TG: So you want to shift the blame (or a large portion of the blame) from the State Employee Unions to poor people?
Wow, what Union do you work for?
Here are the facts, plain and simple from the California Nightmare:
*California leads the country in spending on government employees.
*California spends twice as much as the national average on education (with dismal results).
How do we stop the insanity?
Let’s start with state and federal employees. No sane state can justify paying government employees compensation packages 40% to 60% higher than the private sector. Have you ever been to the DMV? Is government run efficiently for all that money? Is it run effectively for all those big salaries given to public service employees?
In many cases, government employs people who couldn’t get a job in the private sector. Do they deserve compensation 60% higher than you or me? On what grounds? Do they deserve to retire at age 55, while you and I work till the day we die, to pay all the taxes necessary for their huge pensions and unlimited health benefits?
There just aren’t enough taxpayers, nor is there enough money in any state or country, to allow people to retire at age 55 and collect pensions for 25 to 30 years (or more). The numbers just don’t add up- unless you expect the rest of us to pay 70% or 80% tax rates until the day we die to pay for this “privileged class” of federal and state employees. And even that might not be enough.
Reality: State Workers and their Unions are a BIG part of the problem, period.
Hell, for that matter if we weren’t paying so much in taxes and if the state wasn’t so hostile to business there would probably be a lot less poor people.
CUT THIS GOV’T NOW!!
Not teachers, not fireman, not police – cut those damn cubies who do about 1 or 2 hours worth of work in a 8 hour day!!