Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Those 80k+ administrative positions are typically intense, require an excellent administrative resume to even be considered and are few and far between. Your average joe isn't going to be qualified, and if they just thought it entailed basic proofreading and correspondence, they would be fired in a week. You have to have the basic awareness that most secretaries do not command 80k salaries, even in this area, right?
You know thats great, everyone has an intense job. I can use that explanation to rationalize anything, still doesnt justify it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KStreetQB
Would you object to a CEO's secretary in Cedar Rapids making $55k? She'd have to make $80k to maintain the same standard of living if she moved to DC.
You can let the CEOs secretary own 50% of the company for all I care, if its tax dollars, and out of line with corporate/local pay then its wrong. Cut it or shut it down.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KStreetQB
The BLS puts out an annual report on federal vs. non federal wages. I would recommend reading it to actually understand how the GS scale and locality pay is calculated. They use employment and wage data to compare work-equivalent positions by location. Federal employees make less than their comparable private sector counterparts, even after location pay.
Again, Fairfax -- highest income in the US. NOVA didnt get that way only through the likes of AOL. Please explain how this statistic is possible on the private sector faction in NOVA, without federal contribution.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KStreetQB
I have granted your wish. There are more federal employees in Texas than there are in Washington DC.
Sweet, now can I get them for all US states and territories?
Agree that the local economies out there are getting supported by the various federal locations, and that only should increase (by removing positions from DC).
If you relocate more jobs from DC, many current gov workers will simply move with their jobs to their new location. New gov jobs will probably attract the same pool of job seekers, except they will be more spread out.
While we're at it, why not spread out more Wall Street and Silicon Valley jobs across the U.S. as well? While we're at it, why not take American jobs and spread them around the world to countries in desperate need of them? :-O All is not what it seems.
Last edited by BigCityDreamer; 10-22-2011 at 07:29 AM..
The NECESSARY federal workers (judges, for example) are not the waste.
The UNNECESSARY federal workers are wasteful and need to be fired.
We are pretty much in a depression with U6 unemployment and underemployment at 18%. This is not the time for a gilded age government. We can't afford it.
You mean to tell me that each "worker" in each of these agencies is absolutely essential during this time of crisis when REAL Americans (those who must show value to an employer or else they lose their jobs and the unemployed) are just barely hanging on?
Why don't you go to the HQ of that program and tell the employees yourself you don't think they are essential? The target of your anger (borderline hatred if you ask me) is completely off base. You keep attacking middle class workers (and now they're not "REAL" Americans, give me a break ), using your massive assumptions that half of them sit there and do zero work, and then decide you know everything that's "essential" and what is isn't. If you are so mad about misguided federal spending talk to your CONGRESSMAN and if you hate the agency you linked to so much write to the CONGRESSMEN who voted for the legislation that created it. Don't sit here and act like the regular middle class people who saw a job, applied for it, and for all we know go to work and do their jobs everyday are lazy, greedy, and unessential. That is an ASSUMPTION. Which is what your entire argument is built off of.
If you will allow me, I will make one of my own. Your dislike (again near hatred) of federal workers stems from your political views and that your posts are simply a regurgitation of things you read in right-wing blogs or heard on TV/radio. You don't know many (if any) federal workers and you have no knowledge whatsoever of what 99.999999% of federal workers actually do, but it's assuring and reinforcing to your views to assume the worst about them.
Read closer. I said, in order to function normally in society. Most of our landscape is built around the car, forcing people to drive. Very few people could grow enough food for their family and still maintain a full time job / raise a family. To own anything, you pay interest (no matter how large the bank).
Of course someone can go live in the forest as a survivalist. That's not what we're talking about here. And you know what? That person probably wouldn't pay federal taxes with such a low income.
In the end - all of your superficial arguments have been dismantled. You're just regurgitating the same talk radio talking points that sounded so good to you in the echo chamber where everybody thought the same way. Federal jobs and money exist worldwide and across the nation and federal government always expands when the market contracts to try and soften the impact (the states that receive the most federal spending for the least contribution tend to vote conservative while the states that contribute the most but receive the least in return tend to vote liberal, just so you know).
You're using DC more as a bogeyman prop than anything real, I think it's time to accept defeat and move along. Your argument is the equivalent of blaming New York City for the entire banking industry simply because a lot of banks are based there. Such a discussion would really belong in the Politics and Other Controversies forum. I'm surprised Yac has allowed this to go on as long as it has.
Read closer. I said, in order to function normally in society. Most of our landscape is built around the car, forcing people to drive. Very few people could grow enough food for their family and still maintain a full time job / raise a family. To own anything, you pay interest (no matter how large the bank).
Of course someone can go live in the forest as a survivalist. That's not what we're talking about here. And you know what? That person probably wouldn't pay federal taxes with such a low income.
In the end - all of your superficial arguments have been dismantled. You're just regurgitating the same talk radio talking points that sounded so good to you in the echo chamber where everybody thought the same way but have have already been thoroughly disproven by several people and facts on here. Considering federal jobs and money exist nationwide and you're using DC more as a bogeyman prop more than anything real, I think it's time to accept defeat and move along. Your argument is the equivalent of blaming New York City for the entire banking industry simply because a lot of banks are based there. Such a discussion would really belong in the Politics and Other Controversies forum.
Bluefly, I agree with you that having the people of DC grow there own food on communes is unrealistic. But everything in DC is political, so I don't understand how you can say that anything political belongs in that Politics forum.
Bluefly, I agree with you that having the people of DC grow there own food on communes is unrealistic. But everything in DC is political, so I don't understand how you can say that anything political belongs in that Politics forum.
As I explained in the very post you quoted (you really need to read and re-read before replying to me), debating the pros and cons of the banking industry would be inappropriate on the New York City forum because the banking industry, though based in New York, extends far beyond it. This individual is claiming the federal govenrment is bloated. Fair enough. The federal government is spread throughout the world. It's not a DC-specific issue. I really don't grasp why you keep asking about this.
Agree, I am not going to lie, you make a good point, but again, my concern is in DC with a secretary making 80k. That (under any scenario) is unjustified because its based on tax dollars. If Larry Ellison wants to pay his exec 800K and give him/her a private jet, I am all for it, just dont do it on public funds.
Agree that the local economies out there are getting supported by the various federal locations, and that only should increase (by removing positions from DC).
You're missing the value of an industry ecosystem. Sure, you could spread the entire federal government out evenly throughout the country, but it would become horribly inefficient and raise costs exponentially just to handle travel, negotiations, etc. You can't impact government or legislate very well over conference call.
Similarly, we wouldn't have the technologies we have today without a technology ecosystem of like-minded industries huddled together in Silicon Valley.
As I explained in the very post you quoted (you really need to read and re-read before replying to me), debating the pros and cons of the banking industry would be inappropriate on the New York City forum because the banking industry, though based in New York, extends far beyond it. This individual is claiming the federal govenrment is bloated. Fair enough. The federal government is spread throughout the world. It's not a DC-specific issue. I really don't grasp why you keep asking about this.
I don't think the federal government influences the economy as much in those other places as it does in the DC area, though.
I don't think the federal government influences the economy as much in those other places as it does in the DC area, though.
Likewise, the banking industry doesn't impact the economy as much outside of Wall Street. It's still not a NYC-specific issue. It's an issue for another forum.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
), using your massive assumptions that half of them sit there and do zero work, and then decide you know everything that's "essential" and what is isn't. If you are so mad about misguided federal spending talk to your CONGRESSMAN and if you hate the agency you linked to so much write to the CONGRESSMEN who voted for the legislation that created it. Don't sit here and act like the regular middle class people who saw a job, applied for it, and for all we know go to work and do their jobs everyday are lazy, greedy, and unessential. That is an ASSUMPTION. Which is what your entire argument is built off of.
