[quote=CA renter][quote=davelj]That’s an imperfect but reasonably good analogy.
And the Uncle Sam that’s bailing us out is… Us. And the specific “Us” that’s bailing us out is principally comprised of taxpayers in the top 10% of income earners, who collectively pay 70% of all federal income taxes (including SS and Medicare). And federal income taxes + SS + Medicare + corporate taxes comprise over 95% of all federal revenue. Now, I’m not complaining about this, I’m merely pointing out that it’s principally the top income earners who are financing this bail out. Which in many ways makes sense as arguably they – collectively – are the principal beneficiaries.[/quote]
Of course, one could also argue that all the public employees who are being made the scapegoats for our “financial crisis” are the ones who will really end up paying for this bailout.[/quote]
The fact is that most public employees don’t earn enough as it is (to have a big enough tax bill) to pay for this bailout. What percentage of public employees earn over $75K/year? It’s probably not a huge number. Now, that doesn’t mean they’re not overpaid (including pension benefits, etc.) in aggregate. I’m sure that in some cases they are and in some cases they aren’t. But that’s an issue that’s going to ultimately be decided by taxpayers (and their representatives). And it seems pretty clear that the taxpayers want to reduce the overall public compensation burden. Now, that will come with reduced services – there’s no free lunch – but I suspect taxpayers will learn to live with that.
