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Federal Workers Making Over $180,000 Increase By 2,000% In Past Five Years
For all those wondering how to cut down on government expenditures, here's a thought: cut the skyrocketing salaries! A study by USA Today, using US Office of Personnel Management data, confirms what has been widely known: that the biggest beneficiaries of government largesse over the past 5 years as a worker cohort, are none other than Federal workers themselves. The numbers are stunning: those earning over $150,000 in the past five years have grown from 7,420 to 82,034, a 1,006% increase. More shockingly, those earning over $180,000 has surged from just 805 in 2005, to 16,912 in 2010: a 2,001% increase. And it is on the background of this that Congress is planning on giving 2.1 million federal workers another 1.4% across the board pay raise! Additionally, it appears that the bulk of the gains have taken place since Obama took office. Can someone please stop the lunacy: this country is beyond bankrupt and it turns out that in addition to Wall Street (which everyone knows does nothing but transfer wealth from the middle class to a few choice CEOs and groupthinking Bloomberg terminal operators), the biggest thief is the very government itself, which has perfected the art of giving with one hand, and taking with 10, almost as well as those enclosed in glass corner offices on Park, Lexington and Broad (and now West).
The stunning comparison of what Federal workers were making in 2005 and 2010, spread by income bucket:
More from USA Today:
Federal salaries have grown robustly in recent years, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Office of Personnel Management data. Key findings:
- Government-wide raises. Top-paid staff have increased in every department and agency. The Defense Department had nine civilians earning $170,000 or more in 2005, 214 when Obama took office and 994 in June.
- Long-time workers thrive. The biggest pay hikes have gone to employees who have been with the government for 15 to 24 years. Since 2005, average salaries for this group climbed 25% compared with a 9% inflation rate.
- Physicians rewarded. Medical doctors at veterans hospitals, prisons and elsewhere earn an average of $179,500, up from $111,000 in 2005.
Federal workers earning $150,000 or more make up 3.9% of the workforce, up from 0.4% in 2005.
Since 2000, federal pay and benefits have increased 3% annually above inflation compared with 0.8% for private workers, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Members of Congress earn $174,000, up from $141,300 in 2000, an increase below the rate of inflation.
Jessica Klement, government affairs director at the Federal Managers Association, says the government's official pay analysis shows that federal workers earn less than private workers for comparable jobs. Still, she says, managers are willing to give up next year's raise: "If it will help the country bounce back, they're willing to make the sacrifice."
And just to make sure you get really angry, here is how one Federal Union views the fact that government workers as a whole are now the second best paid group after Wall Street:
National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley counters that the proposed raise "is a modest amount and should be implemented" to help make salaries more comparable with those in the private sector.
Once again, we get confirmation that Americans always get nothing more or less than the thieves in control they deserve, and elect.
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Man I get it, see it and act on it. I just don’t sit here and type like some who don’t act. I know the end is near and I am not only trying to cover myself but all of us. Assholes who hate me just because I work for the DoD are no different than those Nazis you write about who hated the Jews just because they were Jews. We are an easy target for the folks trying to draw attention away from the real problems, that our whole system is owned and controlled. There are more of us waking up every day but taking shit from assholes who only feed their egos and junk anything they don’t agree with is not the way. You may not like it but we need what I do. I wish we didn’t. We don’t make the wars but the Republicans do at the same time they run huge deficits and give tax cuts we can’t afford. In war wasn’t there supposed to be shared sacrifice? I haven’t seen any. If Bush had to raise taxes to pay for this shit, do you think we would be there now? The first gulf war and the US setting up the ISS to fight the USSR led to 911 which lead to the second gulf war.
some fair points. the military industrial complex is out of control. there should be no standing army. our constitution provided for a navy. these days i believe this would include and air force. otherwise, special forces, state militias, and a well-armed citizenry is plenty to defend our homeland. standing armies are caged dogs waiting to live out the intentions of their training. the corporations who profit off war lobby their lapdog politicians consistently as it relates to the next target.
most importantly, as you have so accurately pointed out, the international banking cartel uses war to both make untold amounts of money and divert attention away from a debt-based monetary system where they serve as usury blood-sucking parasites for their own benefits and absolutely nobody else's.
you're alright, Mr. pain. sorry for being hard on you. feel free to call me a cheap shot bastard motherfucker anytime you would like. that said, i do believe we should place 50% of government workers, including you (unless you can explain how you are essential to keeping us from financial collapse), into soup lines.
communism collapses and the USSA is no different.
So your saying the creation of a welfare state that enslaves a portion of our population for generations so that bureaucrats like yourself can feed for the rest of your life is a good thing?
Then you compound this error by creating the CRA where the brass ring is dangled just out of reach as they chase it...right off a cliff.
Why does the whole of the population share the burden of these errors and not the ones who created the errors?
Next...you will be telling us what to eat & drink and in what quantities...oh...wait...
my two cents: http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/how-do-we-arrive-eve-our-collapse
Damn...and I have been accused of being long winded...LOL...excellent post chopper.
This;
"Communism" works best if at all when in its smallest, least dangerous form. The larger government force becomes, the more dangerous they are to liberty."
is something the leftist's & statists will never understand completely. Someone at the top will always have to organize the efforts of those below in that system.
The easiest example...the American Indians.
It worked because the tribes were relatively small. Each had a chief...who did pretty much whatever he wanted...when he wanted...he was however still, in fact a dictator, although usually a benevolent one for the most part.
When you extrapolate that system over millions of individuals it quickly devolves into what we currently find in socialism/communism...misery and/or death.
Back on topic...the Fed/New York Federal Reserve/Goldman...something everyone can understand...don't know if you've seen it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k
tis the nature of elitist scum. yes, dictators become much less benevolent when they do not have to see the results of their decisions on your face each day. Thousands of miles dehumanizes every time.
great video.
"Thousands of miles dehumanizes every time."
Indeed.
The video...I believe (at some point) would be a great tool, not so much for ZH readers, but for the layman (which is who we are trying to reach)...spells it out pretty well.
i intend to start producing these. it is important for folks to know that a return to 100% feudalism was written into the cards long ago.
a debt-based monetary system, fiat money, and fractional reserve counterfeiting ensures our road to serfdom. conversely, a 100% asset-backed currency outlawing fractional reserve counter-feiting ensures our freedom.
Will there be a backlash to the trend of the past 100 years? I do not see every government in the world giving up their sovereignty to arrive under a one world currency. Europe has been on its way, but this may backfire before any "new world order".
Interestingly, the proud Brits opposed taking the Euro. What happened next? Gordo Brown sells a large portion of their gold which now makes them essentially bankrupt if there is a fiat paper collapse (and in need of outside rescue). Was Gordo just a useful idiot to his banker backers (probably) or a co-conspirator? Either way, I still do not see the proud Brits submitting with their sovereignty, even if they are starving in the streets. I could be wrong.
As with Europe's eroding sovereignty amongst countries, one currency is the essential precursor for one government. For example, because we have one 'legal tender' currency in the USA, and this currency has slowly but surely been removed from asset backing since the creation of debt-based money in 1913 and full removal from gold in 1971, we have seen sovereignty continuously eroded and lost at the state and local level. This is why small-town agarian america has virtually disappeared. The debt-based monetary system and fractional reserve counterfeiting has stacked all the cards in favor of the International Banking Cartel, Wall Street Industrial Complex (NYC) and Wealth Redistribution Complex (DC).
However, even though this has worked supremely well in the USA, nothing ensures that it will work at the global level before revolt sets in somewhere. From where will it come? The jury is still out. I'd like to see America take the lead as we did in 1776.
Will the feudal banking lords of the entire world successfully collude together and conspire against their own people in order to set their own families up as global royalty? They may, if folks will not wise up.
Actually, where I hail from at least, the small businesses are Veteran-owned or "woman owned" which basically means the president - often a vet or a guy with significant govt. experience, maybe retired exec - put the company in his wife's name. Whooptydoo. So it's still, really, a man's world if it makes you feel any better (rolleye). Also with 8a's (small disadv) at least, no family can earn (collectively) over $300K/year, and it's a temporary program reserved for newbies anyway, so it's not the boondoggle you think it is. The extremely large Boeings and Lockheeds and Mantechs and Booz-Allens are still pulling in the big $$$ regardless of the small business setasides you've seen. But whatevs.
It has nothing to do with things being a man's or womans, or vets, or white/minority world.
Thats why they "have" to drive around in $100k "mercedes" and are "forced" to leverage their $1.2 Washington villas to make the business "survive" and the accounting work, cause (but for) they only "earn" $300k/yr. Meanwhile, they pay the actual working contractors less money and benefits per hour than an off-shored resource.
The Feds look at the guy sitting in the chair costing their budget $250/hr and expect commensurate miracles (nhilistic). The guy in the chair looks at their federal supervisor who makes 3 times their salary, 5 times the benefits, and who rarely does anything other than go to metaphorical and actual union meetings with other feds and junkets with "vendors"? If a worker bee on either side of a failed project says anything ... the Big Lebowski shows up.
"I will not abide another toe Dude"
Not one of the $150k+ fed workers I work with is a contractor. 20 percent of them only show up for work once a week, at best. After 20 years of service, they and their spouses have 100 percent medical coverage, for life
This makes absoultely no sense dude. So you're claiming that outsourcing has skewed the proportion of those making high-end salaries? Fine, that may be true but we aren't talking about a percentage basis. USA Today was referring specifically to the raw numbers. Outsourcing does not explain a 20x increase in government employees making more than $180,000. I honestly can't believe someone would be this dull, you must be trolling...
It's gets much better than that in Ohio. Government expenditures?
Instead of simply telling McDonald's and the rest of the poison dispensaries to improve nutrition, your Federal Government (NIH) has just slipped Case Western Reserve University 12 Million bits of your pocket money to study childhood obesity. How many studies have been done on this topic? How many billions of Federal waste has been spewed at this?
http://www.medcitynews.com/2010/11/case-gets-12-5m-grant-to-help-reduce-childhood-obesity/
But let's not forget the 2.3 million grant (to start) for studying corrosion given to U of Akron by the DOD.
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2009/08/corrosion.html
How about this for our local Tax Bullshit? Police and Fire officials in Columbus OH can retire at 48, continue on to double dip for another 8 years, then receive around ONE MILLION DOLLARS at retirement, plus an additional $100K per year for the rest of their lives. All paid for by tax payers. You can not make this shit up. http://vimeo.com/15534867
Pension Reform: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703805704575594862061314690.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
So you'd prefer a Fascist government entity to tell people what they can and can't eat? How much would that cost? How's it working for the war on drugs? And your corrosion link claims $400 Billion is lost each year. On the surface, that one seems like a pretty sensible case of preventative care and innovation.
this shit should NOT be financed with taxpayer funds. if private enterprise sees the benefit then have at it. otherwise, this is just another federal government coffer being raided by corporate and labor cronies and their lapdog politicians.
the debate is over. communism leads to collapse. america loses. where are the freedom-loving patriots?
I think public health issues, for which the private sector itself has no monetary interest, should be funded by government. Whether childhood obesity is a worthy cause (I think it is) was not my point - we don't need to create a government entity to make us eat like rabbits. I also think it's perfectly reasonable for the DoD to fund studies that could make its operations more efficient in the long term. I don't know if this particular one will be worth it in the long run, but I don't take issue with the motivation. The private sector never stepped in to study the health effects of cigarettes, and the DoD has contributed plenty of innovation that benefits the private sector. These things are not necessarily communist.
So for all these great things... where is the money coming from?
That could be asked about anything government pays for, from two pointless wars to police on the street. Doesn't mean that nothing should be funded by government.
anything collectively paid for is communism. so, yes, these things are communism by definition. communism is alive and well in the USSA.
of course, government is funded by individuals outside of government. the fact that you feel entitled to make others fund what you feel "should be" funded is irrelevant. This is meant to be a free country where money was once VOLUNTEERED towards worthy causes, and many politicians served for pittance out of a sense of PATRIOTIC DUTY rather than elitist benefits.
you do not seem to realize that the country is collapsing under communism. our debt-based monetary system combined with fractional reserve counterfeiting has allowed for wholesale raping of the American citizenry by urban money centers such as the Wall Street Industrial Complex (NYC) and the Wealth Redistribution Complex (DC), the latter of which has 7 out of the 10 RICHEST COUNTIES IN AMERICA!!!!
it ain't working, dude. no matter what you FEEL SHOULD BE funded. grow up. our economy is collapsing. government workers will not get their pensions. these coffers are raided. it was all a big lie. and now it is over.
And you think this is all because of what? government workers? bankers? The Fed?
The U.S. constitution contemplated some forms of "communism" if your definition is that broad, and the Founders themselves engaged in it. We could have had a loose collection of states that engaged in their own local communism, which they all did, their cities more than rural areas.
But, they chose a federal constitution. We need a lot more 10th amendment for reasons of FRAUD in scale, but the obligations will be picked up by the states and you have to pay and organize for what you want.
Do you want to go to the moon?
Explore space?
Cure disease?
In most major endeavors, it takes too much start up capital and risk for private profiteers to initiate the industry. I don't want to trade rags and spices in a cycle forever.
ha, ha, ha, ha. governments do not cure diseases, profit-seeking corporations do. you need only look at the national health systems which depend on drugs created by US pharmaceutical companies.
richard branson's private enterprise is travelling to space right now with no costs to taxpayers.
D-E-C-E-N-T-R-A-L-I-Z-E. Local folks can decide what is good for local folks. "communism" in its smallest, least dangerous form. the larger government force becomes, the more dangerous it is to liberty. they are mutually exclusive and on opposite sides of the spectrum save one instance:
when individual liberty is protected by government force under a Republic of Laws. The purpose of a Republic of laws is to protect against "mob rules" democracy where 51% take from 49% and "jungle law" where the biggest take from the weakest. right now we have a combination of the international banking cartel (the biggest 'counterfeiters') and the 51% mob taking property from the productive individuals.
its failing, and deservedly so.
this is a fuckload more sustainable in comparison to our debt-based monetary system and fractional reserve counterfeiting which persistently rewards excessive risk-taking and rabid consumption at the expense of savings, investment, and conservation, you smarmy smartass communist apologist.
either way, i've got my guns. I've got my ammo. i've got my gold and silver. I've got my friends who farm livestock. i've got my freeze-dried food. I'll soon be getting my greenhouse. I've got my canning skills. i've got my popcorn. this is going to be fun.
You're an idiot if you can't see that the private bankers you loath would fuck you harder without a government, especially a judiciary. It may not be great one, but it's something....
If you oppose a Greenback and want private bank currency, the get in line with the ABA.
If you think everything should be private, them get ready to let the banks (who own most assets now) buy out every media company in the world, directly and through their proxies. They're already buying the roads in Britain.
You call that free? I think you need to read some Jefferson.
And you're a dolt if you think that anyone here loathes "private bankers" as they would exist in the absence of a government monopoly on money, bank licensing, and judicial services.
If you think that banks would be able to "buy out every media company in the world" if everything was private then you're either mindless or still asleep to reality.
Do you think ZeroHedge would be bought by the banks if everything was private?
I think you need to read some fucking Rothbard.
dupe.
dope or dupe.
I know this, banks own most ass, mostly because the "privatization" and deregulation policies of the political parties, mostly one but both in sum. Everyone tells me they're going to lop the head off the Fed. Yeah, right. Good, go for it. But, how about UNTIL that day, you regulate and considering USING GOVERNMENT in your favor.
But - until then, like Ron Paul, they still dogmatically hang on to their privatized illusion of property and no regulation - at all - another perfect world thang.
The DUPES are those holding out for the perfect solution and doing NOTHING else. The dupes are suddenly hanging onto every word of GOP congressmen connected to the ABA at the HIP imagining they're found religion because they criticize the Fed chairman (only for buying treasuries and not for the other stuff). Tell me how that goes for you.
And, yes, the banks have the media conglomerates by the balls, all grown and merged on their credit. They're married with children. That puts you further out of control. Have any doubts? Look at that blockbuster bank regulation after the biggest fraud in history. Look at your media overall. It's an embarrassment. Not for the banks. The rake it in after the fuck up, after the kick you in the face, after they're drunk in public. Doesn't matter, media had their back. It's their biggest client and their benefactor in every way.
Fraud-Esq, do NOT empower more government force. this system is crumbling. more government employees are fascists-in-waiting as their pensions and paychecks disappear and their fear drives them to martial law in efforts to conficate and nationalize our farmlands and remaining factories.
ITS OVER, my friend. There will come a day when there is no choice but to hunker down.
Is there something that can be done? yes. spread the word, even if everyone believes that you are a raving lunatic.
Politicians and news commentators react to awareness, they do not make us aware. They are mouthpieces and ratings whores, so we've got to do the heavy lifting ourselves until the REAL ISSUE gains national attention: which is centralized money planning by a private conglomerate engaged in fractional reserve counterfeiting.
If Americans continue to allow themselves to be distracted by the silly political debate, then they will continue to tear each other to shreds over budgets and taxes, and soon we'll be marching off to war with Iran for mirky reasons rather than repealing the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and opening up barter to such things as silver certificates, gold, silver, and regional paper currencies in order to move towards more economic stability.
consider all of this your civic duty, Fraud-Esq.
Tell your friends and loved ones in cities where they are about 3 meals away from total chaos to both arm themselves and have an exit plan along with food supplies purchased NOW and then stored OUTSIDE OF urban money centers. At best, store shelves will be cleared out in 2 weeks as millions of people who are dependent upon a handful of food distributors are left last in line holding worthless green paper.
of course, i am following my own advice, which may sound extreme to some right now. In my opinion, you should average into gold and silver over time so that you have something of value that can be taken anywhere in the world unless you are otherwise stopped at borders by government force.
This has always been the most important issue of our lives in America, no matter how many ways we are driven to both distraction and into believing we are free.
of course, we are not.
Insert "consumers telling" in the McDonalds Line.
War on drugs is total BS - agreed.
Google "Rust Bullet Marine Applications" as just one example for corrosion studies (commercial for profit - privately funded - on GSA schedule)
You didn't comment on the cool million +100K/year for life for cops and fire men. Jezz, I hope you don't agree with that BS.
Consumers overwhelmingly keep telling McDonalds to pump on the fat. The pensions piss me off as much as the next guy, and I'm sure that there are privately funded corrosion studies. Hopefully this one isn't just a repeat of those, but university scientists usually aren't the ones getting kickbacks for doing nothing useful (unless they're MD's and the kickbacks are from big pharma). I generally agree with you, and especially with the tone of the article, but I take issue with criticism of scientific programs based on some journalist's glossed-over interpretation of them. John McCain, for example, has campaigned against one study of bears' DNA for years, as an example of waste, and he clearly doesn't understand the study, but always just tells the same joke about it. Maybe it IS a stupid study, and there are a lot of those, but it's a red herring to distract from bigger problems.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/12/mcdonalds-pepsico-help-he...
seriously, you couldn't make this shit up. . . pwn'd by corporations, *nods*
Industry Wage Inflation (banking, defense, pharma, government, etc..)
Fiat money assigns higher values to powerful, not the valuable. In this case, the people closest to the biggest purse.
The Chamber of Commerce didn't publish this or bash away at gov employees. That tells you something else. They're all working with one another. I'm not surprised I didn't read this sooner.
There are no checks and balances.
privatize the post office (700,000 jobs, fleet of 200,000 worthless vehicles), gift all airports to the private sector and the states, sell off every bridge on the interstate highway system, decommission the IRS, HHS, FBI, CIA, DIA, DEA, DOD, DOT, NASA, the Fed, the Justice Department, the BLM and most important the Bereau of Prisons. Air Force One will be a Piper Cub "flown by the first dude himself" and we'll "see if we can find a used Pope-mobile." I'm sure i've missed a few other trillion dollar boondoggles. We will give "every American a bible...and a gun should he/she ask for it" and "that'll be your hand out." No money. Sorry--"we don't do that money thing anymore."
Since the Post Office doesn't receive tax money how much help would it be to privatize them? And 700,000 was two years ago. It is under 600,000 now.
Oh, next you're gonna claim the Post Office turns a profit?
doolittlegeorge, I've been tortured by your prose for ages. i read you every time for that nugget of gold.
I've finally found it!!! i do believe these are the wisest words from you that i've ever understood! bravo!!!
Don't forget to legalize hard drugs. Smack that ass!
yeah, bitchez!!
Just how much do we give our American men to stop a bullet in some far away land? I for one don't think anyone of us here would do it for what they get. I know! Wounded twice in Viet Nam while getting less than $200 per month. And; I did not volunteer for the job. But what's new? Just trying to learn a little from you all. Sorry, but this is one of my sticking points...I think you know the answer, or you wouldn't have asked. There is no way that I, or the president, or congress can compensate you for what you or countless others have suffered.
The system is not only beyond our control, it is out of control. The pilots at the wheel have neither compass, chronometer nor sextant. Worse, they eschew these tools as idolatry or gimmicks.
The upcoming majority of the House of Representatives glorifies a president who wouldn't change his socks without the advice of an astrologer. The outgoing house majority and the remaining senate majority wouldn't change their socks without an O.K. from a banker.
The solution is simple, and that is the tragedy. And the solution comprises the debt that we owe you and others: Live within our means, and whip the money changers from the temple. Redeem our souls with alms, because none chooses to be born. Learn constantly, because a lie is born every nanosecond. And for the millionth time, don't fall for the shakedown; it's the oldest fucking trick in the book.
Thanks.
Will F.D., you are a patriot.
Well that of course depends on which far away land you're talking about. If you mean Afghanistan, or Iraq, I'd say pretty much close to zero. Maybe then people would stop signing up for the shit ("all volunteer army") and this country could get it's ass out of there.
The american men that actually are DEFENDING this country on the other hand, well they should be rewarded handsomely.
Burn them! Burn them! It wasn't the banking industry, it was the goddamned federal employees. All this time they were causing price inflation to make their salaries go up! Burn them!
Try a dose of reality. Most federal employees don't make shit. http://www.opm.gov/oca/10tables/index.asp
seniority bitchez!
I love the market surveys scam pulled by the compensation specialists.
Basically, CEOs of universities, nonprofits, small governments ( city managers ) always hire the comp consultant to bring in the comparable data on positions in their occupation. And since the exec comp game has been rigged for so long, of course the data always supports a big comp increase to meet medians, et., et. of a peer group.....always presented by a high fee consultant, with a lawyer kicker in most cases. That's how nonprofit execs got to making a million + annual. It's a nice little daisy chain to support outrageous comp levels. An informal ponzi agreement unto itself. Just don't shit on the company carpet and let the pros handle the negotiations with the deciders.
Like a virus, the whole government comp outrage just keeps multiplying. It's a bigger issue than most people realize......especially bad when it's wired together with a big ass pension guaranteed by the constitutions of the USA and many states. How's that for a covered bet...??
TSA doesn't use GS ratings: http://www.tsa.gov/join/careers/pay_scales.shtm
Here's the job bulletin for gropesters:
http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=91934327&JobTitle=Transportation+Security+Officer+(TSO)&sort=rv%2c-dtex&cn=&rad_units=miles&brd=3876&pp=50&jbf522=1802&jbf574=HSBC&vw=b&re=134&FedEmp=N&FedPub=Y&caller=basic.aspx&ss=0&AVSDM=2010-11-05+11%3a23%3a00
Good God . How can we cut this off at the head immediately? This is insane. Cut the salaries by 10% and freeze. Cut the employee cut by 10% Eliminate the Dept of Education entirely and on and on.
I want to join the war against publicemployees and thd Federal government, which I hope will occur yesterday
Taking this to a whole different level, a number of those $150k+ fed so called workers don't even bother showing up for work:
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=8d706bec-eae6-49ba-9b42-c258f655e21e
we get'n played, ya'll.
That's a great report, but what changed? As best I can tell, nothing. Look at the recommendations even... What's number 1? "Let's define AWOL". Unbelievable. You've got a system whereby people are perfectly able to not show up for work for significant amounts of time and the first suggested step is to define what it means to not show up for work.
The final recommendation is penalties and possible (GASP!) termination. Those should be number 1. There doesn't need to be a 2, 3 and 4. Empower departments, department heads etc etc to penalize and terminate people that don't show up for work. That's how it works in the private sector.
I guess the problem is that the department heads are probably just as guilty.
Exactly Ned, The department heads were either AWOL or unaccountable. In our investigation, we took lots of pictures of empty offices and cubicles at various hours of the day.After months of investigations and fed emps still not showing up for work, I was told by the investigators that there was nothing they could do to make people show up for work. It was both stunning, outrageous, out of control and unbelievable...
my two cents: http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/how-do-we-arrive-eve-our-collapse
Hah! I read that around about 2007 the average annual salary for a Zimbabwean worker was $ZW 1 million and that wasn't private sector workers since there has barely been a private sector in Zimbabwe for some time.
Yet you get people on ZH & the likes of treasury bond shills like Mish saying there's no possibility of out of control inflation because wages cannot rise cause no one is buying, blah, blah, etc, etc....dream on.
Mr pain,
You state that you are a tax payer.
You are not, no federal "worker" pays federal income tax. You are a parasite.
All of your income is pulled from the tax revenue bucket. You do not put anything in to it, you only take.
I, working in the private sector, or rather the productive sector, place money into the tax revenue bucket that was not there before.
You have the fiction of "gross income" and "net income", but that simply means you take less money out of the tax revenue bucket.
You also do the kabuki dance of filling out and filing a 1040 - but it is meaningless.
The parasites are devouring the host, people. Wake up and deal with reality.
Really. What do you do that is so noble? Me I just handle CBRNe. Before that I was “private sector” for probably longer than you have had a job. Yea there are big problems and you are falling into a trap that will keep these from ever being solved. Pick a scapegoat while the real villains who secretly manipulate everything laugh at you. Blame the Jews/illegals/Fed workers/Next. Did you see that video the secret of Oz? Some cool stuff in there about how things were done. They still work that way.
Do you pay federal income tax?
Yea and state, and local and sales and capitol gains etc... And I handle CBRNe and you want me to stay at work if you have any brains.
You do pay state taxes. You do not pay federal income tax.
Why so personal. I am merely making a point that federal workers do not pay ferderal income tax. Please refute my analysis and skip the ad homenem attacks.
If what you do is valuable, people would pay for it with out the threat of violence.
Prove me wrong with logic and analysis please.
I also teach at a college sometimes so yes I do. But I get your simplton point, would it have the same result if I didn’t pay federal taxes and my salary was reduced by that amount? yes it would. So what. You want a job handling what I do go for it. You want to get me fired and close the government, go for that. Talk talk talk. I wrote so you could see the reality of what it is. Not an excuse cause I don’t need one, not an explanation because none is needed. It is the reality and if that changes so be it. Stop being a pussy and do something if you want it done.
self-serving asshole. fuck you, mrs. pain.
Don't be so rough on him, he could be one of those rent a trolls sent over from Huffington/Soros to make a case for_____.
Who knows?
ha, ha. great point! funny!
What do I do?
I provide a service to people that freely pay for it without coercion.
You provide a "service" that is payed for by people like me at the point of a gun.
I know it is harsh, but that is the truth.
Run for office, win and change the laws. That is how it was intended to work. Or just sit back and bitch.
Hmmmm.
I think it is better to serve others by making products that improve their lives instead of being in government.
Government is not the solution to societal problems. It is a main source of the problems.
yea I thought so. You say something is the main source of problems but you don’t have the guts to try and change it but say “I think it is better to serve others by making products that improve their lives” If you truly believed that wouldn’t you better serve by trying to change what you state is the main source of problems? No need to respond. You are just a talker and typer.
No, I am not just a talker. I am a productive worker.
You are a parasite.
Peace.
Yea I guesss I am just a DoD parasite in your eyes. The whole DoD is I guess. You should just close us down and see how you do. Talk talk talk.
Well sir, the DoD is a misnomer these days,
Aggressive wars against innocent civilians is much worse than being parasitic.
It is monstrous and anti-human.
The DoD should be called what it is - Department of Aggression.
Why did the government need to create the Homeland Security Department if the DoD was in actuality defensive?
C'mon - ~1000 military bases on ~140 countries through out the world can hardly be called "defense".
I could care less what you think - you are a war mongering blood sucker that does not pay federal taxes.
And up are a talker who will die someday without ever actually doing anything important. The DoD does not start wars, our elected officials do. You don’t have the guts to even do anything to support the beliefs you claim to have .
Please explain how you actually pay federal income tax.
BTW: I agree that elected officials can start wars. But recall the Eisenhower admonition about the "military industrial complex".
There is a strong incentive to instigate wars withing DoD and the corporations suckling at the teat.
Also, you do not know me or my background.
I already did above. So what are you going to do, just talk or try and change something? If you weren’t such a block head you would have realized that our views aren’t that different but you are so enthralled about the possibility of calling someone a parasite and being right in your own little internal fantasy land that you are blind. This is Zerohedge. Give yourself a slap, open your mind and do something god dam it.
So, you agree, federal "workers" do not pay federal income tax. Good.
I guess being an abusive asshole is one of the requirements for being a government "worker".
I am "doing something", many things. Educating people like you is one of them.
Peace to you.
What a fool you are. You talk talk talk. You do nothing and educate no one. You exist to feed your own ego. You are going to die and you will have left nothing of value behind. You will have burnt bridges you never knew existed.
Peace to you Mr. Asshole
mrs. pain, your job choice says everything about your character. which is to say, you have none.
"don't blame me, blame the system. blah, blah, blah. sure, i sent jews to death camps, but i was just following orders."
do something with your life, loser. be the change you wish to see. do not collaborate with nazis. if you have children then you are leaving them a world much less free then the one in which you were born. think.
This is a blog for discussion - that's what people do here - "talk". It doesn't mean we don't act too.
my two cents: http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/how-do-we-arrive-eve-our-collapse
Elected officials are lobbied by who? Pray tell.
Oh and Carlyle Group still owns a part of United Defense, UDI
That's a little harsh. The DoD needs engineers and they produce for us. Hell, the DoD gave us most high tech after WWII. You should wonder why you're not getting a piece of the public tech spun off private.
We also need well paid regulators in the DOJ and SEC. Paid well FOR prosecutions and outcomes, which is my earlier idea. All bank regulators ON DUTY before the crash....replaced or paid less. Change the civil service laws to account for OUTCOMES.
But - if you came out of this banking fraud disaster thinking we need less regulation and poorly paid gov hacks - what's to say?
Agreed. We need competent regulators all around. Remember what Harry Marko stated in his Senate testimony, he couldn't find one person in the SEC who could understand his simple financial calculus. Not one. There is simply no accountability in the system and the SEC is a great example of that. Watching porn instead of investigating and regulating...and lacking the basic skills to do their jobs... Marko finally stated that if he were in charge, he would fire every single person in the SEC.
No gubmint worker should be paid more than 80k/yr if he/she is caught watching porn.
awww....HELL no..... $78,000 TOPS!
+1
Then what are those federal (and state, and medicare, and social security, etc.) taxes being deducted from my salary for? Shits and giggles?
Semantics, surely, but seriously: The only thing Fed employees don't pay into that you probably do is state disability, which means if we get injured someplace other than the jobsite and haven't saved a bazillion hours of sick leave we're utterly fucked. But whatever.
I do cost/benefit analyses for the Navy, running as tight a ship as possible, no pun intended. That said there are really only two phases to cost containment in the military: "Too early to tell" and "too late to stop." Ever try to turn around an aircraft carrier at sea? It takes several days so there's your allegory for the day: Once things get rolling you're committed. Sometimes the too-late-to-stop problem is the fault of our Congresscritters, NOT the DoD, who'd be thrilled to cut certain programs - saving taxpayers hundreds of billions - if only the Senate and House would LET them.
Sigh. Let me rephrase that because Congress kisses bankster ass. If only the BANKSTERS weren't so hellbent on providing "free infrastructure upgrades" to developing countries (i.e., Clusterfuckistan, GasGrabistan, etc.), we wouldn't be in such a hole. Gloat all you want now but your job will probably be outsourced to east Asia someday:
http://enterprisecorruption.com
double post
Governments cannot calculate costs and benefits.
Only the free (of government interference) market can.
May I suggest that you read Ludwig von Mises "Human Action"? Quit working for a gang of murderers, thieves and thugs (the government), and make products or provide services that actually make life better.
my two cents http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/how-do-we-arrive-eve-our-collapse
Yea, damn straight. I don't want any government at all. Give me Somalia! That is real quality of life. Absolute pure survival of the fittest. Sink or swim. Go ahead and eat my kids if that is what makes you happy.
Pure volunteer government, or none at all. If the poor cannot afford school, fuck'em. Shouldn't have got themselves born to dumb or lazy parents. Anyway, we need janitors. Private roads, private armies, unfettered free markets for snake oil salesmen...heck, let's have private nuke power plants whose owners police themselves. Trust them. Too fucking bad if the one in your neighborhood goes critical when its Ukrainian-made control system breaks down. Markets police themselves, right? If some company wants to make lead-painted toys, then eventually enough kids will chew on them and go batshit crazy, and that company will be gone. The deaths in the meantime are simply the price of freedom.
And who needs a DoD, CIA or FBI? In the entire history of the world no country has ever invaded or wished harm on another land or another people. Humans are just basically good through and through. And if they are not, well, then war and terrorism and crime are exciting. Certainly makes for great TV shows, so why not have it for real, in 3-D? Everybody cowboy up.
I have to laugh at all this postering that takes place on ZH. Having had the pleasure of living in the Second Most Corrupt Country on Earth, I have some idea what happens when there is no government (the place is ruled by a gang, nothing more, and provides almost no services, as in lowest per capita spending on education and healthcare of any country on Earth, including Somalia.)
I used to spend a lot of time in the Golden Triangle, a land ostensibly ruled by a central government, but which in reality is the state of nature. I often sat in a bamboo hut in a mountain village and witnessed a seemingly endless stream of private armies marching through collecting "taxes". The United Wa State Army, Shan State Army, Kokang Independence Army, Mon Thai Army, etc., all roam free collecting tributes. Pay up or become a porter at best, raped or shot or used as a mine clearer at worst. Absent a powerful central authority, this is where humans drift. Some people on ZH think they have enough guns and enough courage to defend themselves. I'll put my money on the drug armies every time.
Nice clothes and nice houses do not make us civilized. Government is hardly the complete answer, nor is it without fault, but it is part of what allows me and you to offer our production to a public willing to buy it. We are not as far from walking on all four as most think, and we can go back very easily. Be careful what you wish for.
Chin,
Speaking for myself...it's not the fact of a government...federal or otherwise...it is it's costs.
Once all taxes & fees are tallied up for it's current operations...state, local, federal...it is consuming more than it produces...obviously...or we wouldn't be at deficit.
Population of 320 million give or take...of which approximately half is considered "a work force" and 17% of those are unemployed/under-employed, so clearly increasing taxes & fees are not the answer because a number of what is left marginally working for a profit will quit and go on the dole...spiral.
Raising taxes are a non-starter because once you tally up embedded taxes EVERYONE is paying over 50% of their wages now. Look at your electric bill, water bill, sewage bill, internet bill, mortgage statement and so on. That stop at the gas station...48 cents a gallon in taxes...etc.
So...again...IMHO...they will shrink government, cut taxes and allow the people to prosper, voluntarily or otherwise.
I don't think we can blame Mr. Pain that much as he is part of a system and we are part of the same system. No one works outside the system, therefore you can't complain about it like you are a separate entity who earned everything on your own.
The one advantage you have is you should be better able to manage without the govt when it disappears. The public employee, not so much.
This is a bit of a bogus representation of things and am a bit shocked that you all at ZH (who I think are smarter than the average person) don't question the statistics. First, I don't think that government workers, i.e. postal employees, should be paid nothing and I don't think that all government workers are simply cost centers. Personally, I've always liked my postman all the way back to college days when our postman, Beazie, could get a letter to me if it was simply addressed with my name and the town I lived in. Second, I kind of question the statistics themselves. How many of you know how many gov't workers were paid $169,500 before pushing over $170,000, etc.,? I'll keep it short but it is clear to me there is some biased distortion going on here. Having said that, do I think that a Las Vegas fireman should be paid $180,000/yr? Hell no. We don't have many fires here as there is nothing to burn. Should a city manager of a city pop. 90 be paid $600,000 or more? Hell no!
My cousin is a postal worker and I don't think those are the folks you should be defending. There are about 20% of that workforce that go to a room all day to show up and not work. She's a hard worker and her biggest complaint is that the norm is to do as little of work as possible and at mediocre speed. For every one good hard working postal worker there are 4 that just do enough to get by. No incentive for actually being superb at your job. Of course that's part of the union way. Protect the weakest link of the work force, no need to be the best.
notadouche
My older mailman drops the mail off around five. The younger subs about three.
I'm near last on the route.
Do I consider the older guy as pacing himself, or squeezing out every last minute of pay?
When I was young I hung out with this German family. The Mothers cousin had a job at one of the auto plants in Detroit. Late seventies, early eighties.
The guy would work his ass off. One day an older employee told him he had to slow it down because he made everyone else look bad.
Big Government is the goal. They hope to change laws before everyone catches on.
Many programs will be defunded before the role of an agenda takes grip.
The fall of the tree in the forest will be replaced by; the sound of a squealing pig injured from the fallen tree.
Im about to be a federal worker. Just took my medical exam. If you cant beat em, join em !!!
I always wanted to be one of AST (backwards) screeners ;-)
Female passengers only !!
;-0
I much prefer the honesty of CashCowEquity over gov workers who try making a legit case out of it. The worst of the bunch are those who suggest government workers help stimulate the economy by spending their money. Lol. I've actually heard that before.
MEANWHILE, bankers are paying themselves HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS in annual take-home bonuses, while their businesses are INSOLVENT, two years after committing the most fraud, self-dealing and double-dealing in history and their jobs and industry was saved by taxpayers.
What did America do when they learned that JP Morgan had the most profitable year in 141 years after the bail-out?
Nothing.
AWOL federal workers. Read it and weep.
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=8d706bec-eae6-49ba-9b42-c258f655e21e
Hmmm I'm torn on this. Part of me is pissed because I'm paying them to not show up. The other part of me is happy because if they don't show up they won't inflict as much damage on me and the country as a whole. I wonder how much we would have to pay to get congress to never get into session again and have them go AWOL?
It boils ones blood to experience this first hand...
I've have friends who work for the state I live in. The stories are absurdest, to the point where it would make a good sitcom if it wasn't so unbelievable. People bringing pillows into work and sleeping in their offices during normal work hours (with their door open). People who do no work but keep their job by picking up a tray of cookies to bring in on Fridays. People who don't work because they actually have no job responsibilities for their position so they sit on their computer and play video games all day. All in the open. I understand why these people so passionately defend their position, it's the gravy train. The only good thing about their work ethic is the department my friend works in is basically a job killer. So the brutal display of laziness and incompetence is at least not doing the full damage it could.
I can only imagine what I could do if I could fill my work hours totally with my own pet projects and still get paid. I must confess if I didn't think the system would crash I would be tempted to convert over.
Sounds like the good old USSR circa 1988
What do you do so I can find one of them that is bad so I can smear you? :) You do know you don't get paid if you are AWOL right? You get fired.
You only get fired for not showing up for work in the private sector. I assure you, it is quite tolerated in the public sector...
Not for folks who work for me. Its not easy to fire someone with the unions but I don't put up with crap.
Like yourself, I worked in the private sector for 20 years before joining the public sector.The workers I am around have been public sector workers their entire career and don't understand deadlines,accountability and have a piss poor work ethic.. I believe that public sector employment should have the requirement of 10 years of private sector employment. I salute you for not putting up with crap...
It is a strange situation. They are often blind to reality and just assume everything will be like it has always been. I try and tell them the world is changing and they just look at me weird. I am personally preparing in case/when the dollar dies and these folks think they will be fine just like the masses do with social security. Then I see stuff like this article. Yes I agree there is waste, it is not as good as it should be and I am doing what I can to make things better but these are false flags designed to take attention away from the real criminals who have brought this country to their knees. That is why I love this site and try to clue in as many folks as possible.
Keep fighting the good fight my friend.
Federal whistleblower here Mr pain and I will keep up the fight...
Pain, I think you're getting a bad rap. But perception is reality, and that puts you, what you do and who you work for deadcenter in the cross hairs of separate elements of ZH that are anti-Uncle Sugar and anti-military/industrial. The fact we have folks of your vocation tuning in highlights the feeling of fuckeduppedness that is spreading. Not that I'm comparing you, but that douche Steve Liesman from CNBS tuned in trying to plead his case vis-a-vis his statist Fed-whore position vs. Santelli, which resulted in a thorough thumping. The type of response you've gotten is understandable, but not imo warranted.
Frankly, folks that believe the US is ground zero for all that is wrong with the world should consider what the world would/will be like if the Russkies didn't implode, or if the Chicoms continue their ascent.
Btw, what's CBRNe (sic)?
Pardon me, but I think the private sector work ethic is highly over-rated. When I try to question a credit card billing, speak with ten computers before getting to speak with a totally incompetent human being, I am not sure the government has a monopoly on bad work habits. When I try to buy something in a store, and I cannot get the staff to break away from sending texts to their friends, or cannot figure out the correct change, I feel the same thing. When a product I buy breaks down after a week due to poor engineering or construction, and customer service is an inside joke, I feel the same. When I fly and my bags end up in Mauritania, and airline staff says, "well, you can just go buy some new clothes", I feel the same.
Maybe the market takes care of stuff like this, eventually. Eventually, however, seems to be a very long time. Frankly, I see little or no difference in either work ethic or competence between private and public sector. Experience dealing with both tells me that both have their good and bad, probably in equal servings.
right, then will you be getting your brain surgery at the post office or the DMV?
chopper, your comment does not make sense. In the event that I ever needed brain surgery, I would prefer that it is carried out by a Board Certified Surgeon who graduated from an accredited medical school and can prescribe FDA tested and approved drugs, rather than have a correspondance school graduate using a rusty scalpel in a dirty room and pumping me with his grandmom's favorite mystery antibiotic. Incidentally, I have seen self-proclaimed "doctors" do sidewalk surgery and give as drugs their own home made potions. Rural Philippines, rural India, rural Burma. In some of those places the deaths are attributed to "bad karma", and not lack of qualification or poison and/or ineffectual drugs.
Living in a place where government is underfunded or non-existent reminds one of the many things one takes for granted. Personally I would rather have an imperfect one than none at all. Your mileage may differ. And you can always opt out and head to rural India or Burma.
Yesterday I watched a show about airline crashes that changed the industry. Without the work of the NTSB, we'd might still be flying in BAE Comets and falling prey to metal fatigue and square windows. Most certainly thousands more people would have died from things discovered by the very competent government workers at the NTSB.
I try to separate and not toss everyone in the same basket. A materials engineer at NTSB, to use the same example, is far different than the chocolate covered cherry popping backroom statistician at the BLS, and I may be unfair stating it that way.
My own experience in the private sector, both as a worker and a customer, does not prove to me that a private sector worker is more competent, harder working, or more accountable than the public sector. Mortgage loans officers got huge bonuses, CDO packagers, too, and I do not recall that the engineering team who gave us the Pinto, Pacer or Vega lost their jobs. I would guess that the numbers of competent/incompetent and lazy/self-starting folks is pretty evenly spread. We all have heard horror stories of DMV and Post Office, but I've never had a letter not delivered, and the last time I renewed my drivers license (online) took two minutes.
Just yesterday I got a bill from Expedia that showed they converted a foreign currency charge at 1:1 to the dollar, which means I was overcharged by a factor of about 8. Their "competent" private sector staff got confused because the name of the Hong Kong currency is also "dollar". I've yet to be able to reach a human being to get it fixed.
The difference is one has to make money to survive (private) and the other (gov.) doesn't. Quite an incentive. I think both sectors lack efficiency, but the gov. jobs to a greater degree. Not to say there aren't exceptions to the rule.
Precisely Rick64, huge difference...
its a big whitewash empowering more government force and dependency. this is destroying amerika.
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/how-do-we-arrive-eve-our-collapse-1
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/how-do-we-arrive-eve-our-collapse
No soc sec cola for you!! Do As I say not as I do. Govt elite grows like a blood soaked tumor around our artery
Somebody text/tweet me when the next civil war begins.
consider yourself text/tweeted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJeFrqBJF6E
Better than topac, he speaks from the grave.
George knew the deal, they didn't bull shit him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWiBt-pqp0E&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWiBt-pqp0E&feature=related
I need a small snip-it where he says "bitchez".
Back when I was a kid we visited Italy. It seemed that the Italian kids "wanted to grow up and work for the government". That seemed like a pathetically low aspiration....then.
Now, 30 years later, the USA has become the same non-motivated socialist state that Italy was back in the 1970's.
Parent's, think hard before encouraging your kids to go into the private sector.
I read a story of a holocaust survivor that when asked how he survived, he said he stayed close to the kitchen.
I wish our government stayed within the bounds of protecting property rights, as the constitution proscribes.
But it seems that the economic growth in this country is in the "public" sector.
If I had no morals, I would quit my job and join the ranks of the parasites.
Italy, risks overstated present opportunities.
Public sector much smaller than 90's, lowest consumer debt in EU, public debt is more than 50% locally held. high total debt number scares people.
much less risk for catastrophic delevering.
off-topic
Lets take a time machine back to the Fall of Rome, I wonder if news like this hit the wire (slate)
Cut entitlements so we can pay the bankers and government workers including the politicians that pretend to represent us and vote for their own pay raises?
Well, sure. At first it seems like a lot of money. But think of all the valuable services those government employees provide.
*crickets*
Oh well.
...... i'm sure these federal worker salaries do look high compared to the low wages that are now the norm here in the U.S. ...... WE ALL USED TO MAKE DECENT WAGES !!! too bad WALL ST. targeted U.S. workers wages & drove them down to non-existence. That's why people decided to seek employment in the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ....... it's all that was left where someone could earn decent wages !!! RAISE THE AVERAGE AMERICAN'S WAGES LIKE THE WAY THINGS USED TO BE !! HELL ! I WAS EARNING OVER $15/HOUR IN 1985 WORKING FOR THE AIRLINES ! NOW, WE'RE ALL DAMN WALMART EMPLOYEES ............ RACE TO THE BOTTOM.
YES YES YES !! Finally someone who gets it !!
Don't know who junked you, but not me. That said...NO NO NO!!
Two income households replace one from a generation and a half ago, although standard of living has not improved, nominally or in real terms. It's not the wages, it's their purchasing power. Wall Street is a convenient scapegoat and too simplistic. Do they debase the currency, or are their actions the the result of a feedback loop?
Johnny Carson's Spoofs the U.S. Post Office - 1980s!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMVXzvW38Y0
When will the majority of the people wake up to the elephant-in-the-room fact that the US government is incredibly too large and has lost touch with reality? These “think-tank” commissions that insist that raising taxes is the only way out of the government budgetary black hole—how about MAJOR slashes to government programs?? Or, shutting down Fannie and Freddie??
Have these people ever heard of taxable income elasticity--that taxable income will change in response to changes in the rate of taxation? We cannot spend and tax our way out of this employment depression! We have to keep taxes low to encourage the entrepreneurs to start new businesses and expand existing ones. If we raise taxes it will be the equivalent of kicking a person in the head who is trying to recover from a serious injury. Obama and his Merrey Men cannot spread prosperity by stealing from the rich and redistributing it. The government is already so screwed—Fannie & Freddie and the unfunded Medicare and Social Security liabilities and the interest on the debt are so large that a few extra hundred billion from the working masses are not going to fix things. The government needs major league liposuction—not an incremental increase in taxes that will harm the economy.
We are feeding a beast that is spending money with little regard for reality and makes up numbers as they see fit. Wage deflation is the norm in the private sector via globalization. Yet the government is oblivious to this reality on main street and keeps doling out raises and says that the solution to government problems is that we need to raise taxes—bullsh*t.
BIG BIZ write tax code and start-up regulations to hinder the entrepreneur.
Tax cuts don't help entrepreneurs, ending barriers to entry do.
A first year entrepreneur with a loss carry forward doesn't need tax breaks, he needs incentives.
He needs to you smash the SCALE in the economy so he can get something on the shelves!
The country's major production and distribution is locked up.
Federal employee here. My particular agency employs a large number of $100k+ "managers" who do essentially nothing while drones (like myself) do all the (fake) work. When I argued with a colleague about how this is unjust - he said essentially "well they worked their way up doing what we do for 5-10 years! They have a right to sit around and do nothing forever!" - that's the mentality around here. It is a fantasy world.
It's miserable though. I can't decide whether I want to go to work each morning or roll over and die. Every day I have to toe the party line, get inundated with propaganda, examine hideously boring paperwork, and kiss ass.
When this house of cards comes tumbling down, I will feel better, job or no. Right now, I'm just biding my time and buying PMs (thanks ZH).
At least you are honest, unlike Mr pain.
Self interest is not a bad thing.
Enlightened self interest is better though.
All I ask is you not join with your fellow employees when the shit hits the fan. I'm quite certain they will do their damnedest to squeeze the ever shrinking private sector rather then call it quits.
We have no power - we are just sheep. When TSHTF here it will be like a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off.
John Galt
I've thought before that the only way to bring the system down is to have people of integrity take the government gobs. The losers will sell out to what ever politician will bring home the money. If you had a million small government types working for the government you might could cut something back. I know Ron Paul doesn't like big government, but did that stop him from getting a job in the government? It's not bad if he is scaling it back as fast as he can.
The problem is the temptation. Ron Paul is the exception not the rule.
When you dance with the devil, the devil doesn't change. The devil changes you.
John Galt homey! Do something.
Recognize it for what it is. You're simply on welfare, like most government employees. They give you a check every two weeks so that you are fed and housed and don't break into your neighbor's house and steal his stuff. They also buy the loyalty that comes from dependence. They give you some busy-work to do in an office somewhere in order to complete the entire charade, but it probably doesn't matter whether you show up or not. Thousands of government employees don't even bother to. It's just welfare. The vast majority of government jobs are providing services for which there is no real market demand, performed by people that the market doesn't want or couldn't use anyway.
Kudos cxl - stumbled across this synopsis and I could not agree more.
While many of the new .gov employees I meet are actually moderately impressive, earnest, and reasonably intelligent...I really cannot say the same about the long-time employees. I don't think I have ever met so many coddled, self-entitled, baffoons in my entire life. 90% of these people simply could not make it in true private enterprise (also point of note: work for a 'private' government contractor absolutely does not qualify)
While I would otherwise express concern that these intelligent young minds are continuously beaten down by their intellectually-inferior superiors...there's really no point. From a Maslovian perspective there's no point in worrying about lost potential and hurt feelings when you're struggling to survive in a hyperinflationary collapse.
Corporate America is similar. There may not be folks sitting around with a "do nothing forever" attitude, but there is plenty of ass-kissing and toeing the party line.
man, that was the most honest account of communism in the USSA that i have heard. sadly, the bureaucracy that is now AMERIKA is killing the spirit of everyone. i join you in your cheers for collapse. lets end this farce.
If possible, get out and find something you like to do. Working for the Fed Gov killed my father's spirit/personality. It's a long, slow soul crushing existence for many.
I know what you mean about your father - I feel it happening to me. I tried to get a different job and actually had an offer but it would have been a $30k pay cut so I did not take it.
The senate can't agree on a darn thing... they should have cut
costs back when Ron Raegan was pres. and the Debt. was
$ 4 .0 Trillion