JayB

I think that you could pretty well answer the question by looking at job categories where the government is having difficulty filling vacancies or retaining staff. Those are pretty much the only categories where you could make a reasonable claim that the combination of total compensation plus intangibles that the private sector has to offer is more attractive than those offered by the government.

I don't think they should! In fact, if you have a problem with it, I would recommend you work on (re)organizing private sector workers for greater job security, better wages, and benefits. It'd be rather more productive than beating up on unionized workers and crying like a child whose ice cream cone went plop and now wants someone elses. How has that worked out for, oh, say, the United Auto Workers-- or, hmmm, I don't know; the textile industry? Better wipe my ice cream off of your shoe, junior--and shine mine while you're down there. A trip through any virtually any small town in the Northeast will drive home the same point. The number of vacant and decaying mills and factories lining the shores of virtually every river in the region is staggering. Combine high fixed costs with low productivity and the outcome will be the same every time.

If a given skillset won't generate a return sufficient to generate any profits (Help: Total Comp/Hour = $20. Labor value added/hour = $10. Operating loss from labor/hour = $10), how do you propose to fund the said benefits and wages. In reality. Here. Now. Yes, see, this is a lanuage I understand. I worked in a public elementary school for a year and the inefficiency drove me insane and forced me to move to higher ed. I kept thinking that if only we could have the students be generating a product(s) AS part of the learning process, the schools could actually afford good teaching supplies/aids/experiences and - hate to say it - more competent teachers! Everyone would benefit. Except for the slacker teachers who would have to find jobs better suited to them. I was actually just talking about private sector workers here, but... Maybe we should consider outsourcing primary and secondary education to the Finn's...

I'd actually be happy if you had to stop at booths and pay a few bucks to have a state employee in a booth guess your age and weight, since this would eliminate the illusion that they are being paid to perform a function that is either useful or necessary.

Nothing enhances efficiency and effectiveness like paying more than necessary to generate a given public good or service. Why automate toll booths when you can staff them at $66K per year plus future pension and healtchare liabilities?

Reallocate military spending. Then try to figure out what your going to do with the rest of the money. Next question. Note the "reality," "here," and "Now" caveats above.

What, like, you've got a better self deprecating sense of humor than the rest of us? At least one of you.

Exactly.

Jesus Christ Almighty. I'd love to watch the faces of quite a few posters on this site as they work their way through that list. #62. Knowing What's Best for Poor People. "White people spend a lot of time of worrying about poor people. It takes up a pretty significant portion of their day. They feel guilty and sad that poor people shop at Wal*Mart instead of Whole Foods, that they vote Republican instead of Democratic, that they go to Community College/get a job instead of studying art at a University. It is a poorly guarded secret that, deep down, white people believe if given money and education that all poor people would be EXACTLY like them. In fact, the only reason that poor people make the choices they do is because they have not been given the means to make the right choices and care about the right things. A great way to make white people feel good is to tell them about situations where poor people changed how they were doing things because they were given the ‘whiter’ option. “Back in my old town, people used to shop at Wal*Mart and then this non-profit organization came in and set up a special farmers co-op so that we could buy more local produce, and within two weeks the Wal*Mart shut down and we elected our first Democratic representative in 40 years.” White people will first ask which non-profit and are they hiring? After that, they will be filled with euphoria and will invite you to more parties to tell this story to their friends, so that they can feel great. But it is ESSENTIAL that you reassert that poor people do not make decisions based on free will. That news could crush white people and their hope for the future."

If a given skillset won't generate a return sufficient to generate any profits (Help: Total Comp/Hour = $20. Labor value added/hour = $10. Operating loss from labor/hour = $10), how do you propose to fund the said benefits and wages. In reality. Here. Now. Not after the Lefto-Rapture arrives and the ghost of Marx smites the capitalists while all of the devout socialists smile smugly from their emission/cruelty/racism/sexism/classism/speciesism/lookism free sustaino-collectives.

Ahh yes, the "Buy the product of their labor" fallacy. Unless the guys in the shipyards fabricating the yachts can all afford to buy...yachts, it'll all come crashing down.

Oh, come on now - really. Until the leftist equivalent of "The Rapture" comes along, the system collapses, and a clique of intellectuals running a police state has secured "the means of production," you know very well that they'll just run out and blow their "living" wages on UFC pay-per-view matches, lift-kits for their F350's, ATV's, Bugles snack-mix, Milwaukee's Best Tallboys, Ammo, and of course...TruckNutz.

Teddy and Co insured that Uncle Sugar took care of the tab for most of that one, I think. I suspect that the nature and extent of the corruption and graft associated with that project would have left even Boss Tweed shaking his head in disbelief.

It's more the inefficiency than the taxes. All of the stuff that I've complained about should bother folks on the left as well, since it means that the state ultimately delivers fewer services to the people and causes that need them than it would have if it used tax revenue as efficiently as possible. BTW - I suspect that the public sector in Washington is a model of integrity and efficiency relative to MA.

If by these days, you mean, "any time in the last 30 years" I'd have to agree with you.

I assume you've factored the fact that all of our debt is denominated in......dollars into the above statement concerning exchange rates... A rapid decline in the value of the dollar may well translate into higher borrowing costs at some point, but that's yet to manifest itself in treasury yields.

The list of positions affected by that FY "adjustment" was pages long. My personal experience is limited to higher ed, and most of the positions affected were specialized, like childcare center workers, lab technicians, etc. Maybe in Seattle they could "jump ship" to better paying jobs prior to this increase, but a huge percentage of gov't employees are in cities with depressed economies (I'm from the eastside of the state). The best employer BY FAR is the gov't in most smaller towns. People rarely jump ship from gov't jobs in eastside towns, not without a really strong reason. Yah - agreed - the folks are voluntarily sticking with their jobs for a reason. Either the tangibles (total compensation), or intangibles (job security, regular - to the second - hours) are enticing them to stay in the jobs voluntarily. If the grass were really considerably greener in the private sector, then the state employees in these jobs would have already taken jobs in the private sector, and the state would be struggling to fill vacancies at the comp levels offered. Better not let the folks at the water cooler know that you are giving away the secrets of the temple here on cc.com....

I think I heard the sound of tens of thousands of state employees in Eastern Washington simultaneously making the "Shhhhhh!" sound all the way out here in Boston....

Actually, they (Nick Licatta) plan to milk you for more fines with red-light cameras. Far more effecting at boosting revenue than improving safety.

Sounds quite hard to believe, especially when you factor in future pension liabilities, etc - let alone money wages. Then there's the matter of how many public employees would actually stay in their current jobs if they knew that they could score a 25% raise by jumping ship.

Also put the bit about the effect of asset-class-that-never-loses value, and the sector that will never sustain a downturn or correction in bold. Open your eyes, class warrior.

In 2002 >50% of Oakland's firefighters made over $100k. One made $108k in overtime alone The change taker doesn't get paid to play poker The only thing that keeps them out of the top category is that their functions couldn't be automated with a net gain to society. I've always thought that they were underworked and overpaid, and that the wages that they've managed to secure far exceed those would would be required to staff the positions with qualified people. Unfortunately, questioning their compensation has become rather taboo as of late.

yawn - the demand for services is rather constant, no? Or in the next recession should we just stop having a legal system? I think that easing off of the auto-COLA's, brining employee health insurance contributions in line with those that prevail in the private sector, transitioning to defined contribution plans instead of fixed pensions, tying compensation in manual/clerical and all other easily replaceable positions to private sector averages, eliminating promotion based on seniority, making the process of elminating poor employees more efficient, etc would provide for better services in good times, and make the need for either higher taxes or service cuts less probable in recessions. Keep pretending that civilization will collapse if the Document Specialist 4's actually make market wages, pay for more of their own health care, earn raises instead of having them granted automatically, etc though if you need to....

Not subject to economic realities? Huh? King County had layoffs this decade! http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/82930_layoffs16.shtml http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/news/2001/061401letteremp.htm Funny how you didn't point the finger at the one group in the public sector who could best be considering overpaid - Firemen. Firemen are up there, but when change-makers are clearing $66K in total compensation, there's plenty of competition for the top prize.

Well, I agree with your argument as far as the types of jobs you mention (clerical, manual, etc.), BUT there actually are a lot of "highly skilled" positions that are local, state or federally funded, like in higher education. Beware of making such a broad generalization. I'd include some university professors in the topmost category, but relatively few outside of science, engineering, medicine, or business have skillsets that would enable them to earn a higher salary in the private sector, and most of them would be loathe to make such a move. In the case of university faculty, the main risk of uncompetitive salary packages would be losing them to other universities.