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Mort Zuckerman Is Back, Blasting American Socialism; Or How America’s Public Servants Are Now Its Masters
The man who has rapidly emerged as the most vocal Obama critic, Mort Zuckerman, has just penned his most recent scathing anti-administration missive, this time focusing on the schism in US society between "preferred-status" public and shunned private-sector employees, concluding that "Americans cannot maintain their essential faith in government if there are two Americas, in which the private sector subsidises the disproportionate benefits of this new public sector elite." Is this most recent split in US society being cultivated to take the place of the Wall Street - Main Street dialectic, which even Obama is now forced to realize is a fight he is set to lose (just imagine how anti-Obama Cramer would get if stocks drop by 0.001% during the teleprompter's next media appearance)? Certainly, in a society that exists simply on the basis of a simple ongoing "us versus them" distraction, while the true crimes continue unabated behind the scenes, this is not an impossible assumption. Here's a suggestion to Mort and whoever else wishes to peddle more such diversions: how about framing the next conflict where it rightfully belongs: as that between America's people and its criminal ruling elite?
Full Op-Ed below:
America’s public servants are now its masters, first published in the Financial Times
by Mort Zuckerman
There really are two Americas, but they are not captured by the
standard class warfare speeches that dramatise the gulf between the rich
and the poor. Of the new divisions, one is the gap between employed and
unemployed that President Barack Obama seeks to close with yet another $50bn stimulus programme.
Another is between workers in the private and public sectors. No
guesses which are the more protected. A recent study by the Mayo
Research Institute found that “private-sector workers were nearly three
times more likely to be jobless than public-sector workers”.
Political
tension is bound to grow when jobs disappear faster in the private than
the public sector, just as compensation in the former is squeezed more.
There was a time when government work offered lower salaries than
comparable jobs in the private sector, a difference for which the public
sector compensated by providing more security and better benefits. No
longer. These days, government employees are better off in almost every
area: pay, benefits, time off and security, on top of working fewer
hours. Public workers have become a privileged class – an elite who live
better than their private-sector counterparts. Public servants have
become the public’s masters.
Take federal employees. For nine
years in a row, they have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit
increases than private-sector workers. In 2008, the average wage for
1.9m federal civilian workers was more than $79,000, against an average
of about $50,000 for the nation’s 108m private-sector workers, measured
in full-time equivalents. Ninety per cent of government employees
receive lifetime pension benefits versus 18 per cent of private
employees. Public service employees continue to gain annual salary
increases; they retire earlier with instant, guaranteed benefits paid
for with the taxes of those very same private-sector workers.
More
troubling still is the inherent political corruption. Elected officials
tend to be accommodating when confronted by powerful constituencies
such as the public service unions that agitate for plush benefits and
often provide (or deny) a steady flow of cash to election campaign
funds. Their successors will have to cope with the inherited debt burden
– and ultimately the nation’s taxpayers are stuck with the bill.
As
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has pointed out, spending on retirement
benefits for California’s state employees is growing at three times the
rate of state revenues, now exceeding $6bn annually and growing at the
rate of 15 per cent a year. In other states, however, the politics of public pensions
appear to be changing. In Michigan, Governor Jennifer Granholm, a
Democrat, recently enacted a teacher pension reform that should save
about $3bn over 10 years by increasing the amount workers must
contribute. Illinois raised its retirement age for newly hired public
workers from as low as 55 to 67. Chris Christie, the Republican governor
of New Jersey, decided that even if it took bruising clashes with
public worker unions, public service compensation reform was essential
for the fiscal health of the state. His stance surprised many, but it
made him a national figure.
There is no quick fix to deal with the
billions in unfunded liabilities. Public service employees are almost
impossible to fire, except after a long process and only for the most
grievous offences. What is more, the courts have ruled in many states
that pension increases granted by elected bodies are vested benefits
that must be paid no matter what, precluding politicians from going back
and changing past agreements.
The only fair solution is to take
the politicians out of the equation and have fully independent
commissions in charge, fixing the scale of salaries and benefits for
public-service workers and establishing an affordable second retirement
tier for new employees. More reasonable retirement ages should be in
order, such as 65 for general employees and 55 for public safety
employees. This would take nothing away from the existing benefits of
current employees.
A fundamental rethinking of the public
workforce is necessary. Americans cannot maintain their essential faith
in government if there are two Americas, in which the private sector
subsidises the disproportionate benefits of this new public sector
elite.
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That does it: Fuck finance. I'm going back to school to learn how to be a garbageman.
Garth is that you, Mother Fucker it is, eh ?
this is an off topic video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI
No, no need to be bashful about it, it's good!
@2:11 lol
Ah yes, another cotniued billionaire attack on public service, unionized employment, anyone who gets health care coverage and something more than Christmas and Thanksgiving off (if you are lucky). All for what, another privatization looting ponzi scheme as soon as they finish with social security and catfood commission in lame duck December?
Jeezus Zuckerman.. next time why don't you just spray paint a baby seal black and club it into bloody hamburger pulp on youtube for all of us!
There is pond scum... and then there is bottom of the pond scum.
It used to be that only republicans attacked other republicans (breaking Reagan's 11'th commandment). The dems were much better at circling the wagons and not attacking each other.
This may be one of the legacies of Obama. When Liberals attack Liberals, next on FoX (the best part is when they attacked).
The above article could just as equally apply to the UK and the rest of Europe:
Private sector wages falling,final salary benefits lost,employees forced to gamble their pension on the stockmarket with money purchase schemes,public sector workers continue to enjoy guaranteed final salary pensions paid out of the taxes from the declining wages of the private sector.Private sector unemploymnet high - Gordon Brown created 1million new public sector "non-jobs" in the last fifteen years,public sector unemployment-well when did anyone EVER get made redundant from the public sector?
Literally uncontrolled immigration,of course as mentioned in the article above,every immigrant is a potential voter for the left wing government that brought him in and a source of cheap labour to a right wing government that will guarantee his future lifetime benefits by said government of either colour.Add in all the other "coincidences" like rabid political correctness,banker bailouts,increasing government control of virtually every aspect of our daily lives and media censorship and it seems impossible to conclude that it hasn't all been centrally planned.
Now has this happened as a coincidence or have two major economies somehow stumbled on the same political strategy by design?
Sorry,I favour the latter.
That's what happens when the developed world runs out of money. It's societal evolution, baby, and you can't stop it; you can only hope to contain it.
very interesting posts.
Divide and conquer is so trite, but that doesn't means it's not effective. How does getting private sector workers to attack public sector workers get them jobs and pay raises? Is it the fault of public sector workers that their pay has become unaffordable. Or, like the rest of us, are they now being victimized by the financial elite and their minions, you know the ones who are really to blame for our broken economy. And a guy like Mort--a general in the financial elite's army--now has a solution to resolve our financial woes. Mort isn't offering a solution. He is employing a classic class warfare tactic that the very small minority of the ultra wealthy has used through-out history to maintain their status and advantage. Divide and conquer, baby, divide and conquer. The great unwashed masses have always been so easy to ambush, so easy to manipulate, so easy to get them to fight among themselves. Maybe it's not so easy anymore with the internet spawning movements like the Tea Party. Maybe the huddled masses are starting to recognize that they are the clear majority and have the means to not take it anymore. Maybe it's time to stop squabbling among ourselves and hold responsible those who really created this mess.
A large porportion of those Public "jobs" should NOT exist at all!
+100
Good Post.Well said. But nothing is going to stop this ball of shit.
While I'm waiting for this resolve, I think I'll see if there are some Govt floorsweeping jobs. This small business crap has got to go. I'll never get there from here.
Someone needs to enlighten me. Is this mort bashing or bashing mort's arguement? You do post psuedononimously for a reason, right? It's so that you invalidate the ad hominem attack. I'll agree there's an elite running wall street, but there's also the military industrial complex. And last time I checked, montegomery county Maryland wasn't doing too shabby.
I watched Obama talk this morning...
When he was elected (and I'm NOT a Democrat), some small part of me felt good to see a man of color become President, despite his political coat. This stirred up something inside of me reaffirming that despite all the ills of America, some things do work.
Listening to him speak this morning, he sounded like a narcissist that was groping for solutions where there are none. The wording of his responses gave this away.
It is one thing to be a very smart intellectual (and that he is), however it is another thing when you have to perform. I have always observed that in politics, you need visionaries and tacticians. When times are good, that's when visionaries perform well. When times are bad (dire in our case), you need tacticians who get things done. He should have stuck to tactics and not shoved health care and other social engineering projects during this time. This is where his credibility has been destroyed. It's as if he's been out of touch with the real issue.
Vision is not needed at this time. What is needed are tactical answers to how we are going to get the trillions off the bank's balance sheets into the hands of small businesses? What is the plan to cut the deficit? What is the time line?
Without this, we're in for an awful, awful time.
He took his visions and let his tacticians run the lobbyist gang bang. Now he has come up empty handed all around.
Where's/What's the problem? Market is up again today!!!
Myself, felt a little uncomfortable that he borrowed a phrase from Mao during the acceptance speech.
Troo, but look at even the last six presidents-
Reagan -actor
Bush -CIA and inherited wealth
Clinton -professional networker
Dubya -Mommy's boy
Obama -social climber
Geithner -(don't be surprised)
We wouldn't be in for an awful time of the Leader of the free world wasn't always a puppet of vested interests.
Corporate feudalism.
George Carlin had it right - politics is just a smokescreen. It doesn't matter who is in the presidential hotseat, at all. Just glorified griping about what is essentially a reality tv series, and the actors change places once in a while.
If you say "Don't like it, then leave" - damn right, I'm making my plans buddy. Tired of this bullshit.
REVOLT
http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/2010/09/revolt.html
Posit 150 mill working men and women. (Forget unemployment for a minute.) about 80 mill in the private workforce leaving 70 mill in some form of public service postion. Those 70 million are supporting the 80 mill. with their taxes. Now add to that the rest of the pop. Who exactly is productive here?? Sure the 80 mill pays taxes etc and all. But so do the 70 mill. AS the taxes go up, do you guess the 'share the wealth' rings sour, hollow, empty, goose eggs ZERO! Oh I see the fat cat bankers, blah, blah blah....
I am telling you they are the minority of the problem. Jobs are not being created virtually anywhere among the job creators, small and mid-size businesses, due to the facts of higher HC costs, higher taxes, no clear way to produce for hardly any end demand.
If you want to make it class warfare the rich against the poor, better to make it this way. Every one against Big Business, Big Unions, and Big GOVERNMENT!! Nihilism does not sell.
Is he as terrified of a salt shaker as is mickey bloomberg?
Zuckerman is CFR. You must therefore view everything he says and writes through that prism. Part of the dog and poney show people...
Zuckerman is also a Bilderberger and known neocon war monger
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/bball.htm
Current path is clearly unsustainable. Most who got in over the last 10 years or so thinking the public ride is the ticket is likely going to be as pissed off as most people in the private sector soon enough. Maybe even worse. Inequalities like what exists today have a nasty way of resolving. The same as housing. And will also happen with college tuition and anything else bouyed-up and backstopped by the government.
"Evil requires the sanction of the victim." - Ayn Rand
Here's part one of a great interview of Ayn Rand by Tom Snyder in which she predicts that the people rather than the politicians will save America.
Ayn Rand Interview with Tom Snyder, (1 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4doTzCs9lEc
Ben Martin quoted:
"Evil requires the sanction of the victim." - Ayn Rand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar
You'll take what your betters in gov give you and shut up.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/09/10/sebelius-insurers-who-criticize-ob...
"....we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections,” Sebelius said. She warned that bad actors may be excluded from new health insurance markets that will open in 2014 under the law. They’d lose out on a big pool of customers, as many as 30 million people nationwide."
She should be arrested and charged with abuse of her position.
One should keep in mind, when reading Zuckerman, that he is a fellow who wasn't smart enough to not get ripped off by Bernie Madoff. His financial knowledge and understanding may not be sophisticated or sufficient to understand the world of which he rants.
Zuckerman is just another media windbag in my book.
.
.
Mort makes some good points, and closing the private / public sector compensation gap makes sense.
But please Mort, the real problem in America is the Wall Street (Mort's world) / Main Street compensation gap... let me know when you get a solution for that one Mort, 'til then... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Thanks to insane firefighter pensions, our city has a brand new fire station... sitting empty.
Insane firefighters gotta make a living too.
You are a fool. And a tool. A tool of the elite, spreading lies everyday. The rich shouldn't have high tax rates, yes I have read your posts, but firefighters get paid too much for putting their lives on the line. Wow this country learnred NOTHING, NOTHING since 9/11. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Wow, you're so God damned dumb that you can't recognize a joke when you trip right over it.
And why do you hate "the rich?" I don't hate anybody except people who force me to do things against my will like pay for wars that kill innocent people or those who shove Communism down the throats of hard working Americans.
Off my back, moocher.
Amazing, given that Zuckerman endorsed and voted for Obama. I wonder if he learned his lesson!
I saw the Teleprompter Tyrant for who he was -- BEFORE the election!
The gist of Mr. Zuckerman article is a steaming pile of grade-AAA enzyme-free bovine fazoo. Public sector workers earn more on average because 48% of them have a required college education, compared to 23% in the private sector. Mr. Zuckerman also conveniently forget to mention that the salaries of the public sector has not risen that much; it is just that the salaries (as well as pensions and benefits) in the PRIVATE sector have been mercilessly squeezed to the benefit of the executives.
As for the public sector pensions, Mr. Zuckerman replaces data with cherry-picked anecdotes. Can he explain to his readers why Kansas has a huge public pension problem while its neighbor Nebraska is doing just peachy-dandy thank you very much?
The short answer is deceptively simple: it’s called good management v bad management. Nebraska’s actuaries present to lawmakers a bill at the beginning of every legislative year. This bill is the amount needed to meet pension obligations at 15 year vista. BY LAW, this gets paid first, no ifs, buts and maybes. Rinse and repeat year in year out, and you’re talking surplus. Plus, they have a balanced mix of 401k AND defined benefits, managers who are evaluated on a long term basis and paid a REASONABLE compensation. Is it any wonder they don’t have troubles?
Alas, as Mr. Zuckerman sure knows, good management is rare, be it public or private. However, and his seems to be a very widespread American neurosis, BTW) when it comes to public sector, it seems much more convenient to hit on on the head of the workers instead of kicking the derrieres of the managers.
It's the "people" who elected the "minority" who ignored the "people". If the "people" do not wake up this November and if they still get easily pumped up with the "hope and change" and "it's Bush's fault", then we've got no one to blame but ourselves.
Man, when all you've got are bad choices why blame yourself? Red or blue, they both screw you for their own benefit.
"Americans cannot maintain their essential faith in government if there are two Americas, in which the private sector subsidises the disproportionate benefits of this new public sector elite."
What about TARP?
Americans cannot maintain their essential faith in government if there are two Americas, one in which the tax payers subsidise the disproportionate benefits of the banking/wallstreet elite.
Frank Owen wrote:
"Americans cannot maintain their essential faith in government if there are two Americas, in which the private sector subsidises the disproportionate benefits of this new public sector elite."
It's more complex than that. The Supreme Court will have the final word in the near future.
The True Cost Of The Bank Bailout – video
http://video.pbs.org/video/1581037108
Hall, i was quoting the author's last sentence there (actually i cut it and forgot to add the ...). The second one was me re-working it to be as one-sided the other direction.
From your PBS show "According to a team at Bloomberg News, at one point last year the U.S. had lent, spent or guaranteed as much as $12.8 trillion to rescue the economy." - Well covered on Zero Hedge.
I have little faith in (anything, really) the courts especially after reading George Washington's post today: Supreme Court: Corporations Can Buy Judges
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/supreme-court-corporations-can-buy-judges
This is the worst article ever written by ZH.
Certainly, in a society that exists simply on the basis of a simple ongoing "us versus them" distraction, while the true crimes continue unabated behind the scenes, this is not an impossible assumption. Here's a suggestion to Mort and whoever else wishes to peddle more such diversions: how about framing the next conflict where it rightfully belongs: as that between America's people and its criminal ruling elite?
So the people who work for the criminal ruling elite (the bureaucratic aristocracy) are not equally to blame for caring out the oligarchy's commands? They're well paid to be tools to the man. In the simple societal dialectic, it's guilt by association. And they associate with "them". Fuck em.
So teachers are the hand maidens of Dick Fuld? Really? That's who is in these public unions. You are the hand maiden doing their bidding on these blogs. How's that for guilt by association?
Did those same teachers give you your reading comprehension skills?
One of the worst articles to appear on ZH, and one of the best summaries by Tyler.
It's like being served a pile of crap - then being told you don't have to eat it.
Of course some chose to chow down anyway.
why is it that mort zuckerman gets this exposure here and mish shedlock who's been bashing and exposing public unions for what they are (parasites) relentlessly for years now, and is the authority on that subject, is not acknowledged for all his good work here? That's what I want to know.
In case anyone thinks that all public employees are either useless, living large, or both, check out the salary guidelines for the National Institutes of Health. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows (who typically work 50-90 hrs/wk, do the bulk of NIH funded research which is intended to improve health, and do not include the string theorists that Tyler likes to pick on), make 21-52k per year. That's pretty standard, and equivalent jobs in pharma, etc., pay more. Sure, that's a small minority compared to, say, the patent or post office, but it's not all the sunshine, roses and guaranteed income that our buddy Mort would like us to believe.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not-od-10-047.html
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=U.S._Postal_Service_(USPS)/Salary
http://usptocareers.gov/Pages/Misc/SalaryRates.aspx
This is true. Many public sector employees are hard working and sometimes underpaid, but of course they accepted it to pad the resume or for other factors. The point is that large groups of organized workers are supporting through union dues the very politicians that negotitate for me their benefits and wages. This is an unacceptable situation, the market will find equilibrium on its own but these unions ability to influence politicians must be weakened. It is but one piece of the puzzle in our future, more importantly the FIRE economy and its associated lawlessness and regulatory capture must be dealt with and quickly.
Interesting thoughts all around.
I agree with many here and with Mish (who is not given the credit here for exposing public sector employment ripoffs that he deserves).
As I've said before, the problem is that of HAVES vs. HAVE-NOTS.
Banksters, CEO's of major corporations, ELECTED OFFICIALS AT ALL LEVELS, Unionized Public Sector Employees: HAVES (although admittedly some vast disparities in these groups).
"Main Street America", Small Business, Independent Professionals and tradespeople, Private Sector Employees: HAVE-NOTS.
Unless and until the Have-Nots unite against the predatory HAVES, nothing will change.
"..the courts have ruled in many states that pension increases granted by elected bodies are vested benefits that must be paid no matter what.."
That is why they are going to engineer massive inflation & freeze public sector wages. The only way to sort this pensions extortion is to devalue the dollar in their pants.
(and the rest of us have to work longer and more productively)
Hard rain's gonna fall.
There is an excellent, well-reviewed book by a political scientist on this problem, which is wider than mere that of public employees. It's Tyranny of the Minority: The Subconstituency Politics Theory of Representation by Benjamin Bishin, available at http://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-Minority-Subconstituency-Politics-Representation/dp/1592136591/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284207441&sr=1-1
Die progressive bitchez.
Just wait and see what happens with this, we got a blurb on this a year or two back, but Sept 14-15th, Mr.John Kerry,(Mr, no I did not keep my yacht there, to save $500 large in taxes!!!) presiding
Will start a panel looking into the US GRABAMENT, taking control of folks IRA's, and 401k plans.
It was just a matter of time, no way their leaving trillions of working class Americans savings alone.....
Esp since they have spent way more already than can ever be repaid.....
They are going INVEST it for US, as we do not know how to do so.
Anybody in for some Bonds, and Treasuries, at 1.0?., before tits up^
I yanked the 401k, over a year ago,and the IRA's will be coming out, as well as the rest of my cash next week.( better most than NONE).
No way these fdgepackrs pull an Argentina on my ass.............this could be the straw that breaks the Camels back QUICK.
DosZap, if you cash in your IRA (paying all the crap, etc.), that will help you sleep better. I closed my IRA in 2008 and have slept better ever since.
Of course, it is also possible that my AK, Beretta, Gold, etc. may have helped a little too.
And the Ds could do it (seize the accounts), either before or after Nov. 2. They could do in a lame-duck session, their last-gasp at turning us into their Socialist Fantasy before the Rs get to run the House.
Could?
Will.
When you can make more money as a public servant who adds nothing to the country's GDP versus the private sector that tells you America's dominance has come to an end.
In Europe the cherry jobs are all civil service jobs, high pay, little work, no pressure, great benefits.Apart from the Germans the Europeans have little to offer but tourist desintations.
When you can make more money as a public servant who adds nothing to the country's GDP versus the private sector that tells you America's dominance has come to an end.
In Europe the cherry jobs are all civil service jobs, high pay, little work, no pressure, great benefits.Apart from the Germans the Europeans have little to offer but tourist desintations.
Thank u, i found this for a long time.
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