Comments on: Brazilian Style Living in Southern California – MLS Inventory Creeping up, Section 8 Vouchers for Granite Countertops, and California Budget Going Mayan in 2012.

By: Joe Average

Joe Average — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:30:44 +0000

Here is just one example of those poor underpaid public sector jobs.
-
The city of San Jose’s employee pension plan:
Each employee puts in $3 and the taxpayer puts $8 into the retirement fund. On top of the over 200 percent match, the city guarantees an 8 percent net rate of return, which requires a gross 9 percent to cover expenses. (Average return over the last 10 years is 4.4 percent). Should the portfolio not meet the required return, taxpayers cover the difference.

By: wheresthebeef

wheresthebeef — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 04:13:45 +0000

There sure are a bunch of public sector whiners here and a bunch of misinformation. On average, the public sector makes much more than the private sector. Look it up for yourself.

The life expectancy of safety workers is almost exactly the same as non safety workers (per Calpers)…so lasting only 5 yrs after retirement is BS. The safety workers are appreciated, but over compensated. Ask any of them and they will probably agree that their retirement package is too generous. I’m sick and tired of that argument…don’t complain you can join them. I do not want to be a cop for numerous reasons. There is no shortage of qualified applicants for safety workers. It’s not uncommon to have 1000 applicants for an open firefigher position…why do you think that is? Because it’s a gravy train job. Sure the guys risk theirs every once in a while, but that doesn’t justify the insane benefits package. Our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have a much more dangerous job and aren’t getting compensated anything close to the unionized fire fighters. Don’t forget the prison guards also…another tough union to crack.

The bottom line is that public sector is expanding at an alarming rate and their benefits packages eclipse anything in the private sector. This is a two tier system, plain and simple.

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:19:47 +0000

@Nevermore,
Great piece. Learned a lot. Most of us get to a certain age and are sure we have it all figured out, so I like it when someone makes me see things in a different way.
I also noticed you used the term ‘Dark Ages’, which I have broached on a few occassions, along with my alter-egos Sabin Figaro, St. Alphonzo, and Obamanation. Don’t use the last anymore because I felt that Fox was trying to distract us from the crony bankers by focuing blame on the government. I want to keep my eye on the ball, even though it is so easy to find fault with the gov.
I think the dam might hold another year, but what I’ve read about the debt rollovers in 2012 makes me conclude that we’re sliding into the abyss of the next Dark Ages in 2013 at the latest.
I, however, hope that I’m dead wrong and that somehow all the impossible exponenetial curves find some new aritmetic algorithm and US is back on course to becoming a great and solvent nation. I haven’t had anyone suggest a scenario where this happens but, I couldn’t have imagined how things could have ever gone this wrong either.

By: Nevermore

Nevermore — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 09:45:19 +0000

@Greg – ever been to Venice?

@Johng – it’s funny that cops and firefighters tend to be Republicans. Talk about hypocrisy – supporting a party that cuts the government, while taking a big government paycheck, and getting a really good pension. I’m sure they laugh it up when they are out drinking.

$29k for a clerk typist is good. In the private sector it starts closer to $12 an hour. $55k after 6 years is great. You have to be a secretary/typist/gofer for someone important in the private sector to make that much.

Consider that the going rate for someone doing a more technical or public-facing job in the private sector is around $70k with significant responsibilities.

What happened is that government wages roughly tracked inflation, while many private sector jobs did not. Instead, private sector jobs got globalized, so labor is in competition with international labor, which is paid anywhere from 1/3rd to 1/10th as much, for roughly the same work, and for worker with the same level of education.

On the flipside – the managers in the public sector top out at a pretty low salary, while managers in the private sector earn a lot more if they supervise the same number of people. That’s because the labor force in government is stable and self-managing, in most cases, while the labor force in the private sector is unstable, international, and subject to being fired all the time.

The forces of the private market always impose themselves on the public sector, just later. We’re seeing this conflict playing out today.

Capitalism always innovates, and, this time around, it’s innovated this new system where production moves to where labor is the cheapest. They’ve upended Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage.

They’ve defined the new bourgeoisie and petit-bourgeoisie: the wealthy, the upper management, politicos, bankers, military contractors, all who make big bonuses, and cops and firefighters and loyal government-worker lackeys.

There’s the old proletarian, too: wage workers, factory workers, “the middle class” who participated in the postwar boom, truck drivers, and the blue and pink collar workers.

And in between, the workers newly proletarianized by globalization: community college intellectuals, technical workers, scientists, accountants, architects, and even small business operators. They are barely able to globalize themselves today… but if they can unify, they will be a force.

These middle people are being stripped of their petit-bourgeois status. They’re being thrown in with the old proletarians, to form a new proletarian force. They’re shut-out, and pissed-off.

That’s why the Tea Party has emerged – the neo-proletarian are still confused, and prone to extreme nationalism and hints of Fascism, even while the moment demand further expansion of international communications between the wage and salary workers of the world.

The front-lines of the radical left are also girding themselves for the coming dark ages, and are starting to make pushes to create alliances with the new proletarians. Maybe, eventually, the old left (once called the New Left) will come around and figure out that the united front is no longer the peasant and the factory worker, but the clerk typist and the barista. (Right now, they’re too busy teaching at university and fretting over their pension to notice.)

By: John

John — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:01:06 +0000

Regarding retirements, the only public employees that can retire with 90% are Law Enforcement and Fire. they need to work 30 years to get this. Many Police officers die within 5 years of retirement due to the stresses their Job has had on the body! Yes, that’s correct, feel free to look it up. I’m sure the stats for fireman aren’t much better considering all of the toxic fumes they get exposed to, even with SCBA, just standing outside of a burning building, they are exposed. So they aren’t going to make nearly the amount of money one might think. They put their lives on the line daily and this retirement is the least we could give them. It’s hard enough recruiting quality police officers as it is…….try cutting their retirement and see what kind of applicants and officers you get. You will get a bunch of high school dropouts with criminal records applying. So please, stop the resentment towards public employee’s pensions, there’s nothing stopping you from applying to Protect and Serve.