ARE YOU FED UP YET?

When is a recovery not a recovery? When you’ve lost your job and are holding on for dear life by your fingernails.

The politicians and economists have declared the recession over. Yet, just in January 22,000 private-sector jobs were lost. So, what’s going on?

Think about what the following tidbits tell you:
•Even after six months of “recovery,” the economy as a whole has shrunk almost 2%.
•The private sector is over 3% smaller (actually it’s about 4% but the government and Congress won’t come out and admit they’re in control of GM and Chrysler).
•Uncle Sam’s level of spending has grown by 8.5%
•Despite whining by state and local governments about being broke, their spending has barely changed.

The bottom line is government employees have a different relationship to the economy than the rest of us. As it shrinks, private sector jobs are slashed and salaries are cut. Not so with the public employees because they draw on the unlimited taxpayers’ forced generosity.

The New York Times reported that state and local governments have added 110,000 jobs since the beginning of the recession while the private sector lost 6.9 million jobs. If that doesn’t raise a few eyebrows this should: total compensation of public workers grew at a rate of three times that of private employees in 2008.

To add insult to injury, USA Today reported the average federal worker’s annual pay is over $71,200 while the average pay in the private sector is $40,300. Almost one in five federal workers now makes $100,000 a year or more, and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted. It doesn’t include a far better than average benefits package either. That’s a jump from 14 percent to 19 percent during the first year and a half of the recession.

If your blood pressure isn’t rising, this should do the trick. At the beginning of the recession the Transportation Dept. had one person making $170,000 or more a year; now it has 1,690.

In January, despite a practically zero-inflation environment, at the same time pay and jobs were still being slashed in the private sector and Social Security recipients were told they would not be receiving an increase in their benefits, the average federal worker was given a 3 percent raise.

So, how did the public sector get so far removed from reality? In 2009, for the first time ever, a majority of union members in the US worked in the public sector. Unionism has been in a decline in the private sector (down to 7.2 percent of all workers), but increasing in government (up to 37.4 percent of all workers).

Public-employee unions effectively occupy both sides of the negotiating table. They donate to and elect the politicians who bargain with them at contract time. Is it any surprise when union-backed politicians forget which side they’re on? Need an example? Former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine told a huge rally of state employees in 2006: “We will fight for a fair contract!” How often does a union hear that from management?

Doesn’t there seem to be a conflict of interest here if politicians are receiving campaign donations from unions they’ll be negotiating with while representing the taxpayer? Neither politicians nor unions seem to have a problem with the current status of things.

Do take comfort in knowing that whatever the union-backed politicians negotiate with the campaign-contributing unions, you get to pick up the tab. The question you should be asking is who is representing you at the negotiating table?

Are you fed up yet?

Posted by Lynda Gurr 02/11/2010 1:55 PM (est.)