Free Republic

Work: A new study of government data says that since Oct. 1, federal workers, including bureaucrats and members of Congress, have worked less than three-fourths of the time. To which we respond, how can they tell? Federal workers have long been seen as slack, but they seem to have gotten more so recently.

Americans working for the government and in the finance industry had the lowest unemployment rates in September, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In both industries the rate was 3.9%. The unemployment rates in agriculture (9.4 percent) and in construction (8.5 percent) were more than twice the unemployment rates in government and finance. …

Months ago I filed and paid $27 for a copy of my great-great grandfathers social security application as part of my genealogy research. He was born in PA in 1871 and died in NY in 1940. Today I received a letter from the SSA stating that they cannot send me a copy because they have no information that he is deceased! It goes on to thank me for my payment to cover the cost of searching the records and if I can send proof he is dead (lol) they can provide the record at no additional cost. I have 30...

Kevin J. Lacy, a traffic engineer who works for NCDOT. When David N. Cox was exercising his right to petition the government, and submitted an 8 page document to support the North Raleigh Coalition of Homeowners' Associations case for more traffic lights to go with some new roadwork, Kevin Lacy whined to the NC Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors to investigate David Cox. Though Cox never claimed, nor has he been accused of claiming he is an engineer, Lacy thought the report "appears to be engineering-level work" by a non licensed person. So, in other words, the report...

While Those Of Us Who Pay Their Salaries Suffer (Rest of title) Do you remember the days when getting elected to Congress or choosing to work for the government was referred to as "public service"? The idea was that you would be making a sacrifice for the greater good of the country. Well, those days are long gone. Today, getting elected to Congress or working for the federal government is a good way to get rich. Median household income in the United States fell from $51,726 in 2008 to $50,221 in 2009, and yet the personal wealth of members of...

It looks like a happy new year for you -- if you're a public employee. That's the takeaway from a recent Rasmussen poll that shows that 46 percent of government employees say the economy is getting better, while just 31 percent say it's getting worse. In contrast, 32 percent of those with private-sector jobs say the economy is getting better, while 49 percent say it is getting worse. Nearly half, 44 percent, of government employees rate their personal finances as good or excellent. Only 33 percent of private-sector employees do. It sounds like public- and private-sector employees are looking at...

Last month, the General Accounting Office (GAO) made headlines with its report that scores of high ranking employees from eight federal agencies had degrees from bogus colleges or unaccredited schools. Worse yet, a GAO spokesman said, "It's a much larger problem than the evidence we have to date shows." That could be an understatement given that just three of the unaccredited schools the GAO examined revealed that 463 current or one-time students are federal employees. Still, some were unfazed; one wit commented: “I’m not as concerned with whether government workers have degrees as with whether they are working at all.”...