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You Get What You Ask For : 2/4/2009

The Government seems to be the only "business" making money in this recession. As a business owner I would love to give my employees a raise but I have to give half my income to the government which is doing their best to put all businesses under. Just look at State St to see what I am talking about. The good news is I can stop paying taxes and get a job in the Obama administration. I want to be the first to appologize to the greatest generation because communism here we come.

Welcome to the Bread Line

City wage increases : 2/4/2009

If you want to rant against excess this is hardly the place to point fingers. The city employees have not brought the economy to its knees. Keep in mind that City government is traditionally not exactly at the top range of high-paying employers. Many very talented and productive people have gotten along for years working for less than is paid in the private sector, but for some reason they like working for the public sector. Also, read the article: 3 percent this year, 2 percent next year.

working stiff

Politicians and public employees : 2/4/2009

It is clear we are entering a period of deflation---the first time in my 60+ years of life. In the marketplace, wage and benefit increases represent either 1) added productivity, and/or 2) adjusted compensation for inflation. I don't see wither of those at work in the case of city worker compensation. What is the rationale for raising wages and benefits---again---instead of accounting for the deflation we see catching hold (and likely to grow for some fime to come)? Unfortunately, it has become increasingly standard practice for elected officials, hired to represent the collective interests of the voters, to represent instead the interests of the unions (agents for the public employees) that contribute so heavily to 'our' representatives' political campaign. I have worked for many years in both public and private employment, and believe me when I say that the average public employee is not making a sacrifice vis-a-vis the average private employee---quite the contrary. Absurd excess has reached the breaking point, forcing the marketplace to cleanse itself by wringing decades of (real, not nominal) low productivity out of the U.S. dollar. Let's hope the pain lasts long enough to bring about the proper reformation of working and spending behavior. The honest and sincere public official will be known during this period by his/her budget votes that assist this return to productive value, rather than continuing blindly in the old practices of sloppy excess. It has become very tough for politicians to tell their buddies 'No'; let's see who can actually do it.

Cato

Libertarians have their point of view : 2/4/2009

Cato, love yer institute. Let's be sure to keep workers at their level -- no increases without inflation! Raises and bonuses and perks are only for the guys at the top of corporations. Many millions for running the company into the ground and living it up in fancy resorts while the employees are cleaning out their desks and looking for work. We just can't have the "little people" getting uppity and getting a 3% increase in pay for their daily grind. Even if they are priced out of the local housing market (still) and commute from Santa Maria or Ventura. Enjoy your retirement, Cato!

Commoner

Two wrongs : 2/4/2009

Two wrongs don't make a right. Were bribery of politicians to suddenly go out of fashion, those CEO excesses would soon be gone, taxed or shamed out of existence. No one's salary/benefits need be more than about 10 or 12 times that of the average employee of the company. Tax laws should strongly discourage huge multiples of average compensation, and heavily reward profit-sharing. Promotions, raises and bonuses should be awarded for perceived merit, despite the fact that merit awards are never going to be entirely justly distributed. (No system is entirely just.) Across-the-board increases should be limited to offsetting the effect of inflation, or to rewarding measurably-increased productivity. Otherwise, such "increases" really only add to inflation. Governing bodies need to get back to dealing with budget problems holistically each year rather that just pushing part of them into next year. As to sundamental needs like housing, if the politicians and voters would promote high-density (20 units/acre) spot development, or the sort of 6-story neighborhoods common on the French and Italian Rivieras, home ownership would be quite attainable for public employees. The fact that so many local residents are shut out of ownership is largely explained by features (enforced by zonng and 'planning') that attracted them to SB in the first place.

Cato