Ok Freepers, Time to Come Clean on Your Opinion of Government Workers

[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?

[rlmorel]

I checked it out back then to see if there was something I could get into to help the effort, but...just a bit too old for anything.

[Hodar]

Not all GS-5’s through 11 are full time. Some are “Seasonal”, some are part time, some are merely “occasionally”.
Examples are test administrators for various areas, IRS, and the Department of Forestry.

Like any job, there are some that are very mundane, yet important. For examples munitions on a military base. They need to be under security, JT that is typically a boring job. Some folks have the opportunity to work for NASA. They get paid exactly the same as a mundane equivalent pay grade in a mundane job.

[DennisR]

I do not have a bad opinion about government workers - it’s just that about 2/3 of them are not needed. With the exception of the military.

[Salvavida]

I am a govy too, and I wouldn’t look for validation here or anywhere else. Focus on the real problems we have. Dont react to those with a screw loose.

[Go_Raiders]

I think you have to look at core functions. It sounds like you are direct support for the Military, which is a function specifically covered by the Constitution. Unless you are part of a legacy program that is no longer needed or a boondoggle program set up by an earmark for some limp d!ck legislator, then you are part of what makes this the greatest country on Earth.

If you were working in a blatantly unnecessary branch, like education or health and human services, that would probably be a whole nuther issue.

If you can look at your job and say that you are contributing to a vital, Constitutional function of the Federal Government, then God Bless you and thanks for serving your Country. My two cents anyway...

[VeniVidiVici]

Why do I doubt you’ll post back?

Plenty of government workers are lazy drones.

Do well in your job and what do you care what anyone thinks?

[Moe-Patrick]

If the attack is direct, that’s an issue. If the attack specifically states that ALL government employees are bad, that’s ignorance. If the attack is a generalization, take it as such. Quantifying a general observation about injustices does not need a qualifier of ‘not all government workers are inept, not all FBI is crooked, not all mexicans are rapists’ etc. Most understand this without the qualifiers.

I hope you decide to continue to partake on FR and benefit from the insightful feedback and knowledge shared.

[Mears]

“I am a GS-05 and I barely scrape in $24,000 a year. “

---

Is that salary amount an error?

( I have never knocked government workers so that question has no hidden meaning.)

.

[dp0622]

Hey you cared enough to go and ask.

I WORKED in those buildings once.

Traveled 5 hours, mostly walking to get to Rock Plaza for work 2 days later.

Detoured bus for years passing the wreckage.

Two fireman friends died from lung cancer after cleaning up “the pit” as they called it.

Bad times.

[mulligan]

If I base opinion on Washington DC, terrible. Otherwise about on par with the private sector.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

Of course I don’t think that every single person who works for the federal government is evil. That is got to be one of the most ignorant opinions I’ve ever heard. There are honorable and dishonorable people in all professions and walks of life. It sounds like you are certainly one of the honorable ones.

[TigersEye]

It really helps if you don’t take the jackasses seriously. Seriously! ;-)

[dp0622]

Wouldn’t’ he assume some FReepers would know that?

If he’s lying then the whole vanity is kind of a farce.

[morphing libertarian]

I worked in youth corrections for 28 years and did consulting in 15 states. I wrestled 19 year old weight lifters and went into dayrooms which were about to explode. I helped talk 100 guys down. I tended a guy who was stabbed twice in the neck with ten inch scissors till the medics arrived. And I could go on with book, full. I was injured a lot of times and we didn’t do workers comp in those days. it was for pussies and we didn’t want the inmates to know we were hurt. I started and finished where the “youth” were 18-25. That was they way Cal had it set up.

Even when I was manager I walked the prison everyday admits the tensions and threats showing the flag to staff. I was a whistleblower after an employee was murdered after a terrible decision by our director who had never run an institution. And I left with a heart attack after being retaliated against.

The public doesn’t care what happensin prisons for the most part. Just keep the assholes inside.

When i see people make blanket criticisms and idiotic statements like”get a real job.” I wonder how long they would last inside.

I agree with the comments about public unions. It’s a bribery cycle between the members, the union, and the legislature and governor. BTW in Cal, Jerry brown signed the bill for unions at midnight his last day in office his first round of terms. Now we suffer because of his accepting bribes.

[GOPJ]

I’m for honest government workers. I’m against corrupt government workers.

I think well of most financial services companies. But I’m against crooks like Bernie Madoff.

Most banks are honest. But when Wells Fargo was cheating their customers I thought they were wrong.

I support city police and firemen... but it they take bribes I don’t support the bribe takers.

It’s the same with government workers. When they accept bribes or try to overthrow a duly elected President - I’m against them. When they do their jobs in an honest fashion I’m for them.

How hard is this to understand?

In this story about the NSA (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/us/politics/us-cyberweapons-russia-trump.html) the NSA says they paid money to get cyber ‘tools’ back (AND DIRT ON PRESIDENT TRUMP at the same time) They say the dirt was a side issue. I know ‘cyber tools’ can’t be ‘returned’ so I believe the NSA is lying. I don’t support our government lying to the people when it’s not a ‘national security’ issue. In the above case these folks are covering their asses, they’re not protecting the country. Working to undermine a duly elected President by a intelligence coup is treason. I don’t support treason.

[Gay State Conservative]

Joseph McCarthy is claimed to have believed that every government employee was a Communist.I don't know if that's an accurate depiction of his views.

My belief is that most,but not all,top government officials...civil service and elected...are enemies of the Constitution.I also believe that a very noticeable percentage of lower level government employees are also enemies of the Constitution.

Leftists and anarchists seem to gravitate toward education and government...obviously because that's where the *real* power is.

[PAR35]

Base pay for a 5-1 is $13.87 an hour.

Of course in the Indianapolis/Muncie/Carmel area, a 5-1 grosses $33,643 a year with the 16.23% locality adjustment.

[sparklite2]

My father-in-law worked for the alcohol division of the AFT. He told me government workers swapped pay lower than the civilian sector for the higher job security of government work. Now, thanks to the unionizing of federal employees, they have higher pay than civilian counterparts plus being nearly impossible to fire.

So, if you don’t have ‘two nickels to rub together,’ you’re still better off than someone in civil society. Government bloat is a major problem and, sorry, but you’re part of that problem.

[rlmorel]

Yep. Bad times indeed.

It was kind of funny in a dispiriting kind of way...the Navy and National Guard guys I talked to were...gentle. I think they could tell I really wanted to help, so they talked normally to me instead of laughing at me. I suspect they were getting a lot of calls like that.

I only missed by a few years...:)

[Our man in washington]

I’m a government worker. My goal is to save the government enough money that by the time I retire, I’ll have created annual savings worth at least a third of my lifetime (not annual) earnings. Thus, in three years, I’ll have repaid the taxpayers and every year after that will be gravy for the taxpayers.

I’ve been in my current position for three years and have already generated about 130 grand of savings per year. But I’m currently working on a project that will save at least a half million a year. I’m well on my way to my goal.

Having a few freepers in government is a good thing.