By Danny
Curm's dream economy has arrived:
Read the full accompanying article here:
• CHART OF THE DAY: How The Government Payroll Replaced Goods-Producing JobsWe're all socialists now.
More people now work for the gummint than people who make things. Add to that all the people on welfare, social security and then add the regulatory burden on the remaining productive workers, and you can see the problem.
The ticks now weigh more than the dog.
But hey, we can always print money. Wheeee!
14 comments:
Corporations get tax bonus/credits for moving manufacturing jobs and technology overseas, leaving Americians service and health care jobs here. Not caring for employee abuse and environmental waste polluting the earth and their countries.
Look at Russia complaining that China pollutes rivers that cross borders, Pakistani barefoot workers dismanteling old ships for scrap for $15. a day. Then ask youself with the products you buy, where were they made and what are the consequenses.
At least with the corporations now able to buy elections the law states they need to identify themselves on the ads. So if you are concerned with lies and one sided views you can boycott those corporations. Don't trust word of mouth on politicians, look at their voting record and donations from corporate america.
Ah, Danny, Danny, Danny...
1. "Curm's dream economy." Nonsense. But then, being restrained by fact has, sadly, not always been a characteristic of your posts on the economy. But if making stuff up helps get you through the day, dream on.
2. Note,please, that the comparison is between "goods producing jobs" and "government employees," and it begins the comparison in 1939. It takes no notice of the increase [substantial] in population since then, which would inevitably involve an increase in government sector jobs [more police, more firemen, more tax assessors, etc.] And it comes as no surprise that the manufacturing sector of the American economy has been in decline since the 1950s as more and more people worked in service "industries" rather than in manufacturing and more and more manufacturing jobs went overseas seeking cheap labor. And it does not note either, since it includes farming as a goods-producing industry, that American agriculture has produced, annually, more and more with fewer and fewer farm workers --- if Danny and his source were not interested in manipulating the numbers to make a political point, they'd account that an increase in efficiency, not a "decline in jobs." But hey, why let honest analysis of facts get in the way of a political point, right?
3. And of course the current numbers are taken from a time when the US is wallowing in the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression, caused in no small part by a lack of government regulation of the financial industry and a significant reduction in regulatory personnel under the Bush administration [fewer IRS accountants to audit returns, track down evasion, fraud. Fewer Federal Reserve compliance accountants to do the same, etc. ]
You know the saying: there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
"The ticks now weigh more than the dog."
Ya gotta love it!
I hereby nominate that line as the WCF Gummint saying of the year!!
This insidious growth of Governments is especially pronounced on the local level. Just look at Ogden as an example. My own little bucolic town in Davis County is another example. When I moved here 17 years ago the town was about 11,000 population. It has grown about 30% since then, but the city government has grown around 250%. In other words the city government has grown almost ten times faster than the population.
Oz,
Yep. Any way you look at it, it looks the same, 'cept Curm's way.
Gummint is now bigger than good-producing jobs. (Of course, we still sue each other and write gummint funded mortgages for each other - service jobs, you know.)
But then, Curm works for the gummint, just like my granddaddy and lots of other good people do and did.
It's just that you gotta have real work going on to support 'em. And my sense is, we don't have enough anymore. The poor, skinny old dog is mostly ticks now. Just look at the graph!
But we do still print the world's money. I guess we'll keep the ponzi going as long as people take our paper for their products.
Curmudgeon,
It is obvious you do not keep up with the current statistics which show that more people working for government earn higher wages in those jobs than people working for private industry or the self-employed earn.
The pay scale for government employees is also substantially higher than the private pay scale.... So is the benefits package.
I don't know what you teach or used to teach but I hope you know more about whatever that is than you do about this subject.
Yea, I am so Glad that so many people are pissed at the tick now out weighing the dog. Now let see who has been in charge of this non sense.
It has been the Republican Party, Period. The have all the power, from dog catcher, to city councils, to county commissions, to all the executive branches in all forms, to the house and the senate, the Governor, to the Supreme court justices here in Utah. As a Matter of Fact I remember hearing that Rep. Hansen is the only Democrat Elected North of Salt lake city. That is One in 30 members of the legislature. So I'm so glad that you guys wine about this but look at who is doing this to you. It is not the Democrats........
When you really look at this chart in the above article it all goes with the George W. bush years and the 6 years they had the control of the house and senate and the supreme court on the federal level as well. so Don't blame me or Curm we voted Democratic. and I think it would be wise that you do to or you will have more of the same.
Just a note of interest that since the republican Cain was elected in Massachusetts the stock market has gone down now for 4 straight days.
Keep in mind, that many of the gummint jobs (ones that drive the Northern Utah economy) are part of the defense budget. In Danny's dream economy we'd surely close Hill Field.
Note the data I presented were for the entire US economy, not just Utah.
But the issue still holds for Utah, where the same trend has been followed.
This on that - from SLC Tribune - News of the Weird - 26 Jan 10:
WHAT RECESSION? A December USA Today analysis revealed that during the first 18 months of the recent recession, beginning December 2007, the number of federal employees with six-figure salaries shot up from 14 percent of the federal work force to 19 percent.
Defense Department civilian executives earning more than $150,000 went from 1,868 to more than 10,000, and the Department of Transportation, which had only one person earning $170,000 in December 2007, now has 1,690. The average federal salary is $71,206, compared with private sector's $40,331.
Yes indeed Danny, those damn ticks are multiplying faster and getting fatter by the second.
OZ, at the base 15 years ago there were about 15 GS-15's as Directors managing 2,000 to 6,000 employees. Before I recently retired now there are over 125 GS-15 on base some manageing just 90 employees. They make over $100K - $150K a year so you can see how some government employees have it made.
Also a few are retired military so they are the real double dippers.
Oz,
you are comparing apples and oranges. There is a reason why the avg Fed Gov salary is so much higher than the avg private sector salaray. There are hardly any or no minimum wage (or low wage jobs) in the Fed Gov. Private contractors provide most of the low wage jobs for the Fed Gov today.
Gen Patton:
I thought the gov't had to pay private contractors per Davis Bacon Act --> Union wage, which for around here is about twice what the private sector earns for the same work
js,
BB
BB, they sometimes hire retired government workers who already have health care provided for them. They do pay a good wage depending on the skill level. They can classify you on a low scale to get around Davis Bacon unless you are a manager skill. Davis Bacon is more for trades, masons, electricians with the local union scale than for paper shufflers.
G Patton
It is not me that is comparing apples and oranges, I was merely reporting on a USA Today article. But none the less, your rationale still does not seem to explain the outrageous growth in hundred grand plus salaries in gummint. It is also difficult to believe that the huge differential between gummint and private sector salaries could be explained by your example.
I don't have the stats now, but I do recall reading a few months ago that the same condition applies to state and local gummints when it comes to a growing disparity between their salaries and those in the private sector. I don't think there is any doubt that gummint employee numbers and their growing salaries are out stripping the private sector all over the country.
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