Posted on 03/08/2011 7:56:59 AM PST by Poundstone
When Erin McFarlane looks at public workers, she sees lucrative pension benefits she doesn't ever expect to get. And it makes her mad.
"I don't think that a federal employee or government employee is worth any more than anybody else who does their job and does it well," said the Slinger, Wis., woman. She's been working a couple of bartending jobs since January, when she was laid off from her job at a Harley Davidson plant after almost a decade.
She's not alone in seeing public servants as public enemies in some ways.
It's a case of pension envy.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
It is an important distinction.
Yes, all debt (Federal and State) is killing our country and economy, but here is the significant difference between the two:
1. State debt is caused primarily by the excessive cost of funding public employee union members (teachers, state workers) salaries, health care and pensions.This has caused states to increase taxes (property, sales, personal property, etc) in that state, which is killing local residents.
2. The primary cause of Federal deficits is entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all other welfare - SNAP Food Stamps, EBT cash transfers, Section 8 housing, unemployment benefits, etc).
That is one helluva difference. Federal salaries and pensions are a drop in the massive debt bucket. Slashing them might make people feel good, but it won't do a damn thing to stop the bleeding.
The states are an entirely different story. NJ, NY, IL, and CA are all on the precipice of doom because of pensions, salaries, and health benefits to workers. Period. The Federal government is broke because of entitlements.
The states can have their own currency! So can all banks in the US, (they once did!) and even people. They just can’t counterfeit US currency. And, the Constitution says that a state’s money would have to be gold or silver coin, although if it were paper actually BACKED by real gold or silver, the Courts might approve that.
“Who comes in second? And what is the amount of his/her annual salary?”
Chief Justice of the Supremes?
Not even close...but he is in the top 10.
Care to try again?
Yes, nail meets hammer, you are exactly RIGHT!
” Contrary to the official ideals of equality and a classless society that the ruling communist regime espoused, the USSR created a privileged class of party members inside government ...”
Basically, we are very close to that, and heading closer.
The US has become the United Commie Stats of America, UCSA!!
Or whatever acronym you chose.
Equal Protection before the law, and in this societies structure has been turned on its head.
From pensions, to Deathcare, to taxes, they exempt themselves while WE PAY.
THIS IS NOT AMERICA ANYMORE!!!!
/rant off
Utah has just passed a law doing just that.
I saw it here yesterday.
Bartender? Sounds like she’s just blaming everybody else for the fact that she failed to learn the skills to get a better job.
Well said, SkyPilot. Bravo.
I am going to guess the Head Football Coach at West Point Academy?
Leftists are nothing but a bunch of spoiled worthless brats who don’t even do their jobs well. They insult the very people who pay their salaries.
If these Wisconsin thugs get their way one last time then America is destroyed forever. We let them shove us around for too long.
Spasmodic silliness. Who will use gold to pay their debts when the recipient must accept dollars. The Utah legislature apparently has never heard of “Gresham’s Law”.
$2000 a month could have been somebody’s LIFE! That’s almost enough to pay for life support for some child in some hospital and these selfish useless prima donnas are getting it simply for being useless lazy idiots. I know a poor hispanic family in Hartford, CT who would have been eternally grateful if the government spent even so much as a single payment of that $2000 for their child’s medical treatment. Meanwhile, some spoiled punk is getting it and is not only UNGRATEFUL but harbors a burning hatred towards its benefactors.
Imagine if we took that 15+ trillion in debt and put it towards the advancement of science and humanity! We’d be disease free and living on ****ing Mars!
These leftists parasites need to be hunted down and made extremely uncomfortable. The next leftist I meet will be beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die. These are NOT our fellow citizens. They are criminals of the worst order and need to be treated as they deserve to be treated.
Yes, arrogantSOB, who will use gold?
Maybe nobody, maybe lots of somebodies, when the dollar dies, that is.
Gresham’s Law, well, has the Bernank heard of it either?
How many trillions have been created since Ozombie?
Yes, silly gold. Been money a lot longer than the fiat $US dollar, hasn’t it?
very silly indeed, ha.
This is stuff that has been known since the 16th century when there was actually a sort of gold standard.
No one will use gold in Utah because it is extremely inconvenient, difficult to make change for and varies in value day by day. It would be a nightmare.
What would establish the value of the day? CNN, Fox News, Blomberg, the CBOE? It is laughable to see the legislature wasting its time on such an issue.
It is the ignorant pandering to the more ignorant something unfortunately not confined to the Left.
If the dollar declines precipitously then the use of gold will become even LESS likely since its value would be constantly increasing. So no intelligent person would willing spend an appreciating asset when there is a depreciating one to use. Bad money drives out good.
What world are you living in 2Gs won’t keep someone on life support for a week much less a month probably not even a DAY?
Ignorance and insanity is a dangerous combination.
I guess the dollar doesn’t change day by day, eh?
Or is it so much better to have savers destroyed by the inflation so that what a dollar was worth when it was saved, is no where close to the worth it will have when it is spent. Just wonderful for the elders!!!
blah, barf.
bttt
Changes in the dollar/foreign exchange rate are gradual and more in tenth of cents or cents per day so it is imperceptible and relevant in the short run only wrt exporters and importers since foreign exchange is not legal tender within the US. Whereas gold would be in Utah.
What would happen would be that gold would be drained out of Utah by speculators from elsewhere since gold/dollars would be convertible.
Since the vast majority of wealth in the US is in a small number of hands(say 10% owns 70% of the wealth or more) its depreciation is not as significant for the rest of the population as would be a credit freeze or contraction which gold would ensure. Moving to the gold standard would collapse the economy which has far greater consequences politically than slow inflation. In particular it would mean Class Warfare on a scale not seen since the 30s and the takeover of the Democrats for the next 20 years.
Don’t you know anything about economics or economic history? It was the renewal of the gold standard by the British in the twenties which brought it the depression several years earlier than in the US. Roosevelt recognized eventually that getting off the gold standard was the first step toward reigniting the economy after the depression spread to this country.
Without doing that there was no way of exporting enough to help since by doing so ignited trade wars because it drained specie from the importing countries which weakened their economies. With floating exchange rates this does not happen.
You and the anti gold bugs are all the same.
Gas goes up like it does BECAUSE THE DOLLAR IS GOING DOWN, for now at least. There might get one more bounce from a market crash, but how many times can they get away with doing that?
We are in danger because a currency crisis does not result in “slow” inflation, it is a currency event that creates *hyper* inflation.
Look, I don’t like what is going on, and I don’t trust
Fiscal Moron Ben. He IS destroying the dollar. How much more do you think the rest of the world is going to put up with his deceit? Forever? THAT is historically unrealistic.
The Depression here was caused by A CREDIT BUBBLE!!!
Just like NOW, it is a contraction CASUED by the bubbles blown by Greenspan.
I despise the disingenous arguments that only protect the TBTF banks. If you want to defend those frauds, have at it.
BARF
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