Myth of the greedy public-sector workers

[IndianaGreen]

Myth of the greedy public-sector workers

How can politicians and the media be complaining about pensions for government workers when a decent society would guarantee a decent retirement for all workers?

August 18, 2010

POLITICIANS AND the media have found a new scapegoat for the economic crisis and the savage budget cuts being carried out by state and local governments: public-sector workers and their unions.

It turns out the problem all along was overpaid and underworked government workers. You know--all those teachers and firefighters and social workers. And especially the retirees selfishly living large on a fat government pension.

"We have a new privileged class in America," Indiana's Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels told Politico. "We used to think of government workers as underpaid public servants. Now they are better paid than the people who pay their salaries."

<snip>

FIRST OF all, the real cause of the state government budget crisis is a massive reduction in taxes on business and the wealthiest individuals over the last quarter century.

If states and cities wanted to find money for public spending, they could try eliminating the tax breaks they handed out like candy to big corporations. Likewise, the federal government could get $700 billion more in revenues over the next decade if it got rid of the Bush administration's tax breaks for the richest few.

If public-sector workers seem to be better off, it's not because they're doing so well, but because workers in the private sector are doing so much worse.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/08/18/greedy-government-workers-myth

[applegrove]

1. They are going after unions wherever unions can be found. It is like the 20th century and its middle

class is the nightmare of the rich.

[nashville_brook]

2. big f'n k and r