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?

[dp0622]

:)

Listen, you went man. Like I said, that’s more than a lot of people of service age did

And food meant more to me than those buildings and the city and country, apparently.

I WISH they would have taken me on, maybe i wouldn’t be a fat ba#tard right now :)

[righttackle44]

I worked for the federal government, two different agencies. Some of the best people I have ever known were federal employees. Contrary to what some Freepers and other Conservatives think or believe, many of them gave unselfishly of their time and put in many, many uncompensated hours.

One year, during a Democrat-instilled federal government shut down, a government employee I know paid out of his own pocket, a round trip plane ticket to fly to Phoenix. He rented a car on his own credit card, then joined people to ride down the horse trail to the bottom of the Grand Canyon so that he could be there for two days worth of meetings with members of an Indian tribe. While the Tribe put him up and fed him, he nonetheless spent about $3,500 for the trip; The purpose of the trip: planning meetings for the implementation of a health project to benefit the tribal people. The health services were needed very badly. Because the trip occurred during the government shut down, the employee could not reimbursed for any of it.

I have seen other federal employees--some who work in Washington, D.C.--arrive early every morning, some at 5 a.m. and leave at 7 p.m. five days a week, and even come in on Saturdays to complete work. Because the work simply needed to be done--work that benefited American communities and people--the employees simply put in the time without further compensation. (Compensatory time or overtime can only be earned if the additional hours are authorized by a supervising official.)

So, when I left the federal government and went to work in the private sector, I still was able to call on federal employees for assistance, technical information, and legal guidance.

Are there employees who are not needed? Perhaps. But if the government were simply to start getting rid of employees, then many things that Americans expect--tax returns, Social Security payments, federal benefits and services--would simply not get done on a timely basis. The safety certifications for the airlines on which you fly would likely not be done in time. The patents and trademarks that the companies you work for or own would likely be delayed or completely neglected, and so the things your company makes or does could easily be copied by someone else, and your market would be diluted or stolen.

And here's something else: federal employees do not create the programs and services they administer, execute, or plan for; those things are created by the Congress. So when I hear Americans disparage federal employees because they are wasting money, I remember that it is not the federal employees who authorized the waste of monies and resources. Those wastes can always be blamed exactly on the Congress.

Are federal workers overpaid? They are, aren't they? Well, if workers in the private sector need additional income, they can generate additional money by taking additional jobs and/or going into side businesses. Federal employees must receive permission to do such things. If a Fed sets up an internet business without permission and is caught, he or she can and often does receive several penalties including prison time if warranted.

Yes, there are corrrupt federal employees. But I'm willing to guess that some who participate in Free Republic carry on a form of corruption. I'd be surprised if I'm wrong.

So, yes. I support our federal employees. I support the systems that they must work under to see that they hold to the law, regulations, and policies under which they must work. I support the prosecution of employees who violate the Hatch Act--the federal law that prohibits Feds from actively supporting partisan political candidates. (I also willing to guess that there were Feds who worked on behalf of Obama and his Democrats. Yes, these should be weeded out and imprisoned and fine as appropriate.) But most federal employees probably don't violate the Hatch Act.

Federal employees are human beings. They make mistakes. But they don't deserve most of the wrath directed at them by many, including many Conservative people. They deserve support because they are trying to conduct the business of the United States of America. It's not their individual faults that Congress creates many whom we do not need.

[Robert DeLong]

Ignore the stupid people who always paint with a broad brush. They are plentiful on several different occupations. You aren’t going to change them and you aren’t going to educate them either. While I too think there are far too many government workers, and that they should not be protected under civil service, but governments are needed. Bottom line, just don’t allow them to get under your skin. Don’t even engage with them. They are not worth your time.

[Nifster]

As with most things in life I tend to avoid generalizations.

The govt Workets that I know personally are hard working individuals.

My attitude towards those who are ensconced in the DC swamp tends to not be so favorable

[raiderboy]

I apologize to you. God bless you sir. I get frustrated with paracites but you are not one. I educated myself. I took risks for my self and my family. I stood . But your post was read and i am impressed. Thank you.

[sam_whiskey]

Ah, it could be worse. At least you’re not a public school teacher.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Daughter works for the FAA - BS and MS in mathematics - could have worked plenty of places, chose the government for the benefits - most of the line workers are qualified hard workers - it’s when you get into the administrative/political appointees you start to have problems....

[boatbums]

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?

Scammers, thieves and reprobates exist in EVERY type of business - not just in government. But, thankfully, there have always been honest, decent, caring, respectful and conscientious employees who take pride in their work and are grateful for having employment. No, you shouldn't be automatically lumped in with the bad players. I'll bet no matter what kind of work your unfair critics do, they could probably find fellow employees who game the system, take advantage of their jobs and get away with whatever they can.

Don't let the turkeys get you down. Just continue to do good work, be honest and honorable and treat others as you would want to be treated.

[Nifster]

Way above minimum wage.....around 13.60 per hour...based on a 40 HR work week

[JudgemAll]

You are what we call an Oath Keeper and are valuable. Oath Keeper organization understands the importance of government workers.

Of course every federal job is meant to enforce some kind of federal law, some unjust but not all. I am sure just as military members have suffered the Vietnam war hate, other government workers suffer the Federal hate, and it should not be that way.

I was in the military and it was tough enforcing Bush Jr’s deployment demands. A lot of the higher ups did not want to be deployed and whined and patriotic soldiers like myself kept them in check in fact, as far as not pu$$ying out. They hated me and demoted me for it, even harassed me with perception games giving me the worst jobs in order to cry uncle and embrace their corrupt wishes.

Funny thing is that those who complained most that Bush’s winning hearts and minds was a bunch of bull sht were themselves the affirmative action types benefiting from such heart and minds program in the first place!

Talk about how the system is designed with karma and catch 22, and the movie was right.

There are ways to weaken the effects of the Federal on the rest of us, but these attacks on you are certainly counter productive to that. It would be much smarter to get information from those like you inside and help them instead! given all the drama and bull sht they have to go through in the federal government.

[Mad Dawg]

IMHO it’s ridiculous to tar all gov’t workers with the same brush.

Gov’t service can be an entirely honorable way to spend one’s life. And, obviously, it should be justly compensated.

The above is about a question entirely different from the questions about the expansion of federal reach into areAs not envisioned by the founders and framers. It is also not essentially related to questions of government unions and the like.

Power and position are tempations to anybody’s integrity or commitment to service. Cantankerous “customers,” don’t help one keep one’s focus.

People without a moral and (I would say) spiritual foundation, will be jerks in government or in private jobs. People with those foundations will do as well as they can in the circumstances within which they find themselves.

[zeestephen]

In my mind, it's just a basic math problem.

I will estimate that 80% of non-military federal government employees vote Democrat.

I will speculate that the other 20% are in no hurry to rock the boat since most federal jobs are very secure, are moderately stressful, pay a solid middle or upper middle class income, and have superior health and retirement benefits.

Bottom Line - When 80% of your workforce reads the Washington Post and the New York Times every day, they will govern and administer with the same mindset.

[morphing libertarian]

My skin is thick, maybe too thick. Best wishes

[bigbob]

If you really think all FReepers view all government workers in such a simplistic way, maybe this isn’t the forum for you.

[raiderboy]

Yep. You have served well. I wish you success and prosperity. You are a patriot.

[BuddhaBrown]

First off, too dang melodramatic. Must be an AF thing - mostly kidding, ex-Army.

On a more serious note, knowing what the hell are you talking about more specifically would help. I mean... Trump is a government employee and many here dang near worship him. At least support him to an unhealthy point of non-critical thinking - in my opinion.

Yours kinda sounds like a military contract job, which is often a way for us taxpayers to save money.

Anyway, regardless all the emotion, caring and non-sense like that which does not belong in federal decision-making, I think you are misunderstanding the concept of a, or ‘the’, Free Republic on a very basic level.

It is about Freedom. Not charity. At all. By definition. Ask the Founders. That stuff is supposed to be done at the lowest level feasible to give the most citizens possible the greatest input into the rules governing their daily lives. Meaning private options preferred, then state level or lower govt work if deemed acceptable by the voters at that level.

The central govt is there to fight/avoid wars, settle inter-state disputes and build walls or whatever needed to maintain our sovereignty.

That last thing is not something we were given. Nor something anybody else in the world wants us to have. We took it, rightfully. Previously maintained it, mightily. But today treat it spitefully.

Whether or not a govt job/position itself is valid at the federal level has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with whether you are a good worker or a good person.

The point is that the vast majority of folks employed by the federal govt are doing things the federal govt should NOT be doing.

It is not the fault of the employees, like you, that America is WAY off track in this regard. It is entirely the fault of (most) politicians and of those citizens who vote for them.

The states, counties, cities and markets are the only valid places for much of the life of American the feds have conquered starting mostly with the so-called greatest generation.

That generation WAS/IS the greatest in a bravery and foreign war success sense. But not so in the governing / voting for socialism sense.

They introduced the federal leaven which today is contaminating every aspect of our lives.

Again, I have no idea what others said to you. But Freedom’s perspective on most non-military fed jobs is, by definition, one of distrust. Don’t take it so personally.

It is not a sin against Freedom to hold/perform the job that exists. But it is to vote for most of them to be created or maintained at the fed level.

[Innovative]

It all depends on the individuals.

Some are smart and hard working and contribute, others are not.

Sometimes people make blanket judgements, based on incomplete information.

[SierraWasp]

The term “government workers” is usually an oxymoron. The term “workers” is a Commonist term to begin with, so must always be applied to the “State” department!!!

[ducttape45]

You are a GS five and you’re scraping by at $24,000?

Take home pay! I'm only a Step 4. After deductions that's all I bring home.

[TheNext]

Do not think of
“on the streets begging for money” as humiliating, instead consider it a Universal Basic Income.