[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

I stand corrected. Reading further down in this thread I see the direct job-for-job comparison by USAToday. I was surprosed by this result, and retract my previous statements.

Fire them all.

[quote=FormerSanDiegan][quote=jficquette]We are talking double the pay for private employees. Double the pay for jobs that are mostly unneeded.[/quote]

It is NOT double the pay for the same or similar job. It is a comparison of general population (which includes retail employees, sanitation, fast-food, etc) to a specific population which is primarily administrative.
(most of the government jobs that would be equivalent to these lower paying jobs are contracted out and not performed by federal employees).

It is an apples-to-oranges comparison.[/quote]

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

I stand corrected. Reading further down in this thread I see the direct job-for-job comparison by USAToday. I was surprosed by this result, and retract my previous statements.

Fire them all.

[quote=FormerSanDiegan][quote=jficquette]We are talking double the pay for private employees. Double the pay for jobs that are mostly unneeded.[/quote]

It is NOT double the pay for the same or similar job. It is a comparison of general population (which includes retail employees, sanitation, fast-food, etc) to a specific population which is primarily administrative.
(most of the government jobs that would be equivalent to these lower paying jobs are contracted out and not performed by federal employees).

It is an apples-to-oranges comparison.[/quote]

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

[quote=jficquette]We are talking double the pay for private employees. Double the pay for jobs that are mostly unneeded.[/quote]

It is NOT double the pay for the same or similar job. It is a comparison of general population (which includes retail employees, sanitation, fast-food, etc) to a specific population which is primarily administrative.
(most of the government jobs that would be equivalent to these lower paying jobs are contracted out and not perfomred by federal employees).

It is an apples-to-oranges comparison.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

[quote=jficquette]We are talking double the pay for private employees. Double the pay for jobs that are mostly unneeded.[/quote]

It is NOT double the pay for the same or similar job. It is a comparison of general population (which includes retail employees, sanitation, fast-food, etc) to a specific population which is primarily administrative.
(most of the government jobs that would be equivalent to these lower paying jobs are contracted out and not perfomred by federal employees).

It is an apples-to-oranges comparison.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

[quote=jficquette]We are talking double the pay for private employees. Double the pay for jobs that are mostly unneeded.[/quote]

It is NOT double the pay for the same or similar job. It is a comparison of general population (which includes retail employees, sanitation, fast-food, etc) to a specific population which is primarily administrative.
(most of the government jobs that would be equivalent to these lower paying jobs are contracted out and not perfomred by federal employees).

It is an apples-to-oranges comparison.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

[quote=jficquette]We are talking double the pay for private employees. Double the pay for jobs that are mostly unneeded.[/quote]

It is NOT double the pay for the same or similar job. It is a comparison of general population (which includes retail employees, sanitation, fast-food, etc) to a specific population which is primarily administrative.
(most of the government jobs that would be equivalent to these lower paying jobs are contracted out and not perfomred by federal employees).

It is an apples-to-oranges comparison.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

[quote=jficquette]We are talking double the pay for private employees. Double the pay for jobs that are mostly unneeded.[/quote]

It is NOT double the pay for the same or similar job. It is a comparison of general population (which includes retail employees, sanitation, fast-food, etc) to a specific population which is primarily administrative.
(most of the government jobs that would be equivalent to these lower paying jobs are contracted out and not perfomred by federal employees).

It is an apples-to-oranges comparison.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

I agree in general on reducing the number of federal employees, but the comparison given above is not apples-to-apples.

The metric used above is intended to inflame, rather than inform.

The private employment number include all employees, including fast food workers, retail, construciton laborers, etc.
The federal government employees skew towards higher educated positions. The equivalent of the above private jobs (cafeteria work, construciton labor, retail) are contracted out to the private sector by the federal government.

In fact, as we reduce federal employment to fewer numbers, the approach has been to keep the oversight and management government positions, and outsource the lower-paid positions.
So, as we right-size the government, this metric will probably continue to skew higher for the average federal employee, compared to average private employee.

A better metric would be a comparison of wages and benefits for similar positions at various levels. If one looks at that comparison I would suspect that the higher end jobs (engineering, management) pay signficantly more in salary/benefits in the private sector than in Federal employment, while lower end jobs likely pay more in the federal govt than in privsate employment.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

I agree in general on reducing the number of federal employees, but the comparison given above is not apples-to-apples.

The metric used above is intended to inflame, rather than inform.

The private employment number include all employees, including fast food workers, retail, construciton laborers, etc.
The federal government employees skew towards higher educated positions. The equivalent of the above private jobs (cafeteria work, construciton labor, retail) are contracted out to the private sector by the federal government.

In fact, as we reduce federal employment to fewer numbers, the approach has been to keep the oversight and management government positions, and outsource the lower-paid positions.
So, as we right-size the government, this metric will probably continue to skew higher for the average federal employee, compared to average private employee.

A better metric would be a comparison of wages and benefits for similar positions at various levels. If one looks at that comparison I would suspect that the higher end jobs (engineering, management) pay signficantly more in salary/benefits in the private sector than in Federal employment, while lower end jobs likely pay more in the federal govt than in privsate employment.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

I agree in general on reducing the number of federal employees, but the comparison given above is not apples-to-apples.

The metric used above is intended to inflame, rather than inform.

The private employment number include all employees, including fast food workers, retail, construciton laborers, etc.
The federal government employees skew towards higher educated positions. The equivalent of the above private jobs (cafeteria work, construciton labor, retail) are contracted out to the private sector by the federal government.

In fact, as we reduce federal employment to fewer numbers, the approach has been to keep the oversight and management government positions, and outsource the lower-paid positions.
So, as we right-size the government, this metric will probably continue to skew higher for the average federal employee, compared to average private employee.

A better metric would be a comparison of wages and benefits for similar positions at various levels. If one looks at that comparison I would suspect that the higher end jobs (engineering, management) pay signficantly more in salary/benefits in the private sector than in Federal employment, while lower end jobs likely pay more in the federal govt than in privsate employment.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

I agree in general on reducing the number of federal employees, but the comparison given above is not apples-to-apples.

The metric used above is intended to inflame, rather than inform.

The private employment number include all employees, including fast food workers, retail, construciton laborers, etc.
The federal government employees skew towards higher educated positions. The equivalent of the above private jobs (cafeteria work, construciton labor, retail) are contracted out to the private sector by the federal government.

In fact, as we reduce federal employment to fewer numbers, the approach has been to keep the oversight and management government positions, and outsource the lower-paid positions.
So, as we right-size the government, this metric will probably continue to skew higher for the average federal employee, compared to average private employee.

A better metric would be a comparison of wages and benefits for similar positions at various levels. If one looks at that comparison I would suspect that the higher end jobs (engineering, management) pay signficantly more in salary/benefits in the private sector than in Federal employment, while lower end jobs likely pay more in the federal govt than in privsate employment.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

I agree in general on reducing the number of federal employees, but the comparison given above is not apples-to-apples.

The metric used above is intended to inflame, rather than inform.

The private employment number include all employees, including fast food workers, retail, construciton laborers, etc.
The federal government employees skew towards higher educated positions. The equivalent of the above private jobs (cafeteria work, construciton labor, retail) are contracted out to the private sector by the federal government.

In fact, as we reduce federal employment to fewer numbers, the approach has been to keep the oversight and management government positions, and outsource the lower-paid positions.
So, as we right-size the government, this metric will probably continue to skew higher for the average federal employee, compared to average private employee.

A better metric would be a comparison of wages and benefits for similar positions at various levels. If one looks at that comparison I would suspect that the higher end jobs (engineering, management) pay signficantly more in salary/benefits in the private sector than in Federal employment, while lower end jobs likely pay more in the federal govt than in privsate employment.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=FormerSanDiegan]… In other news Hal Lindsey has predicted the end of the world in 2012.[/quote]

He’s been doing that since the mid-eighties but keeps moving the date up :=)[/quote]

Yes, the end-of-world prediction game is a waste of time. If you are wrong, everyone will point it out. If you are right, noone will care. Anyone want to bet on whether the world ends in 2012 ?
I’m willing to put up any amount of $ for anyone who wants the other side of that bet.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=FormerSanDiegan]… In other news Hal Lindsey has predicted the end of the world in 2012.[/quote]

He’s been doing that since the mid-eighties but keeps moving the date up :=)[/quote]

Yes, the end-of-world prediction game is a waste of time. If you are wrong, everyone will point it out. If you are right, noone will care. Anyone want to bet on whether the world ends in 2012 ?
I’m willing to put up any amount of $ for anyone who wants the other side of that bet.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=FormerSanDiegan]… In other news Hal Lindsey has predicted the end of the world in 2012.[/quote]

He’s been doing that since the mid-eighties but keeps moving the date up :=)[/quote]

Yes, the end-of-world prediction game is a waste of time. If you are wrong, everyone will point it out. If you are right, noone will care. Anyone want to bet on whether the world ends in 2012 ?
I’m willing to put up any amount of $ for anyone who wants the other side of that bet.

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