Posted on 09/08/2010 7:31:01 AM PDT by Poundstone
There were fewer federal civilian workers in 2009 than in 1990, 1980 and 1970. It helps to understand what tax dollars are paying for so that people have some perspective of what they are buying - as in this case homeland security and wars. After 9/11, the public was demanding the federal government do something. It did -- and it took people to manage it. That puts much of the criticism leveled at the federal government into perspective.
(Excerpt) Read more at wiredworkplace.nextgov.com ...
Not really! It's the pay and benefits. Why should "public servants" make, on average, over twice what the public sector makes?
In fact, it proves that we are getting less for more...
I also notice the article doesn’t take into account “contract workers” (read: political cronies).
“Federal” and “worker” are two terms that are mutually exclusive.
Perhaps the author might try using the phrase “Gubmint slackers” or “Federal parasites”.
I imagine that the rest of you can come up with something more accurate and fitting.
Not really. There are still far too many federal workers, most serving in agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, that should not exist.
Two points on this.
One, it doesn’t count the employees of federal contractors who perform services for the federal government.
Second, it doesn’t take into account the automation factor. Much of government work is bean counting and filing, this kind of work can, and is done more by machine than by government workers sitting in cubicles with their abacuses nowadays.
The statistics cited are far to broad to have much meaning. For example, prior to 2009, all the stats are in Census years. Does 1990, 1980 include census workers? If yes, then measuring only 2009 really is useless.
Also, what about contractors? Military? How many people in total are getting paid by Uncle Sam?
Finally - I live in NY. Even if the Feds don’t kill us, it is the State Unions such as SEIU, AFSCME, CSEA, etc... that will destroy us.
Who are you kidding? U.S. Postal Service numbers were purposefully omitted. This is the same USPS that lost $1.9 billion through the first two quarters of 2010 and is facing a deficit of approximately $7 billion next year.
At the same time the study that was hyped recently didn't include America's 7 million CEOs, nor did it include the top echelon in the financial management industry.
The deal is if you want someone with a valid Masters degree from a reputable school and 15 years experience in the field, you have to pay that person the going rate.
.Those pay rates are supposed to be the same in the federal government that they are in the private sector.
BTW, go ask your attorneys you keep on retainer if they'd work for the $125,000 per annum commonly paid to federal government attorneys. Listen to them laugh!
>Perhaps the author might try using the phrase “Gubmint slackers” or “Federal parasites”.
>
>I imagine that the rest of you can come up with something more accurate and fitting.
Personally, I like the term “assmonkies.”
Yep contractors getting paid by taxpayer dollars is as much a drain on the economy as if the government workers did it themselves.
Things like garbage strikes in cities seem bizarre to me. Where I live I have better than a half dozen different trash pickup companies to choose from with a whole range of services. If I don’t like one I can have another. If I wanted to blow the money I could even pay a couple of different companies for various services.
>> Really takes the wind out of the sails of the anti-federal worker crowd!
No it doesn’t.
This doesn’t even explore the problem of the trough-suckers unfunded pension liabilities.
Anyway, what the feds have shifted to is hiring lazy incompetent worthless bureaucrats to “manage” an army of contractors who do the real work.
Don’t try to spin it otherwise. I know better.
The federal government is a giant drag on our national productivity.
There are higher paid managers and specialists but they are few in number compared to most federal government agencies.
If you include USPS pay in the analysis, the average federal government pay drops quite a bit from that analysis.
Not all are sloths, and not all are parasites, but too many are one or both of these things. Also, there are just too damned many of them, period.
The United States is headed towards dissolution in a similar way to the Soviet Union, and for similar reasons. Too many unproductive apparatchiki and nomenklatura are prominent among those reasons.
How about overly confident that their gravy train will continue?
2010 is just the beginning.
Rinse and repeat until we have the representation to reduce Fedzilla to a mewling little kitten. Neither our wallets nor the sordid alphabet agencies are their playthings and we’re sick of being treated like servants.
You should determine the facts before opening your mouth ~
This would not have happened if there were laws prohibiting Government employees( Federal, State, County, Municipal, etc) from being represented by a Union. That is why this is out of control. Thank the SEIU, AFL/CIO and the CWA.
Who are you kidding?
The FACT is NONE of that money — ZERO — is in the federal coffers. It’s nothing but an IOU and the taxpayers are on the hook to make it good.
You know that. Why are you pretending otherwise?
Obviously you know nothing.
It doesn’t take the wind out of the sails. It doesn’t matter how many people they have if they’re not doing anything productive, they’re inefficient or ineffective, or they’re doing something they shouldn’t be doing at all.
Not so.
There are still about 75% too many.
The federal government has weasled its way into every aspect of our existence and then built costly and unweildly bureaucracies to support those extra-constitutional intrusions.
Tell me what bank account that USPS $75 billion is deposited in.
I suppose you think you can get America defended out of charity or something?
T-bils.
LOL! If there’s a Ridiculous Post of the Day award, I nominate yours.
That is the heart of the tale right there.
BTW, those “losses” are always made up by borrowing, then raising rates, then paying down the debt ~ it’s a system. You’ll get to pay for all of it because by law USPS is not allowed to make a profit or lose money.
It’s hardly ridiculous. Most companies in this country find it difficult to hire people without felony convictions. The US government simply doesn’t do it.
Whether there are too many federal employees depends somewhat on the particular agency and its mission. Some federal agencies act in support of DoD for example. DLA (Defense Logistics Agency) is a DoD supply agency that provides items needed by the military. A little known fact is that there is a similar civilian agency, General Services Administration (GSA) that also supplies items needed by DoD. DLA tends to supply weapons-related items, whereas GSA tends supply non-weapons related items that can also be used by other agencies like the Forest Service. Roughly 80 percent of GSA supply operations are in direct support of the military. Someone needs to supply the things needed by the military. The different branches of the service determined that it was cheaper and more efficient to delegate much of their supply needs to DLA and GSA rather than each service taking care of all these things by itself.
I recently moved from the largest defense contractor to the federal government. The pay is the same, the govt health plan cost me $20 more a month ... so that is a wash.
I have a 401K from the govt that mimics my contractor 401K and I dont even know if I will qualify for a pension.
None of the "feds make more than civis" articles ever break down the numbers into fields. Im sure a federal paper shreader makes more than a private sector one ... but an engineer or physist? Nope. The fed used to actually pay LESS ... now it is at least equitable.
My data point only ... cant speak for other fields.
“Lot of you guys with the big mouths are just jealous because your felony convictions keep you out of the federal workforce.
You should have thought of that before putting a gun to the head of that gas station attendant.”
****************
This post is far more eloquent than it seems. Truly, it reveals much - far more than the poster realizes, or intended.
>Lot of you guys with the big mouths are just jealous because your felony convictions keep you out of the federal workforce.
>
>You should have thought of that before putting a gun to the head of that gas station attendant.
1 - I have never been so much as charged with a felony; and even if I were laws such as The Lacy Act make it possible to commit a felony for “possessing a lobster.”
2 - I *have* served my country; 9 years enlisted in the Army [national guard component].
3 - I did not re-enlist because I did not want the conflict of “duty to the commander” & “duty to the Constitution”; the utter lack of Pr Obama’s vetting is quite disturbing considering that any enlisted person is responsible for providing proof that they are eligible for promotion should the S1 ‘lose’ or misplace the papers.
Way too many.
Federal retirees don’t have unfunded pension liabilities (unlike many state government retirees).
>I suppose you think you can get America defended out of charity or something?
What do you think the original militia was?
One of us is uninformed, and it’s not me.
Only a small fraction (<<20%) of federal retirement money is in treasuries or marketable US securities.
The vast bulk of it is in UNMARKETABLE securities — IOUs.
(Not that T-bills aren’t IOUs themselves in this age of extreme sovereign debt overhang.)
So, I’m right back to my original point: you government employees have not “funded” your gold-plated retirement in any real sense. It’s still a giant unfunded liability to drag the productive classes — and our children, and our grandchildren — down.
I noticed your uncalled-for snotty reply to another poster accusing him of being a felon. Well, congratulations, FRiend, on the wise life choice YOU made. Personally, I’d be embarassed to make my living stealing from society, but YMMV.
Do you consider social security an unfunded liability?
David Axelrod--you should try doing something productive today, like washing the grease out of your hair.
I do.
I mean look at it... {and yes, the reason it’s got no funding is because politicians said “oh! look at this big pile of money we have, we can use it now and not have to worry about paying it back for 40 years!”... every year since they moved it into the general fund.}
Yeah, it really is. I’ll add petulant, to boot.
I also think that in this post you reveal a low opinion of private sector workers and an inflated opinion of public sector workers, which IMO, is fairly representative of Federal employees.
Some of you need a serious attitude adjustment.
I don’t think the DOD civilian workers who have been killed or injured in Iraq, Afganistan and other hellholes would have appreciated your broad brush generalization of them. Nor would Federal Fire Service, FBI, CIA, ICE, FEMA or some of the many other Federal workers doing tough, dangerous jobs, very few people here would want to do.
Of course there is dead wood in the Federal civilian workforce but to paint all of them as “as******” is not just innaccurate, it’s blatantly ignorant and childish.
Speaking of FEMA, there’s some good deadwood to bulldoze into a pile and burn like an old fence row.
You do realize that most Federal workers don’t get big pensions anymore don’t you ????? For about the last 20 years, most Federal workers get a small pension but the majority of their retirement is paid from the Thrift Savings Plans (much like a 401k) that they contribute to and which the government will match up to 5%.
Sounds like you need a pardon. Better apply now.
BTW, folks, by common agreement of long standing we don't debate a couple of topics here ~ the need to eliminate the criminal code, and the business of the income tax not being lawful.
Just doesn't happen.
Congratulations! You are today’s winner of the “Willie Green Most Transparent Agenda” Award.
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