A Voice in the Wilderness In Defense of "Mere Conservatism"

Do Government Workers Deserve More?

There is "politics" and then there is "economics."  Politicians use economics to garner votes from their constituents, but far too many Americans assume that those politicians have the fainest idea what they are doing when dealing in economic issues.  I suppose I am being generous when I accuse our current batch of "representatives" in Washington D.C. as being clueless about fiscal matters, because in truth, many of them know exactly how disastrous their spending habits are yet ignore their consciences and push forward with their reckless agendas.

A perfect example is the obsession Democrats have with expanding the federal employee workforce.  The Left knows that the more people working for the government, the more votes they can count on as they promise more and more increases in salary and benefits.  Liberals pose this as a "political" issue, pitting their compassionate benevolence against the miserliness of cold-hearted conservatives and Republicans. but it is actually an ideological (and common sense) one more than anything else.

The Left believes in bigger government and redistributing wealth.  The Right believes in economic freedom, the superiority of the private sector in creating jobs and generating wealth, and personal responsibility.  The government cannot create jobs without taking money from people already working.  Everyone agrees we need a certain number of public sector employees to guard our streets and maintain public utilities, but there is a limit to what any economy can fund.  For the Obama administration to claim that they are "creating jobs" by putting more workers on the government's payroll is disingenuous at best.

The Heritage Foundation has an interesting new study on the whole matter of "public vs. private sector" workers and job creation.  Here's an excerpt:

Salaries and benefits—for identical jobs—are 30 percent to 40 percent higher in the federal government than in the private sector. Claims that this dramatic discrepancy in compensation is warranted because of government workers’ high skills are unjustified, as this study shows. Equally unjustified is the fact that federal workers can rarely be fired, no matter how poor their job performance. Congress should align federal salaries and benefits with market rates—a simple, and fair, move that could save taxpayers nearly $47 billion in 2011. Heritage Foundation labor policy analyst James Sherk provides detailed data on why Congress should not overtax all Americans to overpay the privileged workers in the civil service.

Read the full report here, and please send it to 10 friends or family members.  This isn't some peripheral issue: it gets to the heart of the differences between Right and Left in this country.  It involves the economic solubility and future of our economy (and way of life).