Posted on 03/29/2010 9:55:51 AM PDT by Poundstone
There is a basic assumption among many of us conservatives that bothers me. Basically, the assumption is that if a person is a government employee, then he or she is lazy and shiftless, a parasite just eating up tax dollars without doing anything.
"Bureaucrats" is what the sneering expression usually is.
To put it mildly, this is unfair and not even in the ballpark of what's true.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
As a former state employee, I agree that they’re not all bad. But I certainly saw a bunch!!!
read my tagline
Well, he is right about federal employes in general. The problem is that there are too many of them. Virtually every office is stuffed with too many employees.
The issue is not so much government employees, as it is unionized government employees, or in fact unionized employees of any sort. Unions take away the incentive to work because they make it impossible to fire unproductive employees.
The minute they started pulling down 150k salaries and retiring at 55 with 100% pensions, they became parasites.
They are driving the rest of us broke with their power to tax and spend.
If Ben is saying that government employees have the same output as private enterprises, he is nuts. It is not about the people, it is about the system and the systematic incentives to perform at optimum levels of efficiency. Government simply does not have the capability to operate as efficiently over time as a private organization built on profit generation.
I’ve worked for the Federal government most of my adult life - first as an Army officer, then as a Federal law enforcement officer, and now in the civil service.
I also worked in the private sector for a few years, so I’ve got experience in both sides.
There’s just as many lazy people in the private sector as in the government.
The difference is private sector workers get fired from one job and then simply move to another private sector job. They never leave the private sector or start their own businesses. It’s harder (but certainly not impossible) to fire a lazy government worker. Typically, they just get transferred to where they can do the least amount of damage.
Stein, ha. The faux conservative who contributed $2,300 to Franken’s campaign.
Oh, since you’re a fed, you look the other way, huh?
It must be terribly hard on you, what with the media and the party in control CONSTANTLY demonizing you? And the lifelong beneifits have got to be a grind too.
And learn to excerpt, liberal.
No doubt there a some good people working in the government but I find government all too often the preferred employer of activist liberal socialist control freaks who delight in saying "I'm only doing my job " as they hassle hard-working American citizens while ignoring the illegals and real terrorists who will fight back.
From personal experience, I can tell you nobody wastes money and talent as well as government does.
There are good people in government. Most of them can’t do good work for one reason or another. Bureaucracy rules are usually it, or funding to their particular area only covers people, not equipment.
But government has become its own stumbling block. It’s just a leviathan and it needs to be pared down. Processes and procedures are not optimized and people wind up being very inefficient and doing “work” for the sake of doing work. Can’t do real work, have too much busywork to do.
And people get conditioned to think this is just how things are in government, and they get used to it as how ‘normal’ government operates.
I'm a government employee, could you please point me to where I might find one of those pensions?
I can retire at 62 just like anyone else, and my "pension" consists of a 401(k) and 3% of my "high three" years.
Curious statement.
I would never consider a FIREMAN a “Bureaucrat”
I would never consider a POLICEMAN a “Bureaucrat”
I would never consider a PROSECUTOR or PRISON GUARD a “Bureaucrat”
I would never consider a DOCTOR or a NURSE at a VA hospital a “Bureaucrat”
Keep trying Ben.
And learn to not get confused on your words in the future.
CBS news, yawn. Oh, the poor babies with taxpayer-paid salaries and benefits.
Don't know anyone who confuses a CIA field officer or a fire fighter with a bureaucrat.
Don't you mean:
3% of my "high three" years multiplied by years of service?
I believe the reference is being made to CA state employees. Many county and local govt’s as well. CA is going broke because of these retirement “plans”.
I do believe you are confounding the term "full pension" with "100%".
A "full pension" is the one the law provides for the number of years worked, the basis upon which the payment is computed, and other factors such as separate contributions (something available to federal employees ~ just pay in more and you get out something doggone close to T-bill interest rates ~ this, btw, used to be the federal pension system. Wasn't until Roosevelt that the federal government even had something like a recognizable retirement system for its workers.)
State and local government pensions have no relationship whatsoever with the federal government system.
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