“those layoffs amd firings are still 180,000 family and individual tragedies”
Right you are. I don’t like it when certain Freepers insist on treating all public sector workers as if they are lepers and less than human beings with families and friends, just like private sector workers have. In fact such callous disregard makes me sick. There are public sector cops, military, health workers, teachers, etc. just trying to get by in life like anyone else, and when some Freepers paint with a broad brush they do a disservice to themselves and others with their mean spiritedness. Not particularly Christian in attitude.
I don’t understand the vicious and visceral hatred of all public workers. There are an over abundance of public workers that needs paring down, but one doesn’t have to be joyful at their loss of work and livelihood. It could happen to anyone, public or private sector. Go after the politicians, almost all liberals, who create such situations in the first place and the Union bosses who manipulate their union underlings to keep their own power and take their money to live high off the hog with so they can be just like the corporate elites they bad mouth. And then go after the Wall Street elites who thrive while Main Street suffers. There are plenty of people to go after without attacking the average worker bee out there, public or private.
He's put on PAID leave, pending an "investigation", which finds him not guilty. Courtesy of the union.
Ditto public school teachers, ditto mayors, ditto pretty much 95% of "public servants" who get caught doing rotten, illegal acts that would land a regular citizen in the pokey for a LONG time.
You're correct that not all public sector folks are bad. It's just that we see so much corruption. On a daily basis. Like the woman in California who's contract stipulates that she MUST be the highest paid employee in the county. 400K per year is just not ENOUGH for her. She wants MORE.
I DO like my postman, but he's a pretty stand-up guy.
Its not hard to understand. The private sector contributes heavily to pay for health insurance and retirement. The public sector doesn't. The private sector also gets to pay for the public sector. The public sector then gets all sorts of protections and special treatments. Maybe John Edwards was right, there really are two Americas. The public and private sectors. Throw in the unions and you have the trifecta.
“I don’t understand the vicious and visceral hatred of all public workers. “
Ask yourself what private employee is paid with funds that are source from money taken by force from private citizens.
Yes, some people work for defense contractors, or other companies working on government contracts. But no one has a beef about legitimate functions of government. But as others have posted, mix in the gold plated benefits, the can’t be fired job status, and the let’s raise taxes instead of lay off workers attitude toward bad times.
Once you think about all that, then you’ll have your answer.