Marcos Bretón
Posted on 12/21/2008 7:32:07 PM PST by SmithL
It's not a "budget crisis" in California that has Sacramento roiling in fear and loathing.
This is about who will get screwed.
Who will get pink slips from a movie star governor who is too much of a "girlie man" to beat Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, but tough enough to bully state workers?
Which city and county employees across our region will get furloughs from executives who kept spending as the economy tanked?
They played, you pay.
With your job.
You feel the knife they wrapped in a pretty bow of deceptive language. People aren't fired. They are given a "voluntary separation."
And let's come back to that word: furlough!
It's the newest F-word, isn't it? Back when our wars were righteous, a furlough was good. It meant a military guy getting a weekend pass to forget death was looming in the distance.
Today, when our wars aren't righteous, a furlough means a government employee working for less and worrying about unemployment.
You work for less today knowing you might not be working at all tomorrow.
Merry Christmas!
And let's face it: As we head into a darkening economy, employment and unemployment for government workers depends on where you work, whom you work for, and which union you're in.
It's like when the Titanic went down. It wasn't "save the women and children first!" as we'd all like to believe. Life and death was decided by status.
We've seen variations of this before. Remember when The Bee published the salaries of state workers and some people lost their minds?
Some howled it was an "invasion of privacy." But even more screamed when they realized that the idiot in the next department was making more money.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Marcos Bretón
In Colorado, old-time newspaper people called this “waving the bloody shirt.” Marcos seems shocked that even govt jobs may not be safe. Horrors!
Sad but hilarious at the same time.
Welcome to the real world.
Don’t worry, Marcos. Our taxes are being raised to save as many worthless government employees their jobs as possible....
A related F-word from an older generation “featherbedding”. Look it up.
Not surprising -- as he writes for a government paper, in a government town.
Increasingly, it seems that everybody in government -- or associated with it -- believes they have a right to their job. And that taxpayers are obligated to pay them...even before we pay ourselves. That, somehow, their's is a "higher calling".
Screw 'em.
Whew. I hope somebody is keeping this fellow away from sharp objects.
I work for the government. I certainly wouldn’t want to get laid off, but if I did and someone asked me how I felt I’d say the following:
“It was a privilege to work for the government for as long as I did. I’m thankful for employment in the past, but I’m not owed a job for the future. The people through their elected officials have the right to decide who to hire and who to let go. I respect their decision. Now, I shall begin the job search. If any of my fellow employees who were also laid off are whining about what happened, they need to grow up.”
Typically, Government employees vote the Leftist Democrat ticket in Kalifornicate — so they “hired” the bosses that screwed up the economy that is now costing them their jobs...
Sorry - but my “feel bad” is broke..
I have NO compassion for them at all...
I never hear Government Employees wailing over the economic realities that effect families in the private sector....
In a word - F'em.
(Except the Taxpayers of course).
There are a lot of state workers that don’t know what work is; they play. Time to cut dead wood. It isn’t going to be pretty when it happens to all these Obama Liberals. All across the country, Obama-loving Liberals will be crying to their Savior and asking “what happened, you were going to take care of us.” Gonna be a lot of Prozac needed.
I noticed the little hate-Bush plug about “when our wars were righteous but they are not anymore?’ After Jan 21, I suppoose our wars will be righteous again. Obama will have a choice to be like Bush and stand up and fight or be like Clinton in Somalia. What if casualties begin to pile up in Afghanistan? Will he allow potographs of caskets in the newspapaers? Or will the subject simply never come up? Will AP continue thier daily death count that is even printed in Stars and Stripes?
So he would rather have the state go bankrupt than to lay off workers? What dumb*ss! Is there a money tree planted somewhere that I am not aware of?
More Classy SacBee Opinion: Breton Tells Readers to have a drink & get over themselves
“This is America. Exceptional people doing highly skilled or grueling jobs should be paid well. If that makes you mad, go back to college, polish your résumé, have a drink and get over yourself.”
They will have to suck it up like everyone else.
It will be a severe case of buyers remorse. :)
HOW TO HAVE EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT AGENCIES: A budgeting proposal
There is a way to cut almost any state agency or department in half in about three years, with employees cooperating enthusiastically and willingly.
Most government agencies propose their own budgets for each fiscal year, and each new one is almost always larger than the current budget. Most agencies make sure that the current year’s budget has been spent by the end of the fiscal year. They don’t want to lose their funding. There is no incentive for savings under this system.
There should be a new budgeting policy for each department that would take any unspent, budgeted funds at the end of the fiscal year and split them among the people in the department.
Then, the lower budget figure would be used for the next fiscal year, with, again, any unspent surplus being distributed to the employees who made the surplus possible. Personal interest would have every employee watching for any possible waste. Retiring employees would not be replaced, and hiring of new personnel would be almost eliminated.
No money would be saved the first year, but after that, every department would have continuously lower budgets.
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