Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
New York Times, July 2nd – [Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes] shakes his head. “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services…”
Big Government, July 7th – On July 1st this year, 40,000 or so AFSCME state employees happily collected a 7% percent “cost of living adjustment”. July 1st next year, they will get another 7%. In short, in 2 years, they will get a 14% raise.
h/t Rob Z.
Previous!
I must say I’m not looking forward to the whining , surly service and general pissiness that all these civil servants will start on when the gravy train stops, whole departments gets fired, and pay increases become distant memories.
Oh, wait. “whining , surly service and general pissiness” How will I tell the difference?
Does the trouble in Greece come to mind.
For the 12 months ending May 31, the inflation rate ranged from a low of -2.7 to a high of 2.6. And they’re getting 7% to make up for it?
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
If Ill. wants to know where the cash went maybe they should check the pockets of those soldiers of the Chicago political machine who recently absconded to Washington on the patronage train.
Cost of living? In the current economic environment, inflation is a non-issue, particularly in the US. What a joke. Government continue in blissfully ignoring their depleted treasuries.
We’ve seen the whinging already start in New Jersey where governor Christie is taking the necessary steps to reign in government spending. Note to public union members: your day of reckoning is coming.
Rhetorical question: what the h*ll does a government employee need a union for, anyways?
An incredible juxtaposition. The pain train is coming fast to America. Her people will pay for stepping away from the Founding Principles and pursuing big government.
40,000 workers earning est’d $50,000/year, that 14% is $280,000,000, over a 1/4 of a billion dollars.
Must be a typo. Although even .7 per cent seems a bit rich for a basket case like Illinois.
I guess in Illinois the COLA is based on half the unemployment rate. Does the expression “looters and thugs” come to mind? Dems shamelessly do look after their own.
Rhetorical question: what the h*ll does a government employee need a union for, anyways?
They are forced to. The position taken is one bargaining union is better for negotiations and “increasing the standard of living for all.” is a goal I heard. In my words overpay some to raise the standard of living for others using their money to do so. Makes sense..kinda..sorta..if you are invested.
40,000 or so AFSCME state employees are about to discover what the term “default” means in a non-computer sense.
Also that it is hard to get blood from a stone, that you can beat a dead horse but it won’t get up and pull your little red wagon, talk is cheap, and etc.
Question, how many poohbahs of the Illinois state government and government union have villas in foreign parts and plans to go there as soon as the first default notices get posted?
So though I’m a working man
I can ruin the government’s plan
Though I’m not too hard
The sight of my card
Makes me some kind of superman.
Oh you don’t get me I’m part of the union
You don’t get me I’m part of the union
You don’t get me I’m part of the union
Till the day I die, till the day I die.
The Strawbs, 1973
That “day” is drawing closer, I hope.
Marx was certainly right about class conflict, but erred on its locus. There’s never been a conflict between capitalist and worker. The true conflict is is between tax payor and tax consumer, hugely intensified with the brilliant state strategy of allowing state employees to unionize. For a long time I thought this was a mistake but can now see that this was absolutely the surest way to guarantee the growth of the state.
It sounds a bit strange upon first encounter but folks like Murray Rothbard insist that state employees don’t actually pay taxes. When one “earns” $50,000 and “pays” $10,000 in “taxes”, it’s more accurate to say, they consume $40,000 in taxes.
“it’s more accurate to say, they consume $40,000 in taxes.”
Plus processing. Don’t forget the processing. Its why state employees pay tax in the first place, so the state can employ more tax department bodies and grow the bureaucracy even more.
Not strange at all. Where does the money come from in the first place? The individuals in the private sector, self-employed or employed by for profit firms, and those businesses pass along taxes as a cost of doing business to their customers, those same individuals.
Worse than just being a drain on the public treasuries, the labor, the time of that government employee is denied to the private sector, reducing the pool of labor to them. And I am assuming these bureaucrats are capable of competing in the private sector.
A private sector union faces a systemic fail safe; if they price the cost of their labor beyond the point their firm is competitive with the market, if they strike for whatever reason and their firm loses contracts, the firm will fold for lack of business, income, money.
Not so with government.
In somewhat related news, the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (that’s the state capital, for those who don’t watch a lot of Jeopardy!) has recently announced that it will be forced into a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing, unable to meet a $3.7 million budget shortfall. (And, yes, that’s million, not billion. Harrisburg only has a population of about 50,000. The neighbouring area has a population of about 500,000, but, as is usual at the US’s local level, it’s all carved up into tiny fiefdoms.)
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania governor “Fast Eddie” Rendell – whose office is in Harrisburg, mind you – announces a $10 million grant for an “Arlen Specter” memorial library. Specter, you may recall, is a former Republican senator who was to stand for re-election later this year. Mis-reading the tea leaves last year (perhaps because the “Tea Party” was not yet vibrant?), Specter announced a decision to switch from the Republican to Democrat parties, and run as a Democrat in 2010. He subsequently lost the Democrat senate primary by a large margin to Joe Sestak (who he?). Specter will now retire.
So, the capital city of your state is going broke over a relative pittance, and you ignore that to spend 3x as much to build a library dedicated to the career of a turncoat and mostly vapid senator? The priorities of these politicians are so out of touch with the people, they make King George III seem benign and “with it”.