[quote=CA renter]What I’m referring to is the cuts in wages and benefits that the public employees will be taking. It is, essentially, a tax on them, in order to pay for the misdeeds of the financial industry.
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Allow me to make a counter argument using California as an example. The reason we have so many public employees (with associated benefits) right now is because of the inflated tax revenues that came in during the late-90s (high tech/stock market bubble) and the mid-2000s (real estate/stock market bubble). Were it not for these bubbles, many of these public employees would not be employed by state and local governments, nor would their comp and benefits be where they are today. The money wouldn’t have been there. Consequently, I could argue that a lot of these folks got jobs and compensation that they never should have gotten in the first place – that is, they received a free lunch courtesy of the bubbles – and that now it’s time to go back to doing whatever they would have been doing had those jobs not been available. That’s the glass is half full argument. Your argument is that the bubble jobs and comp should be continued for the mere reason that they were created in the first place, and anything less than this is an unfair burden placed on public employees. That’s the glass is half empty argument. Which I don’t buy.
My glass is typically half full even when I’m bearish. But that’s just me.
