Posted on 03/08/2011 12:45:27 PM PST by 92nina
...Similarly, government workforces have health benefits that are on average greater than those received by many in the private sector: “The average government worker earns $4.65 per hour in health benefits, compared with $2.10 per hour in the private sector. Part of that difference is attributable to higher coverage rates in the public sector (73 percent of state and local government workers receive health insurance through work, compared with 51 percent of private-sector workers). But part is attributable to the higher value of benefits per employee.”
Added all together, Barro says, 43% of state and local spending goes to 19.4 million employees (as of September 2010), totaling over $1.2 trillion in compensation. Reform and payroll reduction would seem like an easy fix but for groups like the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union. Public sector unions have ensured deluxe packages for their members regardless of the economic cost: “By influencing the political process, unions are able to sit on both sides of the negotiating table. Some states enact laws that make this situation worse—for example, by allowing binding arbitration that does not properly account for taxpayers’ ability to pay.”
As Mr. Barro correctly concludes, the nationwide fiscal crisis can be ameliorated by reforming binding arbitration, prohibiting public employee strikes, limiting collective bargaining for these workers or banning it altogether. These are the battles that are being fought right now, in Wisconsin, Ohio, and elsewhere. The opposition of labor versus management, long espoused by radical progressives, has been turned on its head: the terms have been replaced by “the government” versus “the people”. If fiscal responsibility and economic freedom finally win out against union intransigence, then the people will have truly won again.
Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at at Digg and at Reddit and in Delicious and Stumbleupon
I think that I misplaced the link by accident. http://workerfreedom.org/manhattan-institute-releases-brief-public-sector-a3877
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