Class War How public servants became our masters (EXCELLENT READ!)

reason ^ | 1/29/2010 | steve greenhut

[milwguy]

The average federal salary (including benefits) is set to grow from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 in 2010, CBS reported. But the real action isn’t in what government employees are being paid today; it’s in what they’re being promised for tomorrow. Public pensions have swollen to unrecognizable proportions during the last decade. In June 2005, BusinessWeek reported that “more than 14 million public servants and 6 million retirees are owed $2.37 trillion by more than 2,000 different states, cities and agencies,” numbers that have risen since then. State and local pension payouts, the magazine found, had increased 50 percent in just five years.

These huge pension increases have eaten away at public finances, most spectacularly in California, where a bipartisan bill that passed virtually without debate unleashed the odious “3 percent at 50” retirement plan in 1999. Under this plan, at age 50 many categories of public employees are eligible for 3 percent of their final year’s pay multiplied by the number of years they’ve worked. So if a police officer starts working at age 20, he can retire at 50 with 90 percent of his final salary until he dies, and then his spouse receives that money for the rest of her life. Even during the economic crisis, “3 percent at 50” and the forces behind it have only become more entrenched.

[wintertime]

Government schools are the very essence of socialism. The government threatens the citizen with police action in order to collect money to pay for a service that parents want for tuition- FREE. Children learn this lesson every day they attend.

***THAT IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF SOCIALISM!***

No amount of school board participation can change this, or change the lessons that children learn about government power when they attend government schools.

And,...Yes, government schools are **government** schools! They are owned by the government. They are run by the government. They are funded through taxes collected by the threat of police action than only the government can call into action.

Neither are government schools “public”. Mc Donalds is public. If anyone in the public can get there and can put down 89 cents for a hamburger, they are welcome to use Mc Donalds. Our parks are public. **Anyone** willing to pay the entrance fee can use them.

Government schools are highly, highly restricted by neighborhood boundary ( for the most part) or by other government regulation in regard to which children have government permission to use them. This results in the most racially, economically, socially, and class segregated institutions in America.

There is absolutely nothing in the private sector that matches the segregation found in government schools. It takes government to impose and enforce this type of segregation. ( For example Jim Crow laws.) People normally wouldn't sustain this on their own.

20 years from now, if the Marxists get their way with our health care system, there will be idiots claiming to be “conservatives”. They will say they don't mind paying taxes for Department of Motor Vehicle style health care system. Hey! Doesn't the voting mob get to vote for it? Instead of trying to privatize medical care, they will say, we must work with the health “board” ( when we are not busy with the school board) to bring in concepts we feel are important.

Government schools must be destroyed not infiltrated.

We must begin the process. We must demand charters, vouchers, and tax credits to help build the private infrastructure. Then we must gradually demand that parents take over the financial responsibility for paying for or providing their own children's education. ( With taxes being reduced on everyone.) Eventually, all education would be privately delivered with charity paying for the poor.

[JasonC]

So don't pay them. Simple.

Legislatures are sovereign. They can zero any of this out in five seconds, all it takes is a vote, all that takes is representatives willing to do so.

[greeneyes]

Well, I guess I am just going to respectfully disagree on some of these points. My point is that since we do not have vouchers and all the other structure you are talking about, we should do what we can at the local level.

That does not mean stop trying to get vouchers etc-just realize that we are a long way from there, and not likely to get there, unless we break it down into smaller steps.

The biggest mistake that Obama has made toward achieving his goals(IGNORING THE STUPIDITY OF HIS PROPOSALS) is trying to go too far too fast, generating blowback. People in general, do not like drastic change to come too fast. Even if the ideas are good ones.(sometimes because they don't feel like they can really understand unintended consequences of the changes).

There is also a very big difference between the small rural school district and the large NEA schools found in urban locations, and I don't think it serves well to lump them all in together and demagogue the issue.

If a community wants to pool their money and provide education, more power to them. It's the outside influences I dislike-especially the feds.

With respect to charity providing education for the poor- That depends on the charity. When you look at some of the charitable foundations out there, I really am not sure I want to hand over education of poor people to their socialistic ideology. But again we will no doubt just have to agree to disagree on some of these things. Have a good day.