Myth of the greedy public-sector workers

[Hannah Bell]

POLITICIANS AND the media have found a new scapegoat for the economic crisis and the savage budget cuts being carried out by state and local governments: public-sector workers and their unions.

It turns out the problem all along was overpaid and underworked government workers. You know--all those teachers and firefighters and social workers. And especially the retirees selfishly living large on a fat government pension.

"We have a new privileged class in America," Indiana's Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels told Politico. "We used to think of government workers as underpaid public servants. Now they are better paid than the people who pay their salaries."

Unbelievable. But these claims aren't just coming from Republican jerks. Earlier this month, the liberal New York Times ran an article about the "coming class war"--but in its upside-down world, the greedy villains were teachers and bus drivers, not Wall Street bankers or corporate CEOs:


"The haves are retirees who were once state or municipal workers. Their seemingly guaranteed and ever-escalating monthly pension benefits are breaking budgets nationwide. The have-nots are taxpayers who don't have generous pensions. Their 401(k)s or individual retirement accounts have taken a real beating in recent years and are not guaranteed. And soon, many of those people will be paying higher taxes or getting fewer state services as their states put more money aside to cover those pension checks."

http://socialistworker.org/2010/08/18/greedy-government-workers-myth


Surreal... More surreal, the fools who join the oligarchs in grinding down the last vestiges of the organized working class.

[Mugweed]

1. They've obviously never worked as public servants

I worked for 8 years as an engineer for the state. During that time I rose to a management position where I could not advance any higher without being part of an inner circle where positions are no longer advertised and are filled by who you know and not what you can do. I had to leave for private work because:

1) I was getting paid about $30,000 to $50,000 less per year than private consultants providing the same kind of services.
2) During years we were lucky enough to get "cost of living" increases in salary (which never matched the actual increase in the cost of living), I got the same increase as the lump of turd who did the bare minimum requirements of the job...and did them poorly enough that I had to constantly make up for the lack.
3) I got tired of being constantly excoriated by the public for not doing exactly what they demanded...despite my clear explanations that the laws of the state did not allow me to do what they asked.

[CTyankee]

5. I think the RW would say "Well, at least you got a pension and great health insurance."

It's the politics of resentment, turning one member of the working class against another.

My husband was laid off by the city after 10 years service. His pension is pitiful. His health care coverage will only last a few more months until his 70th birthday, then we'll have to get our own supplemental insurance at more than double the cost.

I have heard of some really out of whack pensions for city workers and obviously those need to be fixed going forward. But most everybody I know who is a retired government worker (state, local and federal) are living in modest homes and not doing a lot of traveling or buying fancy cars.

This whole war on working people just stinks with RW odor...

[Mugweed]

11. Pension?

Where I was, you were only eligible for pension after 6 years of service. At a single digit percentage of the average of my 5 highest salaries (which never exceeded $50K), I can expect maybe a check for $100/month pension if I ever live to 65. I'm not banking on ever getting it. I'm sure the state will screw me out of it somehow. They have another 23 years to come up with an excuse.

I used to think of government work like religion: you have to take a vow of poverty, but after a long life of devoted service there will be great reward. Then I got that letter from Governor Jeb Bush stating "the days of staying in one position for 30 years are gone". He promised to cut government employees by 25% and increase the remaining salaries to be competitive with private industry. He did the first one...then never quite got around to the second part. Last I heard, everyone at the state making over $40K was given a 5% cut in salary.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. The day is young, but I nominate this as Best Sentence So Far on DU:

>>>Earlier this month, the liberal New York Times ran an article about the "coming class war"--but in its upside-down world, the greedy villains were teachers and bus drivers, not Wall Street bankers or corporate CEOs:>>>>

Or sentence fragment, to be technical.

It speaks volumes in just a handful of words.



Of course, this is not bad either:

>>>More surreal, the fools who join the oligarchs in grinding down the last vestiges of the organized working class.>>>>>

[Scruffy1]

8. I love that last phrase

But to call the New York times liberal is laughable in my opinion. They are just a corporatist rag.

[Smarmie Doofus]

9. Ain't it beeee-you-teee-ful? And, re. NYT:

>>>New York times liberal is laughable>>>

All of these these political definitions require re-fittings every few years. I was thinking that in terms of the op... a piece from socialist worker.com.... as I was reading it. "Socialist" has long been a dirty word in American politics. "Liberal" became one in the 80's.

God knows, NYT isn't socialist in any sense of the word that I ever heard used. It's "liberal" in the sense that someone like say... Lieberman... is liberal. But it's significant that we have to go a self-identified "socialist" site to find a cogent analysis of what's actually going on with this issue.

[jotsy]

12. I just wonder how they can refer to it as a 'coming' class war.

According to writer David Cay Johnston, and his series of articles published during the summer of 2005 in the very same paper, the class war was had and won by the affluent then.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/national/class/HYPER-FINAL.html?pagewanted=print>

As for their rep as a 'liberal' venue, some might want to take a look at the months long public banter between DU's own BradBlog and the NYT over their role in the ACORN smear. How it is that folks here troll that publication for items to post on a daily basis is beyond a mystery.

Recommended

[LiberalFighter]

3. Local and state government employees are/were exempt from Social Security taxes.

It varies from state to state and it also appears to vary based on time period.

If I got the gist of the article... state and local governments are going broke because they were spending money meant for their retired workers on tax breaks to lure businesses to their communities in addition to receiving less taxes in other ways.

[LostinVA]

4. Since when???

[Yupster]

13. As of right now, most public schoolteachers

in California, Texas and many other states are not part of social security.

I've never had it explained to me why that is so other than that they have their own retirement systems as if doctors or lawyers wouldn't love to have their own retirement systems instead of social security too.

It's one of my two fixes to improve social security's health.

1. Remove the income tax.

2. Make the universal program universal by bringing everyone into it.

[trayfoot]

6. As a local government employee,

I am NOT exemopt from paying SS taxes!!! As a teacher in VA, we were told several decades ago that we were not being paid what we were worth because when we retired, we would be exempt from paying taxes on our pensions. That, however, was thrown out by the courts....so that now, we get paid less than comparable professions and we STILL get taxed on our pensions!

[trayfoot]

7. Don't know what is wrong with my typing skills today.......

should be "exempt", NOT "exemopt"!

[LiberalFighter]

14. I did have it as are/were and not as are.

[BillStein]

10. State employee here

who's been on a wage freeze for over 6 years. Most of my colleagues have been laid off, or left and were not replaced, so I'm doing twice the work for the same pay. And I'm salaried, so the work I do at night, or on the weekends at home is uncompensated. Meanwhile, my secretary has been forced to take a "furlough" day every two weeks- that is, an unpaid day off.:banghead:

greedy public employees, my ass.

[arbusto_baboso]

15. It's public sector MANAGERS who are the problem.

I'm a line employee in a government agency, and the "gravy train" that so many people thinkg I'm riding simply doesn't exist. My pay has been cut. The county I work for has reduced contributions to my pension fund.

Meanwhile, when positions are cut, they are never in management, the true "dead wood" in my organization. The cuts are in other line positions, which saves minimal budget money but increases our workload.

This is just another destructive meme pushed by the corporatists. They want government to fail, remember. What better way to ensure that than by making sure government employees are hamstrung by huge workloads and piss-poor morale?