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Trump's Federal Pay Freeze Will Mean a Raise for the Rest of Us
RCM ^ | 09/05/2018 | John Tamny

Posted on 09/05/2018 8:13:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

“Without you, I’m nothing.” A version of the latter is frequently uttered by movie stars and athletes to their fans. Absent the individuals who buy tickets to their games and movies, or who watch them on TV, these celebrities would be largely unknown. And they would earn very little money by extension. Celebrities of the film, television and sports variety, along with businesses more broadly, well understand that consumers conduct a daily vote with the fruits of their labor. Without them, they’re nothing in the figurative sense.

What’s obvious to those who’ve won customers in the competitive markets is frequently glossed over by government workers shielded from market signals. If anyone doubts this, try walking in to a Post Office to speedily get a passport, or asking a government agency for help, or calling any agency in search of a quick answer. It’s a statement of the obvious that “government services” is an oxymoron.

All of the above is interesting given the basic truth that there are no government workers earning actual salaries absent private sector production. For one to say that government work is a direct effect of private sector wealth creation is to waste words so obvious is it. While big government and government spending don’t power economic growth, they’re certainly the result of it. The dollars don’t fall from the sky despite what some believe.

This is a reminder that government jobs come at the expense of private sector earnings. That the federal government costs $4 trillion per year means that Americans (and realistically, people around the world…think about it) in the private sector earn less. Government is a cost that limits savings and investment. If the federal government cost $400 billion per year instead, Americans would earn more. Probably a lot more since investment would surge.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: federal; pay; payfreeze

1 posted on 09/05/2018 8:13:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Made 4 grand in OT...Tax man scooped over 1700 right off the top. It’s tiring.


2 posted on 09/05/2018 8:22:48 AM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd ( Flag burners can go screw -- I'm mighty PROUD of that ragged old flag)
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To: SeekAndFind

Obama gave them 50 years of pay raises


3 posted on 09/05/2018 8:23:04 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: SeekAndFind

“That the private sector can do much better (and at lower cost) what the feds aim to do is yet another statement of the obvious. Assuming a massive decrease in government spending and worker pay, whatever services previously offered by the feds would soon enough – if desired – be offered by the profit motivated. “

Depends entirely on the nature of the job. How, for example, would a privatized customs and immigration service work? Government military procurement?


4 posted on 09/05/2018 8:24:13 AM PDT by DugwayDuke ("A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest")
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd
It’s tiring.

Many years ago, my Dad would only work a fixed number of hours per year. Said that after a certain point, the gov't took 2/3 off the top. "What's the point?", was his valid opinion.

5 posted on 09/05/2018 8:28:41 AM PDT by wbill
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To: SeekAndFind

The author needs to learn brevity.

He uses 1000 words when 50 will do.

I couldn’t read past the 4th paragraph.

BLOWHARD!!!


6 posted on 09/05/2018 8:28:51 AM PDT by CarmichaelPatriot
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To: CarmichaelPatriot

I think he is being paid by the number of words he writes :)


7 posted on 09/05/2018 8:32:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: butlerweave

Actually, Obama had lowest pay raises for federal employees of any president, with a three year all out pay and COLA freeze, and no year from 2011 on with over a 1% total increase (which was much less than actual inflation).


8 posted on 09/05/2018 8:32:55 AM PDT by LambSlave
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To: SeekAndFind

No raise for me in my neck of the woods. Double digit local tax increases last year and this one. Fedzilla giveth and the locals and NYS take it away.


9 posted on 09/05/2018 8:34:03 AM PDT by mewzilla (Has the FBI been spying on members of Congress?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Federal workers are already scamming higher salaries than everybody else for comparable work.


10 posted on 09/05/2018 9:06:48 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: SeekAndFind

The health and wealth of a nation are inversely proportional to the size and power of its government.

-JAD


11 posted on 09/05/2018 9:25:31 AM PDT by Mr. Mohasky (Common sense in a world lacking any, will be perceived & construed as an extreme point of view.)
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To: Jack Hammer

Ha.
Don’t they realize that acc to Pelosi their proposed raise is just crumbs?


12 posted on 09/05/2018 9:35:56 AM PDT by Karoo
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To: SeekAndFind
Trump's Federal Pay Freeze Will Mean a Raise for the Rest of Us

There is something obscene about Elected Criminals setting their own salaries.
Even using the tricky automatic, but option to not get it gimmick...
Chech the congressional vs the Medicare COLA amounts for the last ten years...

Check the debates before the passage of ANY congressional pay raises; the shuck and jive is nausea-inducing with words like the "Character," "ethics," principled" being tossed around by criminals who have never suffered under the listed abused virtues.

13 posted on 09/05/2018 9:56:53 AM PDT by publius911 (Rule by Fiat-Obama's a Phone and a Pen)
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To: Karoo

Crumbs x a million superfluous employees = Big Bucks.

And the American taxpayer is footing the bill.


14 posted on 09/05/2018 10:12:50 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: SeekAndFind

Look up “naive”.


15 posted on 09/05/2018 11:39:30 AM PDT by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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To: SeekAndFind

He should use the RICO Act to recover taxpayer money from ill-gotten pensions.

Or he could tax federal worker pensions at 90-100%.


16 posted on 09/05/2018 2:03:32 PM PDT by UnwashedPeasant (Trump is fixing the world's problems just to distract us from Russia.)
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