Mayor Franklin cutting over 200 more jobs (cutting fire/police hours as well). (Atlanta: tax, cost)

[VJP]

^^ Kudos. I was starting to get riled up and you said it all for me. For onemanarmy, try thinking holistically and leave your emotions off the table. I know this is hard to do, just give it a shot. It really sucks when you have to agree in part with both sides of the aisle doesnt it??

This does not bode well for Atlanta....additional tax hikes are not far off. Again, when people ask here about borderline areas, I always share my personal reasons for not living within the city limits. Such is..

[atlantagreg30127]

I wonder if any news reporters will dig a bit to see if any fire fighters at the station that's the closest to Franklin's house will be laid off or have reduced hours? I wonder if police chief Pennington (good personal friend of Franklins) is taking a pay cut?

Bet not.

[onemanarmy]

Originally Posted by BringBackCobain

Wow. Where do I begin? Either its been so long since you have taken an economics class, or more likely you have never taken an economics class at all. My last econ class (macro) was less than a year ago. It looks like you need a little lesson.

1 of the 10 Principles of Economics: INCENTIVES MATTER.

What is the incentive for a company to be as efficient as possible? Profit. Greater efficiency will lead to larger profits. So, private companies naturally strive to be as efficient as possible, to reap the benefits in the form of larger profit.

Government run agencies, on the other hand, do not have an incentive to be efficient. They are not in the business for profit. They are simply run on tax dollars. With no profit incentive to be efficient, they become extremely inefficient. Example? The Post Office.

Police and fire offer a public benefit, which is an incentive for the government to run them. They are essential to the safety of society, thus it makes sense for the government to run them. They are not subject to a "for profit" application. Even if they were, my economics class taught me its not economically sensible.

Trash and pool management are offered on a privatized basis. The city would save millions if it privatized these services.

The government should have no say in Wall Street. It should be people's free choice to the way the want to invest their money.

Sandy Springs should serve as a model for the way Atlanta is run. Everything besides fire, police, and roads is privatized. Are they struggling because of the economic crisis? No.

Its called capitalism. It works. If you don't like it, move to Cuba and see how great things are down there.

I am glad that I could enlighten your ignorant views on this subject. Perhaps it was you who helped vote these people into office anyway.

Ok, I'm not going to go point by point with you, because your argument is by far myopic. Economics is not capitalism, so everyone is not motivated by profit. I'm a degreed and experience accountant, so I'm sure I have more academic experience, and probably a lot more work & life experience.

My point about privatizing the police and fire is still valid, because it's far cheaper to provide this service if it's contracted out. Since police and fire are primarily reactionary, they provide no better security to me than my concierge at my condo.


Privatizing does not equate to being ran any more efficiently or with anymore oversight than government. Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel, Blackwater, are all doing jobs that our military could do for cheaper. Healthcare would be cheaper. So please stop with this free market ideology as if it's the greatest show on the planet, there should be a hybrid system. We tried it for 8 years and it failed measurably.

Lastly, I have traveled to Cuba, have you? I'll go under the assumption you haven't, because it's typical American ethnocentricity to blast others without experiencing it. I have been to Scandinavia as well, these places by enlarge are not littered with homelessness, crime, or sick. So ignorance is displayed by your lack of intergrating reality with academia.

[Merin]

Aren't they trying to give the Mayor a 90k raise?

[gt6974a]

Originally Posted by Merin

Aren't they trying to give the Mayor a 90k raise?

YEah, they wanted to raise the salary for the next one. I don't think it was going to be immediate for Franklin, but I could be wrong.

[BringBackCobain]

Originally Posted by onemanarmy

Ok, I'm not going to go point by point with you, because your argument is by far myopic. Economics is not capitalism, so everyone is not motivated by profit. I'm a degreed and experience accountant, so I'm sure I have more academic experience, and probably a lot more work & life experience.

Privatizing does not equate to being ran any more efficiently or with anymore oversight than government. Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel, Blackwater, are all doing jobs that our military could do for cheaper. Healthcare would be cheaper. So please stop with this free market ideology as if it's the greatest show on the planet, there should be a hybrid system. We tried it for 8 years and it failed measurably.

Lastly, I have traveled to Cuba, have you? I'll go under the assumption you haven't, because it's typical American ethnocentricity to blast others without experiencing it. I have been to Scandinavia as well, these places by enlarge are not littered with homelessness, crime, or sick. So ignorance is displayed by your lack of intergrating reality with academia.

Economics is not captialism. Capitalism is an economic system, and it happens to be the one that runs our country, and the system that runs the richest country with the largest economy in the world. You decide if its working or not.

And why are you basing your decision on 8 years? We have not had a BAD recession since the early '80s. The 2001 recession lasted 8 months, and the average is 16 months. Its a normal part of the business cycle. Basing your views on 8 years that happen to be under a republican president is simply a way to spin your propaganda.

[wxjay]

Originally Posted by onemanarmy

Ok, I'm not going to go point by point with you, because your argument is by far myopic. Economics is not capitalism, so everyone is not motivated by profit. I'm a degreed and experience accountant, so I'm sure I have more academic experience, and probably a lot more work & life experience.

Isn't the fundamental assumption of economics that all actors are rational beings? Rational beings do things that give themselves the most benefit - plain and simple. Now, we could argue if money alone is the "most benefit", but certainly an option that causes the actor to lose property without a gain in something else is an "irrational" option and hence not feasible under economic theory. And since even things like enjoyment or "warm feelings" are measured in economic terms for modeling, then yes - a profit is the motivating factor.

[choicedecisiondotcom]

Mismanagement- One of the main reasons I keep telling myself not to buy property in Atlanta unfortunatly

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by onemanarmy

Yeah, America has tried privatizing many things in the name of saving money, and look how that has turned out for us. The privatization of the Iraq war, healthcare, self-governing of wall street, has left of all prosperous in these last 8 years. Let's privatize the fire department and police too, while we are at.

Don't forget the experiment in a few cities with privatizing the school system...tragic...

[yankee_transplant]

City government is inefficient? Of course. It could be a lot worse. Ask someone in any other US city.

Yes, there are a few services where privatization could save money, but be careful. They farmed out water treatment and distribution to United Water, and it was a disaster; thanks to Bill Campbell.

Overall, I think that big Shirley has done a pretty good job considering the mess that she inherited. She knows that Atlanta can be a much better place than it is. Big dreams cost money, and mistakes are made, but for the most part, the city is a lot better than it was seven years ago. The biggest chunk of the budget deficit comes from refunding the pension fund and unexpected interest rate increases on the $4.1B watershed improvements.

Give her a break, and hope that the next mayor follows in her steps.

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

Well - more fallout from the mismanagement of funds last year from the City:

Atlanta Cutting 222 Jobs; Closing 22 Recreation Centers - News Story - WSB Atlanta

While on this round they will not directly fire the police and fire employees, they WILL reduce their hours, and put several fire stations on "brown out" status (semi-closed or closed part time). She also said that if there is a next round of cuts, she won't guarantee that fire/police won't actually be fired then, either. She did take a small pay cut though. How nice.