- Oct 6, 2008
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1. Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government. It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Stephen Moore: We've Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers - WSJ.com
2. How do we leave what Hayek called the road to serfdom? What he meant was the low-grade, virtual servitude to ever-expanding, unaccountable government that, searching for tax revenues, has appropriated funds that entrepreneurs could have used to grow the economy. A government that has created a protected class of government workers and crony corporations that play by a different set of rules than the rest of us, and has left the nation in hock for generations to come.
Arthur C. Brooks, The Road to Freedom
3. The average federal employee earned $81,258 per year in 2009. The average private-sector worker earned $50,462. When benefits are added, the private-industry worker gets $10,500, while the federal employee gets $42,000- or more! Federal workers earning double their private counterparts - USATODAY.com
a. The disparity has grown from 66% in 2000, to 101% in 2009.
Federal Employees Continue to Prosper | Cato @ Liberty
b. When you compare job-to-job, which is difficult as job titles are hard to compare, total compensation for federal employees is 50% higher than private sector counterparts. Even considering skill, education, and seniority, its still a large disparity.
USAToday, op.cit.
c. An apples-to-apples comparison shows that the federal pay system gives many federal workers significantly more compensation than they would get in the private sector. The total premium costs taxpayers $40 billion (according to Richwine and Biggs) or $47 billion (Sherk) per year above market rates. Federal Pay Still Inflated After Accounting for Skills
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4. President Obama returned to Washington yesterday from his $4 million Hawaiian vacation to solve the fiscal cliff crisis. His first move? Signing an executive order lifting the pay freeze on federal employees. Priorities, baby! President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden. Obama Just Issued Executive Order To Give Federal Employees Pay Raises! No Kidding. | Obama
a. According to a senior Republican congressional aide who has reviewed the executive order and consulted with the Congressional Budget Office, Obama's pay raise will cost $11 billion. "The CBO told us that the Presidents pay raise for federal workers will cost $11 billion over ten years," says the aide. The aide explains, "On the cost-estimate, CBO says the (discretionary) cost of the .5% pay-hike the President is calling for in the Exec Order relative to a freeze is about $500m in FY 2013 and $11 billion over the ten years from FY 13 - FY 22. The reason why the FY 13 savings is only $500 million is because the pay hike as proposed by the Presidents Exec Order would not go into effect until April 1st, 2013 - when the current CR expires. So it only covers half the fiscal year. The annualized cost of the pay hike is about $1 billion/year." Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers | The Weekly Standard
2. How do we leave what Hayek called the road to serfdom? What he meant was the low-grade, virtual servitude to ever-expanding, unaccountable government that, searching for tax revenues, has appropriated funds that entrepreneurs could have used to grow the economy. A government that has created a protected class of government workers and crony corporations that play by a different set of rules than the rest of us, and has left the nation in hock for generations to come.
Arthur C. Brooks, The Road to Freedom
3. The average federal employee earned $81,258 per year in 2009. The average private-sector worker earned $50,462. When benefits are added, the private-industry worker gets $10,500, while the federal employee gets $42,000- or more! Federal workers earning double their private counterparts - USATODAY.com
a. The disparity has grown from 66% in 2000, to 101% in 2009.
Federal Employees Continue to Prosper | Cato @ Liberty
b. When you compare job-to-job, which is difficult as job titles are hard to compare, total compensation for federal employees is 50% higher than private sector counterparts. Even considering skill, education, and seniority, its still a large disparity.
USAToday, op.cit.
c. An apples-to-apples comparison shows that the federal pay system gives many federal workers significantly more compensation than they would get in the private sector. The total premium costs taxpayers $40 billion (according to Richwine and Biggs) or $47 billion (Sherk) per year above market rates. Federal Pay Still Inflated After Accounting for Skills
[see also ]Protected Blog Login
4. President Obama returned to Washington yesterday from his $4 million Hawaiian vacation to solve the fiscal cliff crisis. His first move? Signing an executive order lifting the pay freeze on federal employees. Priorities, baby! President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden. Obama Just Issued Executive Order To Give Federal Employees Pay Raises! No Kidding. | Obama
a. According to a senior Republican congressional aide who has reviewed the executive order and consulted with the Congressional Budget Office, Obama's pay raise will cost $11 billion. "The CBO told us that the Presidents pay raise for federal workers will cost $11 billion over ten years," says the aide. The aide explains, "On the cost-estimate, CBO says the (discretionary) cost of the .5% pay-hike the President is calling for in the Exec Order relative to a freeze is about $500m in FY 2013 and $11 billion over the ten years from FY 13 - FY 22. The reason why the FY 13 savings is only $500 million is because the pay hike as proposed by the Presidents Exec Order would not go into effect until April 1st, 2013 - when the current CR expires. So it only covers half the fiscal year. The annualized cost of the pay hike is about $1 billion/year." Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers | The Weekly Standard