Working for 'The Man'

If you were a Vancouver City Councilor, you gave yourself a raise on Christmas Eve. How nice, when you have the power to take other people's money and give it to yourself, legally, without asking permission.
I can remember a time when working for the government was not the highest paying job in town and there was a bit more reality in the name "Civil Servant". But let's take a look at how well the servants are doing these days.

Joel Bowman writes: "Data from Cato Institute of Federal Pay Vs Private (i.e. taxpayers) shows federal pay and benefits in 2008 of $119,982 vs. $59,909 private industry. Twice as high! And, the gap is growing fast. A decade ago, the average federal civilian employee earned 66% more in wages and benefits than the average private taxpayer. Today, it is double. In 2009 Federal Government budget for wages is up 3%, while private employees are losing their jobs and pay is being reduced. And, state and local town employees are paid about 35% more than private taxpayers."Is that fair for taxpayers to be supporting Federal pay double their own?" the reader goes on to ask. "The federal employees are now the elite, upper class - like in Russia. It is the reason why Washington and suburbs are the highest priced housing in the country. Right now most people in USA do not know about the high government pay. But, they need to be told!"

And, according to a USA Today article, this: "Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months - and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted."Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time - in pay and hiring - during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector."The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available."When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000."

You might ask how on the earth the government is intending to pay down its escalating debt when they not only pay their people so extravagantly, but keep adding more of them to the payroll? The answer is that they do not. Rampant socialism needs government to be big and then bigger. How else will they control every aspect of your life? This money has to come from some where. This debt has to be paid. It will come in the form of more printed money and escalating inflation. I remember the raging inflation of the early eighties when a mortgage was going for 21% interest. Can you see our younger generation making their mortgage payments with rates like that? That is when people walk away from their homes like so many folks in the US are doing now, but for much different reasons.

Debt is a useful tool, at times, but one must never wallow in it.