This article makes me sick. Our congress and senate have a single digit approval rating, yet their staffers receive extraordinary compensation. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35050.html
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your title is so misleading. mainly because it makes it seem as if all government employees have it made, which is hardly the case. gotta love the fox news style of wording.
Gotta believe you're either unaware or a government worker. I've been around many over the years in several different fields and will tell you point blank, "they have no incentive nor enthusiasm".
quote:Originally posted by thomaswayne0907:
your title is so misleading. mainly because it makes it seem as if all government employees have it made, which is hardly the case. gotta love the fox news style of wording.
Fox news had nothing to do with this article. 2,000 staffers making over $100,000 is quite ridiculous.
quote:Originally posted by thomaswayne0907:
your title is so misleading. mainly because it makes it seem as if all government employees have it made, which is hardly the case. gotta love the fox news style of wording.
How is my title misleading? A few weeks ago there was a forum discussion on the average pay and benefits of government employees compared to the private sector on a comparative job basis. Not only did the government employee receive a higher salary but also benefits compensation as well. It was in the USA Today. Again, times are hard....if you are in the private sector.
With the cost of living in DC, a hundred grand salary is not a lot. I, for one, would not want to live and work there for twice that amount.
quote:Originally posted by paw-paw:
With the cost of living in DC, a hundred grand salary is not a lot. I, for one, would not want to live and work there for twice that amount.
In DC, "living" is hard to do in the city with the tightest gun control laws in the nation.
The DC cost of living is huge. The main problem with the federal workforce is that government is too large and there are too many workers. Much of the present civil service is older and have reached the end end of their pay bands and seniority steps. Come 2012, its a good time to reduce the size of government and say good-by to them.
Won't that be 'bout the time those 16,500 new IRS agents come on board to enforce Obamacare?
quote:With the cost of living in DC, a hundred grand salary is not a lot. I, for one, would not want to live and work there for twice that amount.
Cost of living is tied to wages. Artificially high wages drive up the cost of living.
DC, like NYC, has rent control, which drives up the cost of housing.
quote:DC, like NYC, has rent control, which drives up the cost of housing.
That too.
Howard had a lot of trouble with corrupt building inspectors and regulations applied to his home even though he had only two tenants - one domestic and one commercial. Many of the rules didn't apply to such small rentals.
I'm just curious, is it the Federal Government or the states that are paying the salaries of all these congressional staffers? If it's the federal goverment, Congress has become nothing more than another government owned corporation providing high level welfare salaries. There's a huge savings for the government 2000 staffers averaging $100k is $200,000,000.00.
Federal government pays their salaries.
quote:Originally posted by elinterventor01:
DC, like NYC, has rent control, which drives up the cost of housing.
For everyone else?
quote:Originally posted by longawaiting:
Gotta believe you're either unaware or a government worker. I've been around many over the years in several different fields and will tell you point blank, "they have no incentive nor enthusiasm".
You are wrong and an idiot for posting such a ludicrous (mis) statement.
Most government employees that I know and have worked with , and that is quite a lot , are contentious, hard working, capable, and do their jobs in the spirit of conserving the taxpayer's money.
You may not approve of whatever program they work for, but I can assure you , most of the workers do right for their employer ie: you and me.
quote:Originally posted by Fighting Illini:quote:Originally posted by thomaswayne0907:
your title is so misleading. mainly because it makes it seem as if all government employees have it made, which is hardly the case. gotta love the fox news style of wording.
How is my title misleading? A few weeks ago there was a forum discussion on the average pay and benefits of government employees compared to the private sector on a comparative job basis. Not only did the government employee receive a higher salary but also benefits compensation as well. It was in the USA Today. Again, times are hard....if you are in the private sector.
You worded it like ALL government workers are doing fine, and I know several that aren't doing as spectacularly as you implied.
quote:Originally posted by kperk014:quote:Originally posted by elinterventor01:
DC, like NYC, has rent control, which drives up the cost of housing.
For everyone else?
Yes, other non-controlled apartments are more expensive -- supply and demand.
quote:Originally posted by Fighting Illini:quote:Originally posted by thomaswayne0907:
your title is so misleading. mainly because it makes it seem as if all government employees have it made, which is hardly the case. gotta love the fox news style of wording.
How is my title misleading? A few weeks ago there was a forum discussion on the average pay and benefits of government employees compared to the private sector on a comparative job basis. Not only did the government employee receive a higher salary but also benefits compensation as well. It was in the USA Today. Again, times are hard....if you are in the private sector.
How many people in the "private sector" maintain a long-range air traffic control radar site? I guarantee the pay those people receive doesn't make up for ALL the things those guys/gals are responsible for. Some of those people have to do EVERYTHING at their sites. Some even are expected to live at the site for extended periods during certain times of the year in some locations. It's not a good thing for something to happen to the radar when air traffice inside that radar's coverage is heavy. Imagine 400 planes flying 600 miles per hour, being guided by stressed out air traffic controllers who don't have a radar picture to guide them. Private sector, private schmector.
quote:How many people in the "private sector" maintain a long-range air traffic control radar site? I guarantee the pay those people receive doesn't make up for ALL the things those guys/gals are responsible for. Some of those people have to do EVERYTHING at their sites. Some even are expected to live at the site for extended periods during certain times of the year in some locations. It's not a good thing for something to happen to the radar when air traffice inside that radar's coverage is heavy. Imagine 400 planes flying 600 miles per hour, being guided by stressed out air traffic controllers who don't have a radar picture to guide them. Private sector, private schmector.
This is nonsense. No one is saying government employees don't have difficult jobs, or don't work hard - although both may by true in some cases. What is being said is that their compensation exceeds their productivity. We don't know their productivity because it has not been priced by the market. However, when any comparison is made between government work and private sector work, the government is almost always paying more than the private sector, which makes for a safe estimate that the average government worker is over-paid.
quote:This is nonsense. No one is saying government employees don't have difficult jobs, or don't work hard - although both may by true in some cases. What is being said is that their compensation exceeds their productivity.
I think that it depends on the economic times as to whether or not guv'ment workers are seen as overpaid. When the economy is booming, it is the equally indolent unionized labor force in the private sector that does well, but when those workers are standing in the unemployment line, it pays well to work for the government.
quote:I think that it depends on the economic times as to whether or not guv'ment workers are seen as overpaid. When the economy is booming, it is the equally indolent unionized labor force in the private sector that does well, but when those workers are standing in the unemployment line, it pays well to work for the government.
Sorry, but I have to disgree with you. I'm not a huge union fan, but union wages didn't survive as long as they did without workers having a marginal product slightly higher than their wage. This NEVER applies to government workers, as their income is attainted via stolen money and not voluntary transactions.
quote:Sorry, but I have to disgree with you. I'm not a huge union fan, but union wages didn't survive as long as they did without workers having a marginal product slightly higher than their wage. This NEVER applies to government workers, as their income is attainted via stolen money and not voluntary transactions.
I agree that there are government services that are either best done by the private sector or not done at all. Where I disagree with you is based upon my time in both the private and the public sector is on the "sweat per dollar" issue. I have seen roughly the same percentage of over-achievers and slackers in both sectors. The difference between the private sector and the public sector is that some day there comes a crash-and-burn time for those in the competitive real world that someone in a government monopoly might never see.
quote:I agree that there are government services that are either best done by the private sector or not done at all. Where I disagree with you is based upon my time in both the private and the public sector is on the "sweat per dollar" issue. I have seen roughly the same percentage of over-achievers and slackers in both sectors. The difference between the private sector and the public sector is that some day there comes a crash-and-burn time for those in the competitive real world that someone in a government monopoly might never see.
Yeah, we're probably in agreement in general. I'm just talking about something slightly different. I have no doubt that there are hard working government employees and lazy private sector employees. Economic crashes have very little to do with what I'm talking about. Many government employees do things that that government has decided to do, and forced us to pay for. This means that their services have never been priced by the market, so even if they are very bright and hardworking, they're still probably over-paid. As a silly, but illustrative example, let's say the government decides to build some statues to honor some people, doesn't matter who. They hire a very talented, very hard working sculpter. Since those statues would likely never have been made in the private sector, paying that talented, hard-working person any amount of money is overpaying him. Now, some government serives would still be purchased if the government didn't provide them, but since we don't know what they are worth in the market, we don't know a fair wage. I tend to believe that the wages are too high in general for government work.
quote:Originally posted by seeweed:quote:Originally posted by longawaiting:
Gotta believe you're either unaware or a government worker. I've been around many over the years in several different fields and will tell you point blank, "they have no incentive nor enthusiasm".
You are wrong and an idiot for posting such a ludicrous (mis) statement.
Most government employees that I know and have worked with , and that is quite a lot , are contentious, hard working, capable, and do their jobs in the spirit of conserving the taxpayer's money.
You may not approve of whatever program they work for, but I can assure you , most of the workers do right for their employer ie: you and me.
That's not what I've heard from, guess who? That's right. People who work WITH you guys.