The shiftless paperpusher fattened on your tax dollars doesn’t really exist

[marmar]

from In These Times:




The Truth About Civil Servants
The shiftless paperpusher fattened on your tax dollars doesn’t really exist.

By Michelle Chen


Want to get a disgruntled worker really mad? Just point to his arch enemy: the civil servant. You know, the shiftless paper-pusher fattened on our tax dollars.

This might sound harsh to those of us who still think the government has some useful functions. But bashing the government and its workers has become a favorite pastime for conservatives like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has argued that public employees enjoy undeservedly lavish compensation while their private-sector counterparts grapple with shrinking paychecks. Why should struggling families’ tax dollars finance the bloated wages of bureaucrats?

An analysis of New England public employees by the Center for Economic Policy and Research and Political Economy Research Institute dispels the myth of the “spoiled” government worker. Researchers found that the region’s state and local workers are comparatively disadvantaged. After accounting for variables like age and education, “state and local workers actually earn less, on average, than their private-sector counterparts.”

The study found that “the typical middle-wage worker earns about three percent less in state and local work, and the typical high-wage worker makes about 13 percent less than a similar private-sector worker.” The government workers do tend to have better benefits, like sick leave and health insurance. But the researchers explained, “benefits offered by state and local governments are roughly as generous as those offered by large firms in the private sector.” ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6540/the_truth_about_civil_servants

[Taverner]

1. Civil Servants don't always get COFFEE MACHINES for chrissakes!

How can that be lavish?

Furlough Fridays, Old Computer Equipment and YOU HAVE TO BRING YOUR OWN FREAKIN' COFFEE!!!!

[On the Road]

3. I've Worked in Corporate World for Over 20 Years

and free coffee was never provided. I would be surprised if it were available to government workers.

I agree with the author that government workers are not overpaid or lazy. Government is less efficient in general, but it happens at the organizational level, not the individual.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Free coffee was provided by the private employers I worked for.

[arbusto_baboso]

6. What a bullshit meme you're pushing! Government is NOT less efficient!

Quite the reverse. I've worked in both corporate and government jobs, and I saw far worse waste and inefficiency and outright corruption in corporations.

[On the Road]

11. I Don't Doubt That's Your Experience

Government organizations are funded from above rather than by their customers. They grow by getting larger budgets rather than pleasing customers and controlling costs.

Businesses are forced to do that -- not immediately, but over time. Those that don't keep up into decline. Those that do grow. The Fortune 500 looked heck of a lot different in 1960 than it does now.

It is not a matter of better or worse individuals. It is human nature. Government is needed wherever doesn't have the right incentives (for example, health insurance). but it's bu nature a staff function where a certain amount of efficiency is sacrificed.

[CreekDog]

10. making money distracts from good work products

while money is everyone's concerns, nobody has unlimited time or resources, having to do good work while subtracting a profit (that would be leftover) diminishes the effort or resources left to create the product itself.

if you don't have to subtract the profit from the resources being paid to do your project, the project benefits.

look at health care, for example. what does that 25%+ profit subtracted from the dollars paid for health care actually get us? less efficient health care...making room for profit is added OVERHEAD.

[Gold Metal Flake]

2. Of course! It was always known that Private-sector workers earn more.

Until the 1980's, that is. Then the Reaganites and the newly-minted corporate-owned media run not by journalists but by entertainment execs started trumpeting the "fat, lazy, gubmint workers stealing your tax dollars" bullshit.

[Warpy]

5. I worked at NASA and the Fed and did temp work at other agencies

and I worked my ass off in all of them.

I was a nurse at the VA, and it was the hardest nursing job I ever had. I also learned more at it than at any other job.

I always wondered where they hid those shiftless, lazy paper pushers. I suppose you have to find the guys in the fancy suits in political patronage jobs to find those because nobody who does the work is slacking off, at all.

[DCKit]

7. Even if they did, their efficiency is unmatched.

We could afford insurance at the overhead rates of MediCare and Medicaid. The medical care on the other end would be more affordable as well, without all the denials and recissions.

Further, I doubt the heads of any of those guvmint agencies are receiving $500 million/year + another hundred million or so in bonuses.

That's the kind of company I want to own stock in.

[obxhead]

8. I'm sure Governor Chris Christie feels his wages are completely

justified and deserved though. In fact I bet he would even accept a raise.

:asshat:

[Scuba]

9. I knew that. When I worked in government I found...

...hard working people who actually cared about doing their jobs well knowing they were serving the people.

Lower wages were accepted as a trade-off for long-term benefits - job security and pensions. Now the right tries ttake those things away and denigrate public workers as another way to take those drive a wedge between the citizens.

Don't let it happen.

(edited to add the phrase I forgot)