Life's tough for $144,000 garbage collectors

World Net Daily ^ | January 22, 2011 | Gene Koprowski

[Blood of Tyrants]

Health care and pension benefits for state and local government employees are out of control, experts are telling WND, and a new study by a think tank points to New York City as being emblematic of the fiscal crisis.

Taxpayers in the Big Apple are forced to pay $144,000 a year for salary, health and pension benefits for garbage workers, who are unskilled but unionized laborers.

Research by the Manhattan Institute, a think tank in New York, shows that when Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office after 9/11 the city increased spending on garbage workers' salaries by three and a half times the rate of inflation every year, growing the sanitation department budget from $1.3 billion a year to $2.2 billion.

[Lancey Howard]

...but $144,000 might be the same as $60,000 in the Midwest

Are you on LSD?

[madison10]

ALL I’m saying is the costs of living vary greatly and what the mid/average wage is for the coast(s) (Pick one.) are not the same. You know darn well the average price for homes varies greatly. Is that not the cost of living? So why wouldn’t the mean for the wages work on the same scale?

‘Course I AM from Michigan...the average yearly income used to be higher here.

[thefactor]

I live in Manhattan. A bottle of Bud at a bar costs between 6 and 8 bucks depending on where you go. It doesn’t cost that in the Midwest. I make six figures and it does NOT go that far.

[Big Horn]

The city will be vacant someday. does anyone in NYC make less than 100 thousand a year?

[madison10]

I live in Manhattan. A bottle of Bud at a bar costs between 6 and 8 bucks depending on where you go. It doesn’t cost that in the Midwest. I make six figures and it does NOT go that far.

Thank you for backing me up.

Then you add in the cost for heat, air, electricity, etc. and it COSTS alot. Some people, like our politicians, have no clue.

[bwc2221]

My guess is that most NYC garbage collectors do not live in Manhattan, but in one of the less expensive boroughs.

The same is true of Chicago. If you choose to live in “the Loop,” it's far more expensive than living in other parts of the city.

[pelican001]

Cost of living should have nothing to do with it. It should be simply supply and demand. Do you really think we need to pay garbage men $144k to get them to work?

[muleskinner]

Yeah, we know $100K doesn't go far in N.Y.C., but do these guys all have to have rooms at the Lexington House?

Anyway, the Gambino Family runs the trash collection business in New York. Peter Gotti, John's brother, was in the business.

[madison10]

My guess is that most NYC garbage collectors do not live in Manhattan, but in one of the less expensive boroughs.

How do you know?

[Gene Eric]

>> >> A bottle of Bud at a bar costs between 6 and 8 bucks

>> Thank you for backing me up.

You guys hangin’ out at the same strip club?

[madison10]

You living in Bug Tussle?

And I am NOT a guy.

[freekitty]

The water departments who usually bill for garbage too are little kingdoms all their own. Crooked to the core. The Water Boards are not even elected by the public.

[bwc2221]

I didn't say I knew. I said “my guess is.”

I believe you said you were from Michigan. So am I and “my guess” is that not too many garbage collectors live in Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills or the Grosse Pointes.

If a garbage collector chooses to live in Manhattan, it's not the city's responsibility to ensure that he can enjoy a life of luxury.

[Gene Eric]

LOL - I’ll be quiet now..

[Age of Reason]

Gee--you would think garbage collecting would be just another job Americans won't do.

[cpdiii]

Give a Rat [Bloomberg] a couple of million for his re-election and get back $900 million in "free" money.

It is easy to be a socialist if you are rich. But if you are rich and a sociopath, Marxism is even easier.

[thefactor]

Buds at a strip club cost $12.

A friend told me.

[US_MilitaryRules]

Awwwwe, and his earrings are so cute.