Public servants should be paid more

[DaGoose]

R.I. pension obligation to rise by $50 million | Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal



Do we really need state workers to be guaranteed millions in benefits in retirement? These people barely put 10% of their own money into their retirement. My wife and I put 20% in and no one is guaranteeing our benefits. It's time these hacks lived like the rest of us.

Then go get one of those jobs if you think they're so great and quit crying because someone is more successful or has it better than you.

.

Hey bud I have my own business employ 10 people and make way more than a government hack. My wife and I max out our 401Ks and have investments on top of that but it's our money and quite frankly a government hack deserves none of it.

Just because people work for the government doesn't mean that we have to foot the bill for an outrageous pension plan where the hacks hardly put any of their own money into the pot. Change the pensions to 401Ks and let the hacks contribute more to their own retirement.

If you're doing that well then shut up and pay the public employees that work for you. If you don't want to do that then I suggest you "pack yer bags" and move somewhere else.

.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Then go get one of those jobs if you think they're so great and quit crying because someone is more successful or has it better than you.

.

Hey bud I have my own business employ 10 people and make way more than a government hack. My wife and I max out our 401Ks and have investments on top of that but it's our money and quite frankly a government hack deserves none of it.

Just because people work for the government doesn't mean that we have to foot the bill for an outrageous pension plan where the hacks hardly put any of their own money into the pot. Change the pensions to 401Ks and let the hacks contribute more to their own retirement.

If you're doing that well then shut up and pay the public employees that work for you. If you don't want to do that then I suggest you "pack yer bags" and move somewhere else.

.

Why should I pay more than I have to?

If the work can be done just as well for less cost to the taxpayers than it's the responsibility of the government to do it.

A street sweeper should not be getting a pension on my dime.

 

[KissMy]

So what is it you want?
Shall the status quo continue with ever rising public worker costs and escalating tax rates thrown upon taxpayers?
Ansd please spare me with the bullshit about compromise.
The taxpayers have been compromising ever since the civil service system was invented.
Compromising with public worker unions has shown a win win for the unions in perpetuity.
Suddenly when the taxpayers interests have been put into play the union people are wailing like 2 year olds about how rotten their jobs are and their carping about meager pay and benefits.
Please.....Look, it's OVER...There is no more money.
If you are so inclined to see public workers continue to be compensated in the current fashion, by all means write a check.

There is no more money? Then what in the hell are you going to pay the replacements with? Or are you going to start paving your own roads? It's easy to say "there is no more money" and we should just fire EVERYBODY but you and I both know that's bullshit.

Listen, you want clean streets? Criminals arrested? Criminals jailed? House fires put out? Working sewer systems? Garbage collected? Landfills to take them to? Your stupid children taught? Snow plowed?

Guess what? All that shit costs money. And the fact that you don't want to pay for it is too fucking bad. YOU hired them so pay them.

.

No one implied services were no needed. What is not necessary are unions and absurd benefits. In fact the vast majority of public workers function without union representation.
The issue here is wages and benefits must be reined in because the taxpayers are tapped out. That is what I refer to when I state "there is no more money".
In fact many communities across the nation function without full service government.
Here in my town of some 25,000 people we have such a government.
We have volunteer FD. Instead of employing our own police dept we contract with the county Sheriff's dept for deputies to patrol our town exclusively. This saves us about six million dollars per year. Response time is a max of ten minutes on all shifts. We also have private trash collection. Roads are maintained by the County and the State. Our town has few full time employees. This is a very nice place to live with low crime. The lesson here is no one need to hire mega amounts of tax burdening employees just to create more government bureaucracy and taxpayer expense. Least of all there is no need for burdensome and expensive unions. BTW our town tax rate is a whopping 14 cents per hundred of assessed value.....Compare this to the heavily unionized areas where municipal tax rates can exceed 3 or 4 dollars per hundred. That is absurd.
This issue to the union cheerleaders is about union busting. Ok with me I can't stand unions. However the real issue here is protecting the interests of the taxpayers FIRST.
Oh, if you are a unionized government employee, you are disqualified from having an opinion on this matter because you have an agenda to protect what you view as an entitlement,

Nailed it! Expensive unionized city government is the number one reason for urban sprawl that increases our dependence on foreign oil. Residents flee the over taxed poor service of city life. Once large unionized cities look like 3rd world countries now days. People have even pulled back from the suburbs & gone rural. Unions have screwed up our manufacturing base & our cities. The only way unions can help is to go unionize China & India to send the jobs back to the USA.

 

[KissMy]

Professionals in the public services are generally underpaid. No doubt about that.

Bull, There are people begging for those cushy jobs with golden retirements.

Are you kidding?

Lawyers, accountants, engineers, IT professionals, etc generally get paid less, sometimes far less, than in the private sector. Investment professionals get paid maybe a third of what they get paid in the private sector.

I know many people who have been trying to get one of those cushy jobs for years. The private sector does not offer guaranteed 20 year full retirement benefits at any age. The only guarantee the private sector has is $100K FDIC guarantee on their savings account & Social Security at age 70. The retired public sector employees are sucking us dry. When you compare pay & benefits, the public worker reaps double per actual hour of work as a private sector worker. We have to keep on paying & paying for those public hours from years ago.

 

[DaGoose]

There is no more money? Then what in the hell are you going to pay the replacements with? Or are you going to start paving your own roads? It's easy to say "there is no more money" and we should just fire EVERYBODY but you and I both know that's bullshit.

Listen, you want clean streets? Criminals arrested? Criminals jailed? House fires put out? Working sewer systems? Garbage collected? Landfills to take them to? Your stupid children taught? Snow plowed?

Guess what? All that shit costs money. And the fact that you don't want to pay for it is too fucking bad. YOU hired them so pay them.

.

No one implied services were no needed. What is not necessary are unions and absurd benefits. In fact the vast majority of public workers function without union representation.
The issue here is wages and benefits must be reined in because the taxpayers are tapped out. That is what I refer to when I state "there is no more money".
In fact many communities across the nation function without full service government.
Here in my town of some 25,000 people we have such a government.
We have volunteer FD. Instead of employing our own police dept we contract with the county Sheriff's dept for deputies to patrol our town exclusively. This saves us about six million dollars per year. Response time is a max of ten minutes on all shifts. We also have private trash collection. Roads are maintained by the County and the State. Our town has few full time employees. This is a very nice place to live with low crime. The lesson here is no one need to hire mega amounts of tax burdening employees just to create more government bureaucracy and taxpayer expense. Least of all there is no need for burdensome and expensive unions. BTW our town tax rate is a whopping 14 cents per hundred of assessed value.....Compare this to the heavily unionized areas where municipal tax rates can exceed 3 or 4 dollars per hundred. That is absurd.
This issue to the union cheerleaders is about union busting. Ok with me I can't stand unions. However the real issue here is protecting the interests of the taxpayers FIRST.
Oh, if you are a unionized government employee, you are disqualified from having an opinion on this matter because you have an agenda to protect what you view as an entitlement,

Nailed it! Expensive unionized city government is the number one reason for urban sprawl that increases our dependence on foreign oil. Residents flee the over taxed poor service of city life. Once large unionized cities look like 3rd world countries now days. People have even pulled back from the suburbs & gone rural. Unions have screwed up our manufacturing base & our cities. The only way unions can help is to go unionize China & India to send the jobs back to the USA.

Hey bud I have my own business employ 10 people and make way more than a government hack. My wife and I max out our 401Ks and have investments on top of that but it's our money and quite frankly a government hack deserves none of it.

Just because people work for the government doesn't mean that we have to foot the bill for an outrageous pension plan where the hacks hardly put any of their own money into the pot. Change the pensions to 401Ks and let the hacks contribute more to their own retirement.

If you're doing that well then shut up and pay the public employees that work for you. If you don't want to do that then I suggest you "pack yer bags" and move somewhere else.

.

Why should I pay more than I have to?

If the work can be done just as well for less cost to the taxpayers than it's the responsibility of the government to do it.

A street sweeper should not be getting a pension on my dime.

Then move.

Problem solved.

.

 

[Toro]

Bull, There are people begging for those cushy jobs with golden retirements.

Are you kidding?

Lawyers, accountants, engineers, IT professionals, etc generally get paid less, sometimes far less, than in the private sector. Investment professionals get paid maybe a third of what they get paid in the private sector.

I know many people who have been trying to get one of those cushy jobs for years. The private sector does not offer guaranteed 20 year full retirement benefits at any age. The only guarantee the private sector has is $100K FDIC guarantee on their savings account & Social Security at age 70. The retired public sector employees are sucking us dry. When you compare pay & benefits, the public worker reaps double per actual hour of work as a private sector worker. We have to keep on paying & paying for those public hours from years ago.

I've worked for the government, and I've been around government for some time, and I can tell you that professionals generally make less than they can in the private sector. They often take pay cuts to work for the government. And in my profession, they make far, far less. You certainly can't retire in 20 years with full benefits where I've been.

Are Government Employees Overpaid? Still No. « Rortybomb

 

[Skull Pilot]

No one implied services were no needed. What is not necessary are unions and absurd benefits. In fact the vast majority of public workers function without union representation.
The issue here is wages and benefits must be reined in because the taxpayers are tapped out. That is what I refer to when I state "there is no more money".
In fact many communities across the nation function without full service government.
Here in my town of some 25,000 people we have such a government.
We have volunteer FD. Instead of employing our own police dept we contract with the county Sheriff's dept for deputies to patrol our town exclusively. This saves us about six million dollars per year. Response time is a max of ten minutes on all shifts. We also have private trash collection. Roads are maintained by the County and the State. Our town has few full time employees. This is a very nice place to live with low crime. The lesson here is no one need to hire mega amounts of tax burdening employees just to create more government bureaucracy and taxpayer expense. Least of all there is no need for burdensome and expensive unions. BTW our town tax rate is a whopping 14 cents per hundred of assessed value.....Compare this to the heavily unionized areas where municipal tax rates can exceed 3 or 4 dollars per hundred. That is absurd.
This issue to the union cheerleaders is about union busting. Ok with me I can't stand unions. However the real issue here is protecting the interests of the taxpayers FIRST.
Oh, if you are a unionized government employee, you are disqualified from having an opinion on this matter because you have an agenda to protect what you view as an entitlement,

Nailed it! Expensive unionized city government is the number one reason for urban sprawl that increases our dependence on foreign oil. Residents flee the over taxed poor service of city life. Once large unionized cities look like 3rd world countries now days. People have even pulled back from the suburbs & gone rural. Unions have screwed up our manufacturing base & our cities. The only way unions can help is to go unionize China & India to send the jobs back to the USA.

If you're doing that well then shut up and pay the public employees that work for you. If you don't want to do that then I suggest you "pack yer bags" and move somewhere else.

.

Why should I pay more than I have to?

If the work can be done just as well for less cost to the taxpayers than it's the responsibility of the government to do it.

A street sweeper should not be getting a pension on my dime.

Then move.

Problem solved.

.

Oh so you're one of those love it or leave but don't you dare disagree with the fucking government assholes huh?

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

No one implied services were no needed. What is not necessary are unions and absurd benefits. In fact the vast majority of public workers function without union representation.
The issue here is wages and benefits must be reined in because the taxpayers are tapped out. That is what I refer to when I state "there is no more money".
In fact many communities across the nation function without full service government.
Here in my town of some 25,000 people we have such a government.
We have volunteer FD. Instead of employing our own police dept we contract with the county Sheriff's dept for deputies to patrol our town exclusively. This saves us about six million dollars per year. Response time is a max of ten minutes on all shifts. We also have private trash collection. Roads are maintained by the County and the State. Our town has few full time employees. This is a very nice place to live with low crime. The lesson here is no one need to hire mega amounts of tax burdening employees just to create more government bureaucracy and taxpayer expense. Least of all there is no need for burdensome and expensive unions. BTW our town tax rate is a whopping 14 cents per hundred of assessed value.....Compare this to the heavily unionized areas where municipal tax rates can exceed 3 or 4 dollars per hundred. That is absurd.
This issue to the union cheerleaders is about union busting. Ok with me I can't stand unions. However the real issue here is protecting the interests of the taxpayers FIRST.
Oh, if you are a unionized government employee, you are disqualified from having an opinion on this matter because you have an agenda to protect what you view as an entitlement,

Nailed it! Expensive unionized city government is the number one reason for urban sprawl that increases our dependence on foreign oil. Residents flee the over taxed poor service of city life. Once large unionized cities look like 3rd world countries now days. People have even pulled back from the suburbs & gone rural. Unions have screwed up our manufacturing base & our cities. The only way unions can help is to go unionize China & India to send the jobs back to the USA.

If you're doing that well then shut up and pay the public employees that work for you. If you don't want to do that then I suggest you "pack yer bags" and move somewhere else.

.

Why should I pay more than I have to?

If the work can be done just as well for less cost to the taxpayers than it's the responsibility of the government to do it.

A street sweeper should not be getting a pension on my dime.

Then move.

Problem solved.

.

Hey nitwit... where is it written that you have the right to demand I fund some government fucktard's existence for decades because he was kind enough to spend twenty years at the DMV serving 10 people a day?

Unions are for lazy, uninspired parasites.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Quote: Originally Posted by DaGoose View Post

Then go get one of those jobs if you think they're so great and quit crying because someone is more successful or has it better than you.

NO! You're wrong...You have it backward. The taxpayers get fleeced by powerful union bosses and complicit politicians while the taxpayers do not get a seat at the table during the "HA HA ...negotiations. In these public worker union deals the taxpayer's interests have NEVER been a concern.
The fact is the wages and benefits given to public employees are out of whack with the prevailing market rates. The taxpayers by their votes have demanded these wages and benefits be reined in and dialed back to acceptable levels. If that means weakening the unions, so be it. The unions and the workers who have come to expect their every demand be met, are getting ZERO sympathy from the taxpayers.
Successful? At what? Sliding into a job via political or family connections? Or being one the "in" people at the town hall?....
The "all or nothing" straw man argument gets you no traction here.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Are you kidding?

Lawyers, accountants, engineers, IT professionals, etc generally get paid less, sometimes far less, than in the private sector. Investment professionals get paid maybe a third of what they get paid in the private sector.

I know many people who have been trying to get one of those cushy jobs for years. The private sector does not offer guaranteed 20 year full retirement benefits at any age. The only guarantee the private sector has is $100K FDIC guarantee on their savings account & Social Security at age 70. The retired public sector employees are sucking us dry. When you compare pay & benefits, the public worker reaps double per actual hour of work as a private sector worker. We have to keep on paying & paying for those public hours from years ago.

I've worked for the government, and I've been around government for some time, and I can tell you that professionals generally make less than they can in the private sector. They often take pay cuts to work for the government. And in my profession, they make far, far less. You certainly can't retire in 20 years with full benefits where I've been.

Are Government Employees Overpaid? Still No. « Rortybomb

Yeah..What organization put out this table..
My sociology teacher who is a 34 year veteran of the NJEA earns over $165,000 per year.
In the school district where I attended classes, there are 500 or so teachers in two high schools. Over 150 of them earn in excess of $100,000 per year. 250 are at or above the $75k mark.
In my home town there are 15 police officers. five of them make six figures. The police chief is at $140k per year. Heck the friggin toll collectors on the NJ Turnpike have an average base salary of $65k ...All of the above save the teachers make overtime money and of course about a third can be added for pension and benefits which the TAXPAYERS fund. The police chief in a neighboring town retired and received a $350,000 cash payout on the day he left the job. Those are absurd numbers.
Don't present bullshit statistics.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Then go get one of those jobs if you think they're so great and quit crying because someone is more successful or has it better than you.

.

Hey bud I have my own business employ 10 people and make way more than a government hack. My wife and I max out our 401Ks and have investments on top of that but it's our money and quite frankly a government hack deserves none of it.

Just because people work for the government doesn't mean that we have to foot the bill for an outrageous pension plan where the hacks hardly put any of their own money into the pot. Change the pensions to 401Ks and let the hacks contribute more to their own retirement.

If you're doing that well then shut up and pay the public employees that work for you. If you don't want to do that then I suggest you "pack yer bags" and move somewhere else.

.

As a matter of fact many people are doing just that. It comes as no surprise the big union states with high taxes brought on by expensive public employee labor costs are losing population or have near stagnant population growth.
Fact...The state of New Jersey in the last ten years has lost $70 billion in wealth. The main reason is high taxes. Taxes which fund these out of whack wages and gold plated benefits packages. New York's tax base continues to erode as do MA, CT, RI, MI and others. What do these states have in common? Closed shops, civil service protection for public employees and big time democrat control.