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I bet if the media actually looks behind the numbers they will see that where the federal government is bloated is in the Washington, DC area. Headquarters of most government agencies is in the Washington, DC area. That's where more "long time" feds are (promoted there from field offices) and because they are long-time, they make more money. Have more new federal jobs opened in DC? If I was the media, I'd look into that.................
..........................If I was the media, I'd look into "made up" DC headquarters positions for these dumped executives and high graded managers. In other words, they have to do something with them so they create a group for them to manage to justify their position. Again, I don't think this happens in field offices.
The media (in this case, Fox News), doesn't care for the details. It's the headlines that count. (Since the details sometimes might slap them in the face)
Most people don't have a clue what people make outside their little world, but seem to always complain that everybody else makes too much. Union workers make to much, People on Welfare get too much, government workers make too much, but I make too little and I'm taxed too much.
What a racket the government has become...taxing the hardworking people of the private sector and giving all that money to incompetent and lazy federal employees...another interesting fact from USA Today...Average federal employee salary...$70,000 versus private sector of $40,000..No wonder the Nation is going down the toilet...
My reaction is the same as hearing that the best housing and job market in the past year has been the DC area. This is a terrible harbinger for the economy that Obamanomics seeks to build.
That this year [2009] has been a tough one for small business is no surprise. But just how tough it has been continues to astound. In the first quarter alone, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 400,000 businesses with fewer than 100 employees ceased operations, eliminating one million jobs. And it didn’t get much better as the year went on. “This is arguably the worst year for small business since the Great Depression,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com. Source
And people complain that the stimulus bill creates "temporary jobs". Nothing tops small business for temporary jobs. With their colossal rates of failure (which we underwrite via generous business bankruptcy laws), they are the great engines of unemployment. This is not to diminish their importance. It is simply to state a fact...
Why do conservatives hate government employees so much? You guys are right - our government is absolutely bloated and inefficient. This is all due to the way the politicians choose to spend our money. 99% or more of federal employees have no say in this. They're just typical, hard working people who need a job and found one with the government. I'm sorry, but being a Marylander I know a LOT of federal employees. Quite a few are even conservatives (though, at least here in MD, most are moderate or liberal) who support a reduction in the size of government but are just working hard at the place they were able to get a job. As for salary, the cost of living in and around DC is very high compared to the rest of the US (and salaries are high too in order to pay for it. Six figures sounds like a lot to most Americans, and it is. But in most DC suburbs, a $100,000/year salary is below average). This coupled with the types of employees the federal government hires (as another poster already noted) should explain why they make more money than the average American.
Salaries are only part of the equation. Most people keep government jobs because of the unbelievable benefits and retirement packages.
Why are they unbelievable? Every federal employee hired since 1984 for instance is on exactly the same retirement system (FERS). You get a modest pension, Social Security, and whatever you've been able to do with your 401-k (TSP). Overall, both the average pay and the average benefits in the federal government are higher than in the private sector, and for the same reason. The federal government has almost no burger flippers, busboys, or unskilled laborers, while it has way more than the usual number of people with advanced degrees and professional credentials. To make any valid comparison, you would have to throw out most of the bottom tiers of the private sector workforce, then adjust the remainder so that its composition paralleled the composition of the federal workforce. That sort of work has suggested that for comparable work, there is a signficant salary advantage in the private sector and a smaller benefits advantage in the public sector.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zz4guy
Take that 6 figure salary and multiply it by 2.5 and you come up with the REAL cost to employ that person. Absolutely sickening.
Do you have a source for that 2.5 multiplier, since the actual number is just about 1.5, based on 2008 data?
What a racket the government has become...taxing the hardworking people of the private sector and giving all that money to incompetent and lazy federal employees...another interesting fact from USA Today...Average federal employee salary...$70,000 versus private sector of $40,000..No wonder the Nation is going down the toilet...
Blame, blame, blame. Can't get a government job? Blame it on the liberals. Got to be somebody's fault, can't be your lack of education or experience.
Pretty evident that not many of our right-wing friends could ever get themselves hired by the feds as an economist. Of course, the typical starting salary for a new one of those is $42K. Not quite the lap of luxury considering the cost of living in the DC area.
It is interesting though that a private sector lawyer or tax accountant making a nice 6-figure salary has cleary worked hard and deserves every penny that he makes, while the same guy working in the public sector would be a lazy incompetent slug leeching off the hard-working taxpayers...
Last edited by saganista; 02-14-2010 at 08:55 AM..
Pretty evident that few of our right-wing friends could ever get themselves hired by the feds as an economist. Of course, the typical starting salary for a new on of those is $42K. Not quite the lap of luxury considering the cost of living in the DC area...
Here's a question for somebody.
What does the average floor sweeper make at a UAW factory?
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