[quote=no_such_reality]The pensions, the work schedules, the lax management, the staffing levels, and the politico pandering all go hand in hand.
The pensions are just the most obvious piece that is out of whack. It’s the easiest piece to see how poorly the politicians have been at being stewards of our resources.[/quote]
It’s the easiest to see because it’s the most transparent. If you’ve seen what (I’m assuming) BG and I have seen, you’d know that there is a ton of fraud and abuse, and the vast majority of it is related to **private** contractors (ever hear about the $40 screwdrivers, etc.?) and other “special interests” like developers who end up costing taxpayers millions or billions of dollars…but by the time the problem becomes obvious, they are long gone, leaving public sector employees as the convenient scapegoats for the eventual economic consequences.
Mind you, the reason you’re hearing so much about public pensions is NOT because they are what’s causing the financial problems (3-5% of the state’s budget, for instance), but because the private interests who are looking to take control of public assets and revenue streams are trying to get unions out of their way. They are trying to villainize public sector employees and unions because unions are the only thing standing between them and their goals.
I can assure you, the “private market” Utopia does not exist. If there is any evidence to show that, over time, the privatization of goods and services traditionally provided by govt entities results in improved services for similar or lower costs, I’d like to see it. All that we’ll get from privatization is the loss of the few remaining decent jobs that are available to the general public. Taxpayers/consumers of public goods and services will not benefit from privatization. There is no **evidence** to show that they will, not even from right-wing sources.
