Government Employee Unions

delldude

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Oct 29, 2002
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How did America become broke and insolvent? How did we build up an unimaginable $115 trillion in debt and unfunded liabilities? How did we allow the American Dream to become a nightmare?

All we need do is look at the primary demand the Eurozone and IMF are placing on hopelessly bankrupt Greece to get their new $170 Billion bailout -- Greece has agreed to cut 150,000 government employees. Even Cuba's leader Raul Castro recognizes government employees are at the root of economic destruction, as he is cutting over 2 million of them to save Cuba from bankruptcy.

The truth is that government employees are the true 1%. We have far too many of them (21 million), many of them are paid too much, and their union demands are straining taxpayers to the breaking point.

They have become a privileged class that expects to be treated superior to the taxpayers -- the same folks who pay their salaries and pensions. But it is their obscene pensions that are the big problem moving forward for America.

How would you like to retire with $6 million? $8 million? $10 million? All you have to do is become a government employee to hit the jackpot.

You don’t believe me? Do the math.

I recently talked with a retired New York City toll taker. His salary averaged about $70,000 per year over 20 years. But in his last few years he worked loads of overtime and added in accumulated sick days to get his salary in those final years up to $150,000.

His pension is based on his final years' salary. This is a common pension-padding ploy.

He bragged that he will now get a taxpayer funded pension of $120,000 a year for the rest of his life. He’s only 50 years old.

The average 50-year old male has a life expectancy of almost 80. With automatic cost of living increases, that’s a bill to taxpayers of $5 million for the next 30 years --for not working. THREE TIMES WHAT HE EARNED WHILE WORKING.

And, of course, we’re also paying his medical bills.

No country, no budget, and no taxpayers anywhere in the world can afford this. Ask Greece.

But here's a frightening question- what if he lives to 90? Or 100? His pension could rise to $8 million or higher.

Multiply this times 21 million government employees (on the federal, state and local level) and you now get a sense of what is bankrupting America.

Are these stories the exception, rather than the rule? Over 77,000 federal government employees earned more than the governor of their state.

On the federal level, it was just reported by USA Today that the average federal civil servant compensation is $123,049 per year.

That’s more than double what private sector workers earn (average of $61,051). Since 2000, federal government employee compensation has grown by 36.9% versus 8.8% for private sector employees.

In Las Vegas (Clark County) the average firefighter earns $199,678 per year.

When he retires at age 45 or 50, we owe his pension based on that obscene salary. But here’s the clincher --when he finally dies, the taxpayer has to continue paying the pension to his spouse. Add up the damage to the economy. It is catastrophic. Talk about a 1 per center -- a single firefighter could retire with $8 to $10 million for not working for the rest of his life.

This is madness.

Now it's true that policemen and firefighters are heroes. But they make up a small portion of government employees.

Recent studies prove the average janitor that works for government makes over $600,000 more in his career than a private sector janitor. Are janitors heroes too?

Again, this is madness.

Three stories on the same day in this past Sunday's Las Vegas newspapers sum up this national outrage.

Let’s start with the Las Vegas teachers union. It was reported that more than a third of the union’s entire $4.1 million annual budget went to pay just nine union leaders.

The Teachers Union Executive Director received $632,546, while the CEO of the union-created Teachers Health Trust was paid $546,133.

So next time you hear educators scream that we must spend more money on education, because “it’s for the kids,” you’ll know the truth. It’s for the unions.

It’s always been for the unions.

Bernie Madoff has nothing on the government employee union scam.

Article number two in Sunday’s Las Vegas Review Journal was about those highly paid Las Vegas firefighters.

It turns out they weren’t satisfied with making almost $200,000 per year. They also abused sick leave, rigged work schedules to pump up their pensions, and appear to have engaged in widespread disability fraud.

About half of all Clark County firefighters retired with work-related injuries in recent years- garnering bonus payments averaging $320,000 apiece. That’s in addition to their obscene pensions for life.

Is this also "for the kids?"

Article number three in Sunday’s paper was about a now retired Las Vegas homicide detective and possible police brutality. It had nothing to do with pensions. But interestingly, the retired homicide detective they quote in the story is 47 years old.

He’s 47 and already retired?

Want to bet that you and I are on the hook for $5 to $10 million in pension and health benefits from now until the day he dies- for not working. Is this also "for the kids?"

I'll say it one more time... this is madness.

These aren't CEO types. These are average government employees retiring with the equivalent of $5 to $10 million. These are the true 1% privileged class that are bankrupting our country and destroying the once great U.S. economy.

Something is very wrong here.

No one has a right to complain about the high incomes of business owners in the private sector (the 1%). We rarely have pensions and our compensation doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime. We risk our own money to start our businesses and often work 16 hour days, weekends and holidays.

Yet for all that risk and hard work, do you know any small business owners who retire with $5 to $10 million? They are few and far between. But that’s exactly what a private sector employee would need in the bank on the day of his or her retirement to match the $100,000 per year pensions (plus health care benefits and cost of living increases) of government employees paid out over 30 to 50 years.

Keep in mind that government employees never risk a dollar of their own money. They have lifetime job security. And they rarely work beyond 9 to 5, let alone weekends or holidays.

Yet government employees are paid millions by taxpayers to retire early, often on pensions fattened by gaming the corrupt system.

They are the true 1%.

This is a national disgrace that is bankrupting America. The gall of this scam would make Bernie Madoff blush.

But hey..."It's for the kids!"

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/03/02/government-employees-true-1-percent/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz1p9iMJ3Ql
 
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More food for thought. Think how Austrian School Economics is once again a correct predictor! of events


Who's to Blame For California?

In so-called "March in March" protests, thousands of students in California universities recently demonstrated in outrage over spiraling tuition costs.

At both the California State University and University of California multi-campus systems, tuition hikes in recent years have far exceeded the national average. Meanwhile, universities slash classes, cut key research, and rely even more on exploited and poorly paid part-time lecturers and graduate-student teaching assistants.

Yet against whom, exactly, are these cash-strapped students demonstrating? After all, their college faculties are unionized, largely liberal and sympathetic to their plight.

Campus administrators likewise want more state money for universities. But, unlike the beleaguered faculty, their numbers by some calculations have increased 221 percent between 1975 and 2008. At CSU, there may be one administrator for every full-time faculty member. Why, then, were not the students calling for their administrators to return to the classroom, and thereby provide additional classes at reduced cost?

Do the students fault the governor and the legislature for unwise spending priorities that have led to funding cuts and tuition hikes? Not really. Gov. Jerry Brown is a liberal Democrat. Both the state senate and assembly are also overwhelmingly Democratic -- and have been for years. In fact, state officials largely spoke in favor of the student protests.

Are the students instead angry at the state's public employees, who on average make more and are better pensioned than their counterparts in other states? Or do protestors connect the state's escalating costs that divert money from universities with California's massive number of illegal aliens -- whether in terms of the soaring costs of social services, billions of dollars sent as remittances to Mexico, or the incarceration costs of 30,000 Mexican nationals in the state prison system?

Does state money allotted to other discretionary areas, from things like preliminary funding for envisioned high-speed rail to restoring salmon in the state rivers, come at the expense of students? More Food for the Lib Lemmings
 
Austrian Economic aye ? The BILDEBERGS (SP?) Anyone ???????

Would you care to explain just exactly how the Bilderberg Group and Austrian School Economics have any correlation? The Bilderberg Group or Conference has had the following among its attendee's:

Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland
Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands
Polish politician Józef Retinger

The above were some of the original founders.

Chairmen of the Steering Committee

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (1954–1975)[13]
Walter Scheel (1975–1977)[4]
Alec Douglas-Home (1977–1980)[13]
Eric Roll, Baron Roll of Ipsden (1986–1989)[14]
Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington (1990–1998)[4]
Étienne Davignon (1998-2001)[6]
Henri de Castries (since 2001)

Heads of state, including & Government Officials
Juan Carlos I of Spain
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands,
Greek prime minister Kostas Karamanlis
Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen
Sweden foreign minister Carl Bildt;
United States Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg;
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
World Bank president Robert Zoellick
European Commission head José Manuel Barroso;
Queen Sofia of Spain

Prominent politicians from North America and Europe are past attendees. In past years, board members from many large publicly-traded corporations have attended, including IBM, Xerox, Royal Dutch Shell, ###### and Daimler.

I'm not noticing ANY Austrian School Economic Professors in this group. In fact you'll note that Obama's Secretary of Printing Press money, Timothy Geithner has attended.

So I'm not certain what you mean.
 
Notice you do not have this problem w/ federal government unions.

Good luck attempting to overturn the state & local laws to prevent union abuse. Last year in Ohio the unions poured $30mil into the campaign to defeat Issue 5 and now the local cities and school districts are choking on employee costs.

I do not have any problem with union employees making a decent (even very good) living. My family is union.

But wrong is wrong.
 
Notice you do not have this problem w/ federal government unions.

Good luck attempting to overturn the state & local laws to prevent union abuse. Last year in Ohio the unions poured $30mil into the campaign to defeat Issue 5 and now the local cities and school districts are choking on employee costs.

I do not have any problem with union employees making a decent (even very good) living. My family is union.

But wrong is wrong.

Honestly, I think the assault on Labor is a bit wrong headed. Each of us as individuals have certain rights conferred upon us by our Creator. One of those rights is Freedom of Association. Individuals have the right to band together for any reason they so choose. This would include an organization whose sole purpose is to advance the standard of living of its members. So while there is no specific right to belong to a Labor Union there are the rights mentioned prior regarding freedom of association.

Every Public Employee be they Federal, State or Local has an administration that is duly elected by the citizens who create agencies, departments and staffing levels therein. This group usually known as Management bear the ultimate responsibility for the fiscal soundness of the Government entity that they are in charge of.

If Management created a work environment that caused the workers to feel they would be better served with a Union then that is a failure by Management to create a positive work climate. So the federal, State & Local Governments put themselves in a position to be organized. IIRC the Bible has a verse that applies here, "As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap" and every politician and government official who bemoans the cost associated with having an organized workforce need only gaze into the nearest mirror to see who is at fault.

It is permissible to go to the state legislature and attempt to roll back the gains made by Labor, but is it wise? Should Employees of the Government even be allowed to organize? A strong argument can be made that Government employees including teachers not being allowed to organize.

What IMO is required is some good old fashioned hard ball negotiating between the two parties. Governor Christie was far more successful in taking on the Teachers Union in NJ then Scott Walker of WI will likely ever be if he even survives recall. Truth is most politicians don't have the requisite level of testosterone required to do what's right for their workers and the public they represent.
 
Each of us as individuals have certain rights conferred upon us by our Creator. One of those rights is Freedom of Association. Individuals have the right to band together for any reason they so choose. This would include an organization whose sole purpose is to advance the standard of living of its members. So while there is no specific right to belong to a Labor Union there are the rights mentioned prior regarding freedom of association.

Yet airline and railroad employees under the RLA have no freedom of association. Union membership is compulsory.
 
Yet airline and railroad employees under the RLA have no freedom of association. Union membership is compulsory.

You can't undo RLA without undoing the entire apparatus of Government meddling, this includes prohibitions on strikes, secondary strikes, boycotts and also the abolition of agency shop laws. find me a politician with the cajones to do that?
 
Pensions are the No. 1 problem with state and municipal budgets, Tobin said. If it isn't fixed soon, the system will collapse, she added.

Pennsylvania's mandated pension costs will triple from $1.6 billion this year to $4 billion in 2016, according to Gov. Tom Corbett. That's a combination of retired school employees and state employees. Corbett is willing to tackle the problem after getting past this state budget on June 30.

Read more: Pension pot boils - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_786886.html#ixzz1pbZLaavq
 
Would you care to explain just exactly how the Bilderberg Group and Austrian School Economics have any correlation? The Bilderberg Group or Conference has had the following among its attendee's:

Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland
Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands
Polish politician Józef Retinger

The above were some of the original founders.

Chairmen of the Steering Committee

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (1954–1975)[13]
Walter Scheel (1975–1977)[4]
Alec Douglas-Home (1977–1980)[13]
Eric Roll, Baron Roll of Ipsden (1986–1989)[14]
Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington (1990–1998)[4]
Étienne Davignon (1998-2001)[6]
Henri de Castries (since 2001)

Heads of state, including & Government Officials
Juan Carlos I of Spain
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands,
Greek prime minister Kostas Karamanlis
Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen
Sweden foreign minister Carl Bildt;
United States Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg;
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
World Bank president Robert Zoellick
European Commission head José Manuel Barroso;
Queen Sofia of Spain

Prominent politicians from North America and Europe are past attendees. In past years, board members from many large publicly-traded corporations have attended, including IBM, Xerox, Royal Dutch Shell, ###### and Daimler.

I'm not noticing ANY Austrian School Economic Professors in this group. In fact you'll note that Obama's Secretary of Printing Press money, Timothy Geithner has attended.

So I'm not certain what you mean.

Don't fret. He's not certain what he means either !
 
Salary 'spiking' drains public pension funds, analysis finds

Approaching retirement, Ventura County Chief Executive Marty Robinson was earning $228,000 a year. To boost her pension, which would be based on her final salary, Robinson cashed out nearly $34,000 in unused vacation pay, an $11,000 bonus for having earned a graduate degree and more than $24,000 in extra pension benefits the county owed her. By the time she walked out the door last year, her pension was calculated at $272,000 a year — for life (retired at age 62).