arl Marx was right—sort of. He was right in saying that society is riven by class warfare, but he got the classes wrong. It’s not the case that capitalists exploit workers, but rather that tax consumers exploit taxpayers.
That truth has long been kept hidden from the average American by deceptive propaganda about the workings of democracy and the supposed nobility of “public service.” But people are starting to comprehend. Articles in major newspapers have recently disclosed the crucial fact that government employees are generally paid substantially more than comparable private-sector workers and enjoy more generous and secure benefits. And now Steven Greenhut’s Plunder! will no doubt fan the flames of resentment against the political class for its constant and stepped-up picking of the pockets of productive people.
Greenhut, a California-based writer (whose previous book, Abuse of Power, I reviewed in the July 2005 Freeman) shows that government employees, especially unionized ones in states where unions have great political clout, are living it up on wealth extracted from the rest of the population via taxation. To make matters worse, politicians keep granting them pay and benefit increases even when the current levels clearly will lead to unmanageable deficits.
For some places the wolf is already at the door. The city of Vallejo, California, recently declared bankruptcy because tax revenues no longer cover its extremely heavy personnel costs, including a city manger whose total compensation package is $400,000 and a 190-person fire department, half of whom earn more than $170,000 per year. The city is decrepit, but the “public servants” go on bleeding the taxpayers white.
Not only are these people paid astoundingly high salaries, but they also can retire at an early age and collect 90 percent of their final salary for life. On top of that, many claim purportedly work-related disabilities, shielding half their generous benefits from taxation. There are public boards to evaluate those claims, but (naturally) they are dominated by the public unions and rubberstamp nearly every one.
Politicians of both major parties go along with the plunder. Democrats, who receive vast campaign “contributions” (unionized workers actually have no choice; their money goes wherever union officials dictate) have long favored schemes to redistribute wealth as long as it leads to votes. Republicans have more recently gotten aboard. Most of them can’t resist the “law and order” cachet that comes from helping police, firefighter, and prison-guard unions get what they want. Both parties treat the rare politician who dares to buck the system like a leper.
Greenhut gives his readers a superb lesson in Public Choice theory. The subject of overpaid, coddled government employees is a pure case of concentrated benefits triumphing over dispersed costs in a democracy.
Whenever the gravy train comes under attack, the unions and their political allies counterattack with a powerful arsenal. A particularly egregious lie they resort to is that their high, early pensions are justified because police officers and firefighters tend to die at an early age. Greenhut produces evidence conclusively refuting that claim. Truth, however, doesn’t matter. The unions and their allies go right on making this and other false statements to keep the public complacent. Another devious tactic is to seek out auditors who will use creative accounting to mask the extent of the underfunding problem.
Greenhut specifically targets the public education system, so high in cost and so low in productivity. Taxpayers are forced to pay huge amounts of money to prop up a socialistic monstrosity that many of them have never had anything to do with. The education establishment and teachers’ unions never stop demanding more, with syrupy messages that it’s all “for the kids.”
The outrages are not just financial, either. Greenhut shows that our “public servants” don’t just live high on the hog at everyone else’s expense. They also connive to put themselves above the law. In California, for example, many government employees are eligible for special license plates that identify them as part of the “family” and thus immune to punishment for traffic violations. Moreover, there is something akin to the Mafia’s code of silence that lets police and guards get away with acts of violence that ought to land them in jail.
Greenhut sums matters up, writing, “We’ve seen a massive transfer of wealth from the private sector to the public sector, from taxpayers to tax consumers. The result is a class of coddled, overpaid and underworked public ‘servants’ whose pay and retirement levels cannot be sustained without cutbacks in public services and higher taxes.”
Plunder!: How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation
by
Public employees have become the new American elite. In the past, Government workers earned less money but had slightly better job security and benefits than Americans working in the private sector. These days, government workers not only earn more than other Americans, but they have vastly superior benefits, including pension plans that often allow them to retire as early as age 50 with 100 percent or more of their final year's salary. These pensions often to $100,000 a year and come with cost of living adjustments and free lifetime medical care. Getting a government job and sticking with it is like winning the lottery. This plundering of treasuries, made possible by aggressive union tactics and spineless politicians, results in higher taxes and massive debts that ultimately will be borne by our grandchildren. The current situation is "unsustainable." The problem goes beyond finances. Government unions protect even the worst public employees from accountability. Schools don't attempt to fire incompetent teachers-and union protections make it nearly impossible to even fire ones accused of abuse and other misdeeds. As government gets bigger and more powerful, government officials have more uncontrolled power over the rest of us-to enrich and protect themselves at the expense of the public good. The public's servants have truly become the public's masters. (less)
Public employees have become the new American elite. In the past, Government workers earned less money but had slightly better job security and benefits than Americans working in the private sector. These days, government workers not only earn more than other Americans, but they have vastly superior benefits, including pension plans that often allow them to retire as early as age 50 with 100 percent or more of their final year's salary. These pensions often to $100,000 a year and come with cost of living adjustments and free lifetime medical care. Getting a government job and sticking with it is like winning the lottery. This plundering of treasuries, made possible by aggressive union tactics and spineless politicians, results in higher taxes and massive debts that ultimately will be borne by our grandchildren. The current situation is "unsustainable." The problem goes beyond finances. Government unions protect even the worst public employees from accountability. Schools don't attempt to fire incompetent teachers-and union protections make it nearly impossible to even fire ones accused of abuse and other misdeeds. As government gets bigger and more powerful, government officials have more uncontrolled power over the rest of us-to enrich and protect themselves at the expense of the public good. The public's servants have truly become the public's masters. (less)
The Monetary Elite Vs. Gold's Honest Discipline
The Monetary Elite vs. Gold's Honest Discipline in a Nutshell. Many people believe that monetary gold inhibits the Fed from effectively managing money on behalf of the public interest. The Monetary Elite vs. Gold s Honest Discipline presents evidence in support of an opposing view. First, the Fed wields its substantial power on behalf of a monetary elite not on behalf of the general public. Second, this power essentially depends on a monetary unit that is undefined and that the Fed can create effortlessly, at virtually no cost, at will, and by fiat. Third, the banking system is empowered by governmentally granted special privileges to pyramid these intrinsically worthless and totally undefined reserves that the Fed creates out of thin air into still more dubious dollar claims, which banks distribute at interest throughout the economy. This book explains why the current structure of our monetary system is fatally flawed. If, however, our monetary unit were defined as a weight of precious metal and if the banking system did not enjoy special privileges that circumvent the free market, the monetary elite s self-serving mischief-making would be significantly curtailed. Under such circumstances, all but a handful of specially privileged elites would be better off and our monetary system would reflect free markets principles.
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