
- Pay great $$ to Support Contractors, who are current in fields of study/technology or the trades and will not apply the advice and solutions provided as paid for.
I’ll just stop there. The USMC was a much better run organization.
Aside from the military, there is honestly very little the federal government does well or with such expertise it could not be replicated in the private sector.
I live near Aberdeen Proving Grounds. They do tons of mostly secretive research on all kinds of stuff here. When sequester hit, many friends were griping about getting some days off work. I reminded them that the reason we even knew each other was that I lost my job and was out of work 6 months and moved my family 600 miles for a new position. My sympathy meter was broken. They never lived private sector and never thought about it. That said, they do vital work. Sounds like you are on that same level.
Living near D.C., seeing that unimaginably huge number of government workers clogging traffic and the metro train leaves one to wonder how many are truly necessary and vital. I truly believe many of them need the opportunity to try the real world for a while.
Support positions like yours are crucial and important.
imho:
1. Upper level officials are evidently saturated with Communist/globalist ideology, goals, values, etc. and deserve to be removed and punished harshly.
2. Too many lower level folks are likely also heavily influenced with a liberal hidiot kind of ideology. How active, virulent, dangerous they are to the Republic and the body politic likely varies a lot from person to person.
3. I'm convinced that there's tons (a 51% or more majority?) of hard working civil 'servants' who just do their jobs as honorably as they can and then go home to enjoy their families. I don't see them plotting secretly to speed up the globalist oligarchy taking !CONTROL! of our lives and Republic.
4. Nevertheless, there are likely a lot of civil servants that are like a lot of Muslims--they may not actively engage in violent jihad but they may send money; encourage it in word and writing; pray for it; do what they can to quietly support it under the table. Many civil servants are also likely quite supportive of shoving the Republic deeper and deeper into socialism/communism/globalism. Personally, I'd just as soon see those folks out of their jobs, too. But I think there are so many, it's not a very realistic goal.
5. I think truly patriotic civil servants who are seriously supportive of our Constitution and our foundational values--they ought to be promoted to significant levels of power in their agencies.
I hope that helps. If I left something out, please ask me again.
On Target.
Just be glad you’re not a Californian.
A GS 5 makes 37K to 47K a year including locality pay. What step are you?
OK, I’ll bite. My comments don’t apply to every federal employee, but they certainly do apply to the vast majority:
First off, the average taxpayer should not have to struggle to pay for the average government “worker”.
That’s the bottom line. If some poor schlub can’t fund his own healthcare and retirement because of the tax burden that the legion of government “workers” receives simply because they show up every day then the average taxpayer should be able to take care of themselves first.
You, as a government “worker” feast upon the first fruits of actual hard-working Americans labors. That is not right. That is not your right.
Do I blame you? No. Chances are there is no way you or your peers could make more money or actually earn the benefits that you enjoy by occupying a slot in the legion of federal employees by generating value in the private sector economy that must pay for all of this.
We have a federal workforce (and I include the military) that does not reflect the needs of the American people, nor the requirements of the Constitution. Any non-combat role in the military that can be possibly contracted out should be. We simply cannot afford the military we have. 50% of the defense budget goes for benefits. That’s crazy.
Nearly all non uniformed government employees can be replaced by contractors without the unnecessary job protections or unnecessary benefits.
The average taxpayer provides more “public service” than any average government “worker”, yet it is always government “workers” that are hailed as heroes or singled out for merely sometimes doing their job.
Just once, I’d like to hear a guy who slogs through a shift every day thanked for “his service to the country”.
Do I hate you? No. Chances are you aren’t as smart or creative as those actually earning a living in the private sector. Your job is on balance “make work”.
Government service self-selects for sloth and lack of talent. Those who are talented and creative can find employment outside of government just about any time. The rest exist in a limbo where they make too much to make a change or take a risk.
Now, government workers, lets see how much you hate me - I’m one of those who pays for it all. Lecture me on how critical you are and how you worked through one of your myriad holidays and were only given “compensatory time off”.
In my opinion, there is almost nothing that you as government workers would NOT do to the average taxpayer to keep your job and benefits. Let that sink in.
You are as a group the biggest problem we have right now - because your job is to take the rights and freedoms of real Americans who keep and build this great country. You do it by taking the fruits of their labors, and then you do it by regulating and restricting their pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
You think you somehow deserve a better living than everyone else and you are under the mistaken impression that you work hard. You are the new “elite” under which everyone must labor.
So answer me this: Why do you hate me and my peers who actually contribute to the economy and pay for everything?
Thanks for you posting! This should be a lively discussion - but I actually think most on FR cash a government check in some way shape or form. We’ll see.
THAT POST and THE POSTER SHOULD HAVE BEEN IMMEDIATELY REPORTED TO JIM ROBINSON DIRECTLY!
You need not tolerate THAT ABUSE from anyone here.
It’s severely out-of-line on several counts.
The poster of it must be a “real peach.”
He’s probably the same arsehole I got into a fight with. Ignore him, he’s an idiot and sounds like a Democrat.
After 4 years in the Navy, I fell into a somewhat different job with a large County.
Essential, as it dealt with the State Attorney and Justice System. Eight of us blanket-retired after 30 years, leaving our operation a professional model for the rest of the country—and a training facility for interns and others in the vocation.
Our professional operation has been replaced by an activity an esteemed colleague refers to as an "Affirmative-Action" Laboratory.
'Don't think I could go back to a party-time-all-the-time environment.
:(
Someone got dere wittle feewings hurt.
Let’s give everyone government jobs and call it even. /s
So long as we have emotional arguments about jobs, there will NEVER be a balanced federal budget.
If & when the chopper comes, if your job is needed, you will still have a job. If not, tough luck, just like most of the rest of us.
THEN, if you want to blame someone, blame the idiot you sent to the House, not those who are frustrated at the largess & waste here.
I lost everything and starting over at 50, but I’m not whining about it.
Go write a soap opera dude. You should feel secure in the fact that so long as China buys our paper, you will be retiring; that word does not exist in my vocabulary or that of many others.
Until then, do your damned job well and stop blaming people here for their frustration. No one here means to blame YOU for causing the problem, but your guilt is certainly out of place.
If it were me, I’d be happier living in my car than living with the burden you’re carrying around...
Before I can give you my position on government workers, I have to give you my position on government ‘work’. I find it interesting you mention your pay grade, but you do not mention what yo do for the federal government.
The great compromise of 1789 (i.e. the United States Constitution) was all about the diffusing of power and authority. The states wanted a weak federal government so tyranny would not run supreme as it did with the British monarchy. So the great compromise (i.e. a President, with a bicameral legislature, and a judiciary) allowed for the diffusing of power. Additionally, the Constitution limited what the federal government could do. If something was not explicitly listed, the federal government could not do it and the states could then choose to do it or not.
Of course, here we are 200+ years later and our government has decided to do lots of stuff it was originally never intended to do.
Now, since that has happened and government has grown, with government workers becoming more and more protected by innumerous laws, government has become a magnet for the type of people who tend towards dependency with an expectation that others owe them something.
Are you one of them? Well, maybe not, I do not know. But the more important question is, what job do you do and should the federal government even be doing that work in the first place?
The video below is of Milton Friedman, my favorite economist (yes, I have a favorite economist) discussing what the federal government should and should not do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSumJxQ5oy4
I specifically direct you to time 20 minutes, 26 seconds of the video for his opinion on what government agencies should and should not exist.
Enjoy!
JoMa
Shaddup - absurd boot troll
No, I do not lump every one together, some one has to do the government jobs.
It is the deliberate Invention of government jobs for the
purpose of expanding socialism that makes me mad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.