the boy isn't smart enough to understand the business model of a lemonade stand...
Posted on 03/01/2011 11:10:52 AM PST by JohnRLott
President Obama lashed out at Republicans Monday for having "denigrated or vilified" public union employees. Without collective bargaining and the ability to go on strike, he said we wouldn't be able to attract "the best and the brightest to public service." Are public employees simply the best and the brightest? Or are we simply lavishing them with much better employment deals than their private counterparts?
To measure how attractive a job is, economists study how employees vote with their feet -- that is, comparing the rate at which different categories of employees voluntarily quit their jobs.
Over the last six months, private workers have been 3.4 times more likely to quit their jobs than either state and local or federal workers. Indeed, no private industry comes close to the low "quit rate" for government employees. Manufacturing, which has the lowest rate, still faces twice the quit rate as the government. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
That's been my experience as well. Generally, 5% of the government workforce does 96% of the work. I'm a contractor for the Federal government. It pays well. Why does it pay well? Because most of the government workers a) can't do the work; b) won't do the work; c) can't be fired; d) all of the above.
I've had the government contracting officer of our group beg us not to give any work to a certain government "lifer" because he'll screw things up (he spends most of the day either checking sports scores or sleeping). So we do his work for him; he gets the credit, but I get a nice paycheck.
http://maciverinstitute.com/2010/03/average-mps-teacher-compensation-tops-100kyear/
Wisconsin School Staff and Salary Data:
http://dpi.state.wi.us/lbstat/newasr.html
btt
You want to know why a lot of these employees stink? Entitlements. Affimative action hire, veterans preferencee hir, etc.
I know in my own department we have the truly skilled professionals, then we have those HR made us hire due to said entitlement.
It sucks, because when people get hired without the skill set to so the job, the rest of us pick up the slack. That is definately one thing I would change about Federal employement. The other would be merit only raises and promotions (and demotions and firings).
really? you havent’ paid attention to the salaries/ bennies Wisc Teachers make?
the avg salary ( ty google ) for Wisc teachers is over 52k PLUS bennies.
Thanks for that post!
Well, I was looking for a source for the data.
Thanks for confirming my suspicion. I feel for you!
A friend of mine works in an IRS call center. Her job is to help people make payment arrangements before it goes further. (FYI people don’t fall for those we’ll settle commercials 99 percent of people can work it out themselves).
Her boss Geithner would be disqualified from doing her job as you have to have a squeaky clean tax record.
The scary thing is the highly qualified jobs we are paying less than the private sector. It’s the unsklilled that make much more than.
My brother is a highly respected IT professional (he’s one of those that if you’re in the industry you probably know who he is) and he applied for a position with the state of Illinois. He would take a 20 percent cut and those in IT with highly sought after skills would.
Takes my breath away. This is “Atlas Shrugged” in real life. Not even trying to hide it anymore.
I have long stated that liberals will tell you exactly what they want to do, you only have to listen. Sometimes you have to be patient and wait for them to let it out in an unguarded moment, but they are incapable of keeping their intentions bottled up forever. Their arrogance and pride forces them to blurt it out in the equivalent of a Perry Mason confession (to paraphrase Ann Coulter)
That statement speaks volumes and clearly illustrates what we all know, that he is completely ignorant of the mechanics of a capitalist economy.
To those of us who paid attention from the time this guy came on the scene, none of this is surprising.
It is just stunning to see him so casually remove his mask for all to see. He did it in the election with his “Joe the Plumber” moment, but...look at that. It did nothing to slow him down, so he probably figures he can let it all hang out.
Even if the workers were slaves, it takes capital to operate with them. If forced by edict, that other companies had to do business with them, they themselves require capital.
If everyone were paid the same amount, money would still be limited as to what could and could not be purchased.
If $$$= time, time can only buy so much time. 1 hr of one mans time is 1 hr of another mans time. A man works 40 hrs, he can buy 40 hrs of food that a farmer worked 40 hrs for, but has nothing left for the tradesman to build a house, or a teacher to teach a child etc.
If a teacher cannot be paid 40 hrs of labor, they can't pay anothers labor. Money can be printed, BUT hours of work are fixed. $$$ is just the way we quantify labor or industry. The moment one arbitrarily creates more money, one creates imbalance (inflation). One person labor is devalued while another is increased.
Simple economics, which Obama has failed at. Just like everything else he touches.
Perhaps we could sublet personnel management to Tony Soprano?
the boy isn't smart enough to understand the business model of a lemonade stand...
LOTS of good information in this thread
The retirement age is a big factor, as you described. These accumulated costs will drive a municipality into the ground, as nobody wants to move to an area where much of the tax revenue has to be spent on these benefits for people who retired years ago. One of the articles here a few months back highlighted a racial aspect to this, as a city fought to get out of its pension obligations; the enitre council was black, the retirees were white, and the city was unable to meet current obligations (civil servant salaries) due to obligatory payments to the latter.
In the same manner that the costs of retirees’ benefits dragged down GM, it is dragging down these towns. If 25% of the cost of your new car is to pay somebody who retired 15 years ago, how can GM compete with other auto manufacturers? Along the same lines, what corporation or taxpaying individual wants to move into an area where a similar portion of your current tax bill is for the same purpose?
“He would take a 20 percent cut and those in IT with highly sought after skills would.”
He would also work AT LEAST 20% less hours, with real holidays & vacations, and have “tenure” (his job wouldn’t be sent to Bangalore - at least under the old system). Somebody is working those state jobs, and for a reason.
“Rush keeps saying the Wisconsin public sector workers are paid twice as much as private but that is clearly not true.”
As far as public school teachers are concerned it certainly could be; here in NJ they can make twice as much just in straight salary, never mind the benefits.
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