[quote=CA renter]
Like brian (IIRC) said above, there’s an assumption that just because someone works *directly* for a govt entity — as opposed to contracting with the govt — that the govt is overpaying. I’ve seen just as often a private party (company or individual) being overcompensated for things, varying from labor to real estate, to goods received, etc.
I think it’s a stretch to assume that govt employees are automatically less efficient or more expensive (especially when one considers the quality of the work involved) than those in the private market.[/quote]
Correct, not all government employees are less efficient or more expensive than their counterparts. There are plenty of examples when government is being run efficiently. However, by its nature, government is an inefficient enterprise. The forces that would make businesses efficient are either nonexistent or have minimal effect on government.
Also, yes, there are times when businesses do overpay. However, the critical difference is that these businesses actually spend their own money and if they continue mismanagement of that money, they will go out of business. Government is not subject to that particular quality.
But I did want to address a particular statement of yours.
[quote]All of the wealth amassed by the very rich comes from somewhere as well — it comes from workers, customers, and others who are captive to the financial system that is created by and for those with tremendous wealth.[/quote]
This is what is called “Zero sum”, the line of thinking that if someone makes money, someone else must have lost that money, that there is a pie that cannot grow bigger and is limited. This particular phenomenon does occur in government.
However, businesses do not work this way. When businesses work, they often create a bigger pie or more pies where nothing existed before. Often the situation businesses create is win-win: the business improves the lives of its workers, through continued work and success. The business also improves the lives of its customers, allowing them access to a new product, superior product, or a cheaper product.
For the zero sum situation to be valid, there wouldn’t be much improvement in mankind’s society, even as time goes on.
However, as the United States has shown, businesses and its capitalist system have not only created millionaires where there were previously NONE (“The Millionaire Next Door” – 80% of new millionaires are first generation), it has also brought up many workers of those businesses and improved their quality of life. There are many technologies and benefits that were available to only the richest before but are now available even to the poorest of the United States.
When you see people on welfare having LCD tv’s and iPhone’s, sometimes you gotta admit that the United States must not be that bad for the poor.
