Our Bloated Bureaucracy

It's not just the politicians, it's the government employees and their union-protected gold plated benefit plans.  Steve Greenhut details how government workers are cashing in at the expense of private sector tax payers.

Above Average Pay

According to a 2007 analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Asbury Park Press, “the average federal worker made $59,864 in 2005, compared with the average salary of $40,505 in the private sector.” Across comparable jobs, the federal government paid higher salaries than the private sector three times out of four, the paper found.

Gold-Plated Pension Plan
Here is what is breaking the states:

Public pensions have swollen to unrecognizable proportions during the last decade. In June 2005, BusinessWeek reported that “more than 14 million public servants and 6 million retirees are owed $2.37 trillion by more than 2,000 different states, cities and agencies,” numbers that have risen since then.

State and local pension payouts, the magazine found, had increased 50 percent in just five years.

He goes on to detail how many pension plans allow a worker to retire at 50 after 30 years and collect 90% of final salary, or over $60,000/year. 

In contrast, an E-9 with 30 years in the military retires at around $55,000 annually.  But that is the top-end exception.  Less than 5% of enlisted folks retire that good.  Most get out at E-6 to E-8 with less than 30 years, so these men and women who risked their lives for their country are looking at $25K-$35K per year, or about half of what the average desk-bound bureaucrat gets.

Government employment has grown three times as fast as the general population

The United States had 2.3 state and local government employees per 100 citizens in 1946 and has 6.5 state and local government employees per 100 citizens now.

Government now consumes almost half of the national income

In 1947, Hodges writes, 78 percent of the national income went to the private sector, 16 percent to the federal sector, and 6 percent to the state and local government sector.

Now 54 percent of the economy is private, 28 percent goes to the feds, and 18 percent goes to state and local governments. The trend lines are ominous.

If you didn't just gasp, go back and read that again.  From 1947 to now, government payroll's share of national income has doubled from 22% to 46%!

Government is necessary, and it takes people to man it, but how much is too much?  I think we've passed that point.

What Independents Want

David Brooks is a token "conservative" sitting on The Senile Old Lady's mantle above the fireplace.  Only the New York Times could consider this squishy middler (but quite good writer!) a conservative.

He's a good enough guy.  I read him often, and I even agree with him sometimes.  I really like this:

If I were a politician trying to win back independents, I’d say something like this: When I was a kid, I had a jigsaw puzzle of the U.S. Each state was a piece, and on it there was a drawing showing what people made there. California might have movies; Washington State, apples; New York, fashion or publishing. That puzzle represented an economy that was diverse and deeply rooted. 

We’ve lost that. First Wall Street got disproportionately big, then Washington. It’s time to return to fundamentals. No short-term fixes. Government should do what it’s supposed to do: schools, roads, basic research. It should not be picking C.E.O.’s or setting pay or fizzing up the economy with more debt. It should give people the tools to compete, not rig the competition. Lines of restraint have dissolved, and they need to be restored.

 Amen!  The Feral Government needs to retreat behind its constitutional boundaries and free the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in state and local communities.  One size does not fit all, Nancy!  As for Wall Street gamblers and inept car manufacturers?  Freedom also means the freedom to fail...

NY Times - David Brooks