Free Republic

As private sector salaries flattened over the last decade, military pay climbed steadily, enough so that by 2009 pay and allowances for enlisted members exceeded the pay of 90 percent of private sector workers of similar age and education level. cut The military gained its lead with annual raises from 2000 to 2010 that exceeded private sector wage growth and some extra increases in housing allowances to eliminate average out-of-pocket rental costs. Meanwhile, civilian pay growth stalled as markets collapsed and jobs disappeared. cut By 2009, the report says, average RMC for enlisted exceeded the median wage for civilians in...

Angel Mills worked at GST AutoLeather in Williamsport, Md., most of her adult life. She cut, inspected, packed and shipped leather upholstery until she was laid off in June 2003 as the company scaled back local operations and shifted production to Mexico. "It's sad. It's scary. I've been a factory worker all my life, and I didn't know what I wanted to do," said Ms. Mills, a 38-year-old Williamsport resident with a teenage son. But by March 2004 she was taking a half-year course to become a state-licensed massage therapist. A federal program that helps workers who lose jobs owing...

Publicly financed incentives of $50 million got Lazarus and Lord & Taylor to the center city but did not keep them. These are but a slice of the loser's strategy -- using public "investments" and "incentives" in an attempt to stimulate markets that already have signaled their desperate weakness. Instead, aren't investments into strength the smart business strategy? Pittsburgh is not unique. In Galesburg, Ill., officials trusted that a smorgasbord of tax breaks coupled with union concessions would save the Maytag refrigerator factory. Maytag closed in September, costing the city 1,600 jobs. Maytag is moving the work to a plant...