Posted on 08/26/2010 6:19:01 AM PDT by Poundstone
Federal workers have become a new flashpoint in the fight between Republicans and Democrats on the economy.
House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) this week blamed Democratic policies for exacerbating a gap in the pay between public and private workers that he claims was rising even as the country suffers through a housing crisis and high unemployment.
House and Senate Republicans already have offered legislation to freeze the salaries of the 2 million federal employees through amendments to economic stimulus bills being ushered through Congress by Democrats. Each effort has failed due to opposition from Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Hey. Finally the GOP is waking up and getting behind a good issue. They need to follow the Christie argument that its not fair for public workers to ask for pay increases from taxes paid by private sector workers who are getting pay decreases or getting layed off. Let’s see if they stick with it or whether they bounce to another issue next week.
Well, that happens to be true.
I can’t tell you how many times a government job has been recommended to me in my job search! In good conscience, I just couldn’t take ANY government job. My conservatism would get me fired.
You’d be surprised how many federal employees are hardcore conservatives.
I’ve met quite a few here on FR, by the way.
So effing what. It doesent take a degree to shuffle paper around. Half the Federal employees I know don't do sh&t for a living.
In Massachusetts, every town cop has his bachelors in lightweight “Krimical Justice” and a masters from some never heard of paper mill.
So, of course they’re better educated( not ).
Same with low quality,life tenure public edjamaktion teachers.
I don’t know what it is, maybe all the paper and printer ink dust, or what, but every time I walk into a state/county/fed building, I’m overcome with the desire to lay down and go to sleep. The lack of energy, life force, the lighting. They make the post office seem like a free cocaine den.
Our public servants have become our masters ping!
Why we allow public sector unions is beyond me. A great way to be ruled by those using our money and bankrupt the country.
Conservatism is about the only thing that will get you fired from a government job.
Perhaps the GOP will also focus on their own wages. We are paying them for a few weeks of work and the rest to carry on their inane campaigns.
I can’t tell you how many times a government job has been recommended to me in my job search! In good conscience, I just couldn’t take ANY government job. My conservatism would get me fired.
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I understand, but this is a tactical mistake for us. We, or our children, should infiltrate them when and where possible.
I’m one. Air Force civilian engineer. 6 years to retirement. Almost all the engineers here are very conservative. And half are outspoken Christians. We aren’t paid more than the private sector, actually less but the job security makes up for that. You have to pay us well for retention, you wouldn’t want a bunch of losers developing weapon systems. I would be willing to forego cost of living raises until things get better.
Not necessarily true. I’ve (unfortunately) worked in the public sector almost as long as in the private sector. Plenty of conservatives can be found, though most of them are older and retiring.
An old joke somehow seems appropriate here:
A fortune 500 company had purchased a very large piece of equipment that was not functioning properly. They called in their crack team of engineers, all highly educated and well trained, who then studied the machine, took measurements confirmed the materials were per spec,etc. But after three weeks, the machine still did not work.
They then hired a consultant, MIT, Phd. Two weeks of study, still nothing. Then somebody thought to call Charlie, now retired, who had put in 45 years with the company and who supervised the installation of the machine. The engineers were against it stating that Charlie never even graduated from high school.
The CEO, said: "Well, what could it hurt?"
They balked at Charlies demand to come out and fix the machine: $5,000.
Desperate they agreed.
Charlie was there the next day. He walked around the machine, peered into it and studied it for about an hour.
He then picked up a large rubber mallet and whacked the machine three solid times.
"OK, fire it up"
The machine worked perfectly.
The company balked at paying him: "How can you demand $5,000. when all you did was hit it with a hammer?"
Charlie responded: "You are not paying me to simply hit the machine with a hammer. You are paying me to know where to hit it."
So effing what. It doesent take a degree to shuffle paper around. Half the Federal employees I know don’t do sh&t for a living.
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My dad used to call degrees “union cards” when he tried to motivate me for academics. He agreed they really did not demonstrate expertise or superiority, but just recognized they are a ritual prerequisite for many jobs.
RadiationRomeo, given your job, your tagline is a little unsettling!
GOP better highlight the dirt of every RAT/RINO in this Congress and this Regime.
There’s enough dirt in this Congress and this Regime to build a mountain.
Same with low quality,life tenure public edjamaktion teachers.
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I agree with you on these. On the other hand, I do want a food inspector or civil engineer to have proven through some means that they have mastered their professions. This need not, however, be through the medium of indoctrination in a university.
You can thank the Supreme Court for that. Before the '70's a company could give someone with a HS degree a cognitive test (like the SAT) and if he did well they would hire and train him. But the SCOTUS deemed that "discriminatory", so now you have to spend 100K on a "college degree" to get in the door to many places where a HS degree would work in the past. .. Thanks a million, liberals!
Hee hee. No one has commented on my tagline before. I made that up and thought it sounded good. Yes, my role here is ‘thinking outside the box’, kindof like the lab girl on NCIS, weird but contributing in our own way.
"Our" government has many pathological feedback mechanisms.
"Listening to people advocate programs to solve a problem caused by the programs those people advocated--this would be as absurd as, oh I don't know, letting lawyers make laws."
- P. J. O'Roarke
What makes you think that government is capable of discern quality? They give high school degrees to everyone. Same as drivers licenses. Bernnie Madoff was inspected five, maybe more times. The US government was in charge of inspecting Chinese food. How’d that turn out?
Every butcher hack doctor has a state license.
BTW, 99 percent of all engineering work is done by unlicensed engineers. All your circuit boards, most of your aircraft design and build, most of the work on your chemical and petroleum plants, ship building even most of the work on skyscrapers.
If you want quality, you pay a company that invests in keeping their brand a quality brand. You pay them a premium.
That’s the way the world always works. You want, you pay. No pay, no get.
Paying government, well having it extracted by force, doesn’t motivate the government inspectors or bureaucracy. Their paychecks come in every two weeks no matter what, until they retire. Does that seem like a system that motivates people? Where they get their money no matter what? Where there isn’t a boss, or investors that will lose everything they ever worked for all their lives if they screw up? Is government motivated like that? No, of course not. Maybe it is because they are human angles and different then us.
Except by error, government is the low quality, late delivery of high costs goods and services. Always.
What this points out is that limited government is its own regulator of government employment. The government should not be doing as much as it is and having as many employees as it does. We are turning into late 19th Century Russia, where everyone's goal was to get a government job which was paid on the backs of the peasants.
I recently had to renew my driver’s license. I was dreading it. Florida is one of the first states to subscribe to the new federal requirements for issuing licenses. All my driving life renewal required little more than showing up, taking an eye test and living through the experience. With the advent of the Internet you didn’t even have to show up or take an eye test. Just log on, input your license number and click on the Pay Now button. No so anymore!
Now everyone has to make a personal appearance to renew a license. And they have to bring with them several pieces of documentation, not the least of which is a birth certificate or some other acceptable proof of citizenship. Also have to have your social security card and at two bills addressed to your home address.
They are good about sending you a notice a month or so before the expiration of your current license that provides a check list of what you will have to produce for the examiner when you get there.
I had an appointment for 12:15 and was in line about 20 minutes ahead of that time so I got to watch the guy behind the counter handling a variety of applicants. Most did not have what they needed. Those with appointments and the proper documentation were sent very quickly and smoothly on to the next step.
I am a pretty gregarious fellow and tend to engage those who serve me in conversation. It’s just my nature. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the guy was quite conservative! As soon as he figured out he had a fellow conservative to deal with he was very friendly. Same for the next guy I encountered. The third was very officious and I didn’t even bother to talk with him. All he did was take my money and hand me my new license.
I think you are quite correct in your observation that there are hardcore conservative in lots of government jobs. They’ve just learned to keep their head down!
I was very pleasantly surprised how quickly and painlessly I was able to renew my license! I have never seen the Dept. of Motor Vehicles in Florida get it done so well. Hats off to them!
Government jobs are attractive to those who seek to have power over others - this is antithetical to conservative thought.
This is why there are few. Ditto for “academia”.
Government jobs are attractive to those who seek to have power over others - this is antithetical to conservative thought.
This is why there are few. Ditto for “academia”.
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I do not disagree. Even in something as superficially simple and benign as elementary school teaching, I have seen some real head case penny-ante tyrants.
Imagine the results if elected officials and career bureaucrats had to take the psych evaluations that many police departments require. Scary.
That’s absolutely true; thanks for mentioning that! Our military troops are federal employees, as well as state (nat.guard), etc.. Also, there are a number of Fed. workers in our family who were somewhat to very conservative! I worked for IRS a number of years ago, and I consider myself a strong conservative. Also, my deceased Dad and my living Step-Dad are/were conservative! (stp.Dad is/was a southern dem., he’s republ. now, I believe)
After 25 years I just became eligible TODAY! Happy day, happy day.
Congratulations!
If you still feel like working after retiring from the federal government, I can tell you it’s a great feeling to have that monthly pension check coming in on top of your salary.
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