Posted on 06/13/2012 7:20:41 AM PDT by REPANDPROUDOFIT
Have you ever heard anyone analyze how many private sector workers it takes to support the cost of one public sector worker? That is what Republicans should be emphasizing when Obama calls for growth in the public sector! Stop letting him pretend that only the rich will be affected by the increased tax needs.
When Obama says we need to grow the public sector, people yawn, complain and move on. Republicans need to emphasize how it affects them specifically.
I estimated that both average workers would pay approximately $10,000 a year in taxes (using a generously low 20% rate for each). So, the public worker gets $47,500 plus $32000 in benefits for a total of $79,500. Take away the taxes that worker would pay and you still have approximately $70,000 that needs to come from people in the private sector. If the average private sector worker pays $9000 in taxes, it would take 8 people working a full year to pay for that one government worker's salary!
You can tweak the numbers, but it still means a lot more to people when you spell out how many people it takes working in the private sector to pay for one government worker.
Politicians and statisticians love to make a similar comparison when it comes to Social Security and Medicare. They point out that soon we will have only three people in the work force for each person on those plans.
why not apply the same stats to paying government salaries?
Politicians and statisticians love to make a similar comparison when it comes to Social Security and Medicare. They point out that soon we will have only three people in the work force for each person on those plans.
Why not apply the same stats to paying government salaries?
A private sector worker can expect to pay dramatically more money for his health care coverage in the future. The same is not true of a government worker.
The inequity will get worse and worse as personal health care costs go up.
Another fave lib statistic is that it costs the same $40K per year to house and feed a jailbird in prison as it does to send one to Harvard. The conclusion they want you to reach is that we should send them all to Harvard.
Of course, the other side of the coin is that the average career criminal costs society about $250K annually in crimes of various sorts, so $40K is a bargain. Paying a $1000 bounty to armed citizens to get them off the street would be an even better bargain: $3K, one for the bounty, one for the cost of the cops and the morgue to process the case, one for the crematorium.
Outstanding point!
I’ve always heard that it takes 5 private sector workers to support one freeloa... err, one gubermint employee (on average).
He has it exactly bass ackwards. The private sector supports the public sector, not the other way around.
The one which would resonate with me (but is disturbingly absent) is the old Reagan talking point about “getting government off our backs”.
Get them out of how much water is in my toilet, what sort of light bulbs I can use, how big my cup of soda is, how much salt they can put on my french fries, putting rat-me-out black boxes in my vehicle, etc. etc. etc. etc. ETC.
A whole heap of votes to be gained with THAT one.
I listen for Romney but hear crickets.
Of course ...
But CONSERVATIVES are not missing them!
I tend to think that I stay in touch with what is going on a I feel pretty well informed on the news of the day. I've never heard anyone make the connection between how many private sector workers and retirees it takes to pay for one government worker or retiree!
Good point! Of course, "conservatives" are already pretty much committed to Romney. The Republican Party needs to be trying to connect with the uncommitted and independents who want a very succinct message that applies directly to them!
And when is the media or anyone going to finally notice that food prices are skyrocketing. With the disastrous report this week that the average worker/retiree has lost about 30% of their net worth, you would think someone would dissect what has happened to the buying power of what money we still have. Gas, health care and food prices are eating up a much larger portion of a much smaller net income.
On the other hand, if you are a government worker, your income has steadily risen because of automatic COLAs.
Listen to Rush. He was the first person I heard mention it although he didn't say anything about retirees.
Most government workers and retirees get a guaranteed COLA raise, usually about 3% a year. Would someone please assess the average income of private sector workers and what has happened to it in the last three years. The, compare it to the average of gov. workers and what has happened to theirs in the last three years. I would assume their average income has INCREASED, while the average private sector worker is losing money.
Yes, Rush comes close. Problem is Rush listeners are pretty much already committed to Romney. We need succinct messages that impact independents and undecideds on a personal level! They may or may not listen to Rush! They want to hear it from Romney and the Republicans.
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