Posted on 08/19/2010 7:07:45 AM PDT by Comrade Brother Abu Bubba
Mommy, Mommy When I Grow Up I Want to Be A Federal Worker by Scott Redler
Things were sure different when I was growing up. My parents taught me the value of a strong work ethic because that was how you got ahead in life. I shoveled snow off neighborhood driveways starting at age 10, and by the time I hit 13 I was busing tables at a local restaurant where, at 16, I became a waiter. In high school I hit the books hard with dreams of going to college and becoming a doctor, lawyer or fortune 500 CEO. Sadly, our society has allowed itself to drift in an altogether different direction.
The growth of public sector compensation and benefits in the context of a global recession is not only a travesty, it is a serious impediment to the future growth of our country. Why would a graduate from a top university pursue a job in the private sector (in which jobs are now even more scarce) when, after nine years of pay hikes and benefits in the context of a struggling economy, the compensation of federal civil servants is now, on average, twice that of private sector workers?
The United States right now needs to be moving in the opposite direction from the one we are currently heading in. We need the brightest college graduates innovating in the private sector, not working as overcompensated, under performing federal workers. We need lower tax rates to stimulate private industry.
Until we restore the core values that have driven this nation since its founding, our country will keep heading down this dangerous and self-destructive path. Until we correct these fundamental problems and get back on the road to growth, the stock market will not reward investors.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.forbes.com ...
Ronald Reagan was right on the money when he proclaimed,
"Government isn't the solution, Government is the problem!"
Yes, Winston and so you shall.
This is the kind of class warfare we need to get behind...the pampered government functionary vs. the oppressed taxpayer.
It should be painfully obvious who is the servant of whom in the current arrangement.
Why even work for the government, when you can just sit back & collect. Play video games, have sex, get free healthcare, legal advice, political advocacy, and complain it’s everyone else’s fault.
What’s not to like?
Donts forgets to adds...free house, free car, free rent, free utilities, free food.
That’s a rather broad brush.
“When I grow up I want to be a Marine.”
Who but a lib wouldn’t consider that admirable?
Secret Service, diplomatic corps (no Obama, that’s not a dead diplomat), CIA, NSA and others offer quite admirable careers that serve the needs of the people. Not every job is a useless, overpaid paper pusher in an irrelevant agency. This doesn’t even count all the lawyers who join the DoJ because they want to help, when they could be earning much more in the private sector.
You said it.
Unfortunately we can't depend upon the republicans to join us - this war will have to be brought entirely from the grassroots.
Just like Europe. The deepest ambition of every European is to work for the government, at one level or another. Even being municipal dogcatcher is better than being employed in the private sector, in their eyes.
With correct statistics (comparing equal education and experience levels), it turns out that the private sector pays more.
Dictatorship of the apparatchiks is the inevitable way station on the train to the utopian dictatorship of the proletarariat. The train never gets past the apparatchik station.
The problem with the civil service isn't that its pay levels are too high (they aren't, when one adjusts for education and experience levels) -- it's that the "one size fits all" setup doesn't properly account for specific job types. Government jobs that require specialized training (law, science, engineering, etc) go begging because they pay peanuts compared to the private-sector jobs available to someone with those credentials; meanwhile, the same pay scales apply to routine paper-pushers (as a result, those jobs are overpaid).
Look, even the idiot Democrats know everybody is not a college graduate.
Federal employees should not get any better retirement benefits than our military. Same goes for state employees and Congress.
I had a neighbor retire several years ago. He was in his mid-50s. Long time federal worker.
Pension: $72,000.00 a year, with COLAs. He must be getting nearly $80,000.00 annually by now.
Why are these people getting COLAs in this environment.
500-thousand new jobless in America last week. :Millions and millions out of work since the Great Recession began.
The federal work force? Up 200,000.
Disgraceful.
Mr. Reagan used to say “Put the government in charge of something and watch it fall apart.”
Spot on.
Also, you have to be a citizen to work for the federal government. Illegal aliens wreck the curve on the non-government side -- that by itself explains a pretty big chunk of the difference between the raw averages.
The author has a valid point that American culture and policy need to be more entrepreneur-friendly, but he badly damages his case by dragging in obvious junk statistics.
They should get full retirement after twenty years? That's rather generous, but if you want to offer I'm sure they'd be glad to take it.
To be able to report bogus year-end Government budget cutting numbers they laid off nearly everyone at the yard, and then hired them back after a whole day off when the new reporting year began. I was just a kid then, but I and my Dad learned allot about bogus Government reporting.
You forgot the bribes. BTW, having conducted numerous salary surveys entry level jobs and up about two levels the government jobs pay about 40% more(total comp). It evens out at manager level, and declines at the top levels(bribes start coming in). Which is why government is incompetent, inefficient, and corrupt. Happens in the private sector too, but then those companies die.
The really funny thing is that most federal workers that I encounter are miserable in their jobs and bit@h and moan about everything....most of them couldn’t get a job at WalMart if forced to go into the private sector....and they are retiring at 55 (or younger) with 70,000-120,000 pensions for life...its ridiculous.
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