Should Govt employees be laid off in this economy?

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I was looking at this panel discussion on Fox news today, it was very interesting, and they brought up a very good point; Since our private sector jobs is not doing that great (no jobs) that pay taxes, that pay govt employees, then why shouldnt our gov't lay off overpaid govt employees to save money? Why should postal workers get paid $50-$60k a year to deliver mail when you can find people for $10-$12/hr to do this. Why pay employees $25/hr to fill pot holes when you can find people to do this for $15/hr - its not like a lot of our govt employees are super educated or anything. These type of jobs can be done for a lot less with some training, so our govt employees get to enjoy higher then avg pay with very secure jobs because it is the govt...why should they get best of both worlds? and its our money that is paying these high salaries so they can have a secure life...Our govt needs to do something before we go broke paying huge govt salaries and even larger benefits that end up being larger then the actual employees salary, do you think that is right?

What do you guys think?
#off topic forum
  • Not sure about the U.S., but where I live those are all union jobs. Just tossing union workers out and replacing them with cheap labor ain't gonna happen.
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    • fair enough. I was in a "union" company...when the company went broke "that means they ran out of money" and let everyone go, do you think the "union" come to my rescue?

      union or not, in order to save your business, you have to let employees go...the US is going broke...The US is already past that mark...when the US files BK - no union will be able to
      do anything for any employee - if there is no money, there is no money...
  • I think the numbers they think people are getting paid for those jobs are made up.
    A friend who works for the state of NY and I have been having a long discussion about this.
    He works in a parking garage, for 4 hours. he's in a booth and for 4 he does maintenance like cutting the grass in the simmer and plowing and salting in the winter. He makes around 12 an hour. Now each of his 15 bosses make at least 50,000 a year min.
    So granted there are some jobs that can be eliminated, but till they start cutting in management it's meaningless and not an attempt to save money.
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    • at $12/hr that sounds like he is working for a contractor, not the govt...I know plow trucks in MN make far more then that in the winter, and thats my point, why pay a driver to plow snow for $20/25hr? thats crazy!
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  • The U.S. just needs to repeal the Federal Reserve Act and ban fractional reserve banking. Once a country gives up control of their own currency they deserve what they get. Until the private sector (in all countries) is barred from creating money through debt the global economy will never improve.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • You must have channels mixed up. PLEASE!!!!! ENLIGHTEN US!

      ******BULL*****!

      OH, OK! So the ONLY ones that can pay taxes are GOVERNMENT WORKERS and ALL OTHER workers do NOTHING and BUY NOTHING! TWO QUESTIONS! WHERE does their salary come from? Remember, you CAN'T say the government or taxes since the government would be a closed loop and taxes can't be both paid and received by them. AND, WHERE are MY taxes going? Where am I getting this money? BTW California government offices have written ads that practically DEMANDED only chinese and spanish nationals!

      YEP! They pay more which means they must get more taxes which means people must pay
      more which means they must make more which means MORE INFLATION!!!!!!

      YEP, the government NEVER outsources! So what penname do you write those novels under?

      ACTUALLY, most government jobs lay dormant(collecting their pay) while CONTRACTORS do the work! I know some big projects in california were done that way, projects in louisiana were(I worked on some!!!!!), projects in massachusetts were, ones in NEW YORK(AGAIN, I worked on some), some for NASA(I almost worked on one), the PENTAGON, US ARMY, POST OFFICE, NAVY! BTW I know FOR A FACT that some of these projects, probably ALL, used H1B, offshore, and just plane FOREIGN help.

      So, do you make a lot writing that fiction!?!?

      Steve
  • "It is not so much a case of overpaid workers. It is actually a case of AMERICAN jobs. If it was a purely financial decision a foreign company could provide the services with far greater efficiency (lower salaries) but the money would then be leaked out of the country."

    I guess it really depends how you look at this, and the actual value that the govt employee really provides to earn his/her paycheck..I am not saying that all govt jobs or bad or overpaid, but I would bet most are...

    for example:

    I was watching news 1-2 months ago about how the news crew caught Dept of MN employees loafing around on the job at the expense of tax dollars ($24/hr) and they were doing just that...nothing, rather then doing what we pay them to do, they were caught at the store sipping coffee most of the day before even doing 1-2 hours of work...and none of them got fired for doing wrong...govt secure job no doubt...if it was any other employer then the govt, then they would have been fired for stealing, or wasting business resources, riding the clock, or whatever, they would have been fired, gone!

    We know how our govt loves to waste money! There is no doubt that they waste money on govt jobs also...raise taxes, raise gas, roads still not fixed, wasteful spending, pay higher salaries for employees to loaf, or provide little value, then raise more taxes, high cig taxes, higher beer taxes, nothing still fixed in american, toll taxes, more gas taxes, roads still falling apart, raise more taxes by starting up Obama healthcare, raise more taxes to pay for heathcare even through we were promised taxes would not, in the end obama healhcare fails, govt files BK.

    The govt needs to cut wasteful spending on crap, needs to cut jobs that are not really needed, they just need to cutback like any other business would need to do in order to just to continue....If any business would be ran like our govt, they would have filed for BK a long time ago, over and over...our govt is not a business plan or good model at all...its a good model for filing BK.
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    • Yeah, it really does.

      You say "let's eliminate overpaid jobs," and all I hear is "let's fire a bunch of people for no good reason at all, then replace them with cheaper people."

      I like to defer to my good friend Wil on this one.

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  • It's pretty unfair to paint them all with the same brush: Perhaps it's different in the US but, to be honest, some of the most highly-educated people I've ever met were government employees. I've even met people in relatively-minor administrative positions that were fluent in several languages and had two, or more, degrees.
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    • [1] reply
    • Yeah, most HERE are "fluent" in several languages. DOESN'T MEAN MUCH! HECK, many at my current project call me STEAVE, and talk about IMPROVISING(read improving) things! Sometimes their emails are VERY confusing with a severely incorrect tense, misspellings, and words that imply an idea that one can only HOPE is contrary to any they want to convey. And many have several degrees, EVEN DOCTORATES, which ALSO don't mean much, if they can't even quickly tell you what 3 times 10 is, that is a REAL example.

      Frankly, if I say educated, in this context, it means knowing the subject and general knowledge to a certain degree. I don't care if they have been in college 30 years!

      Heck, many LIE about such things!

      So PLEASE! If they can speak 10 languages, and have 5 degrees, are in a programming job and don't even know what a race condition, outer join, or a lock is, PLEASE don't try to tell me "Well they are smart and educated"!

      Steve
  • So it's better to pay them unemployment instead? They aren't going to find other jobs in this economy, so just give them money?

    But yeah, there are some gov jobs that still should be CHANGED, like the 500,000 military troops we have in places we don't need to be, like Germany and Japan. Japan doesn't want us there, and we shouldn't be there. And Germany is just going to have to learn to defend itself from those pesky Russians themselves. (Hello? It's history telling us the Cold War ended 20 years ago.)

    Bring these guys home, put them on the borders and let the money they earn be spent in the US (and some Mexican strip joints). It isn't really "saving" money, just spending it much more effectively and in a way that will benefit more of us.

    Let the Marines and Navy work with the Coast Guard to protect the 3500 oil rigs in the Gulf. Al Qaeda and others have surely noticed the BP disaster...And I promise that taking out a rig is far easier than taking out the World Trade Center, and does a hell of a lot more destruction. Those that still want to keep drilling in the oceans, you better start protecting them better. I can't think of a better target for terrorists than these wellsm riggs and pipelines. And considering it's oil...A perfect target for terrorists.

    Ancient WWII style depth charges can destroy plastic pipelines. A boat full of explosives may take out rigs.

    Who should we protect? Japan and Germany or ourselves?
    • [1] reply
    • ACTUALLY it WOULD be! They would get paid LESS for likely the SAME work, and they would be encouraged to be more productive.

      Actually, one of the agreements in WWII was that WE would provide their national defense.

      But the current admin does NOT want to defend the border!

      FRANKLY, I'm shocked they haven't been hit YET!

      Gee, it doesn't even have to be THAT complicated!

      Steve
      • [1] reply
  • PS...I'd like the gov, fed and local, come up with ways to create more revenue and more jobs.

    One quick example: A premium "fast lane" option at the DMV for $20 more.
    • [1] reply
    • HECK, think of the money and time savings if they just printed stuff in ENGLISH!

      Steve
  • I don't necessarily think we should lay off the government employee. What we need to do is pay the politicans about half as much as they make and fire their asses when they are asleep at the wheel (chronic condition).

    My town is a bankrupt town in a bankrupt state. What do they do? Lay off the police and shut down the fire stations - real smart - while crime rises - Hey punks, it is free for all - no cops.

    When you call 911 they have to go to some neighboring town to get somebody to come. Good luck if you have minutes to live while our emergency response team commutes.

    Do you think these FRICKING idiots would think about how many police and firemen we could hire if they took $10,000 of each grossly inflated politicians salary? Of course not.

    Do you think they care what happens to you? Educated or not - they could not care less - it is all just a job to them. However police and fire risk their very lives for you.

    As above so below - same thing with corporations - the executives are paid grossly extravagant salaries even when the company is failing - workers are laid off and struggling without raises to keep up with the cost of living.

    Even when they get fired which is rare - their big punishment is a couple million in stock options etc - again even when the ship is sinking on their watch.
    • [1] reply
    • I think this sorta makes my point. If you can see politicans asleep at the wheel, can you imagine all those govt employees that you can not see that are asleep at the wheel...they are the forgotten ones that we just pay, pay, and pay...some maybe important, others may not be important at all, we know the govt loves to spend money, and sometimes create jobs of no real importance.

      and those other type of employees that I have seen on the news, they show up for work, do nothing most of the day on our tax payer dime, then go home, and none of them were fired, with the exception of the big boss, which he stepped down (still had a job) and when I seen this on the news, I agree 100% our govt should be becoming smaller, not larger, and doing cutbacks....

      We need a smaller govt, we do not need a bigger one...
      we can see right now what big govt is doing, its not working.
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • AdvertisingGuerilla (is that your REAL name?)

    So with your 12 years of Macro-economics in consideration -- lets just cut to the chase.

    If we weren't owned by the Federal Reserve and melding our free enterprise into a governmental industrial complex -- we would NOT be having any of the financial or political melt down we are having right now. You can't deny that if you have the complete understanding of M-E that you claim..........
    We just aren't allowed in this forum to put the real name on that system.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
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    Should Govt employees be laid off in this economy?

    I was looking at this panel discussion on Fox news today, it was very interesting, and they brought up a very good point; Since our private sector jobs is not doing that great (no jobs) that pay taxes, that pay govt employees, then why shouldnt our gov't lay off overpaid govt employees to save money? Why should postal workers get paid $50-$60k a year to deliver mail when you can find people for $10-$12/hr to do this. Why pay employees $25/hr to fill pot holes when you can find people to do this for $15/hr - its not like a lot of our govt employees are super educated or anything. These type of jobs can be done for a lot less with some training, so our govt employees get to enjoy higher then avg pay with very secure jobs because it is the govt...why should they get best of both worlds? and its our money that is paying these high salaries so they can have a secure life...Our govt needs to do something before we go broke paying huge govt salaries and even larger benefits that end up being larger then the actual employees salary, do you think that is right? What do you guys think?