molson_golden2002 Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 I was talking to someone the other day and they said 25% of Americans work for the government at some level, city, county, state, federal, whatever. I tried to see if that was right when this article came up on CSM. I found this to be really surprising. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0416/p01s04-usec.html
Johnny Coli Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 I was talking to someone the other day and they said 25% of Americans work for the government at some level, city, county, state, federal, whatever. I tried to see if that was right when this article came up on CSM. I found this to be really surprising. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0416/p01s04-usec.html Before the knee-jerkers jump all over this without reading the article, the authors consider any income from the government in their analysis AND their direct dependents...ie, everyone in the military, government employees, government contract employees, anyone that gets a grant (which I'm assuming would include education grants), anyone whose employer gets money from the government (goverment contacts), retirees collecting social security. They're not making any distiction between someone who gets a few food stamps a month or the IT guy that's keeping the servers running in the windowless basement of Raytheon (defense contractor).
DC Tom Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 They're not making any distiction between someone who gets a few food stamps a month or the IT guy that's keeping the servers running in the windowless basement of Raytheon (defense contractor). Which, as far as I'm concerned, is sensible. My salary is 100% paid for by federal taxes and borrowing as a government contractor; I personally believe the only thing that separates me from someone collecting welfare is that I at least try to produce something in return for my income. As a practical matter, there's little difference, of course - trying to produce anything for the government is usually blocked by the government itself in some way. I'm little better than a high-paid welfare recipient in real terms.
Wacka Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 I'm little better than a high-paid welfare recipient in real terms. You seem to have the same amount of free time!
DC Tom Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 You seem to have the same amount of free time! I'm still waiting for my 23 different project managers to decide if I have any work to do this week.
VABills Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 Which, as far as I'm concerned, is sensible. My salary is 100% paid for by federal taxes and borrowing as a government contractor; I personally believe the only thing that separates me from someone collecting welfare is that I at least try to produce something in return for my income. As a practical matter, there's little difference, of course - trying to produce anything for the government is usually blocked by the government itself in some way. I'm little better than a high-paid welfare recipient in real terms. Well to be fair, other welfare receipiants produce something as well. Babies.
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 Well to be fair, other welfare receipiants produce something as well. Babies. Oh no you di'int...
SilverNRed Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 Well to be fair, other welfare receipiants produce something as well. Babies. They have a lot of spare time.
DC Tom Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 Well to be fair, other welfare receipiants produce something as well. Babies. True that. Apparently, I get so much money from the government, I'm just to damn smart to breed...
John Adams Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 Which, as far as I'm concerned, is sensible. My salary is 100% paid for by federal taxes and borrowing as a government contractor; I personally believe the only thing that separates me from someone collecting welfare is that I at least try to produce something in return for my income. As a practical matter, there's little difference, of course - trying to produce anything for the government is usually blocked by the government itself in some way. I'm little better than a high-paid welfare recipient in real terms. So my taxes go to supporting your 30,000+ posts. Suddenly the money wasted on No Child Left Behind doesn't look so bad.
DC Tom Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 So my taxes go to supporting your 30,000+ posts. Suddenly the money wasted on No Child Left Behind doesn't look so bad. Probably only about half of them. The other half the time, your taxes are supporting my importing documents no one reads into an online document management system that not only has no one ever used but they're talking about getting rid of (okay, actually only 6 of the 23 project managers are talking about ditching it)...and believe me when I say that my salary is a pitifully small portion of the millions of dollars they've wasted on this stupid thing. It's actually expected that in one month I'll have something to do...and in a month and a half, the project will be cancelled, rendering anything I do moot, so that if I don't work, no one will notice. And imagine how I feel about the irony of paying taxes on my salary paid to me out of the taxes I'm paying on the salary I'm getting for not doing anything. I love government contracting.
EC-Bills Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 True that. Apparently, I get so much money from the government, I'm just to damn smart to breed... Is your wife from Eastern Europe?
Ramius Posted April 18, 2007 Posted April 18, 2007 Probably only about half of them. The other half the time, your taxes are supporting my importing documents no one reads into an online document management system that not only has no one ever used but they're talking about getting rid of (okay, actually only 6 of the 23 project managers are talking about ditching it)...and believe me when I say that my salary is a pitifully small portion of the millions of dollars they've wasted on this stupid thing. It's actually expected that in one month I'll have something to do...and in a month and a half, the project will be cancelled, rendering anything I do moot, so that if I don't work, no one will notice. And imagine how I feel about the irony of paying taxes on my salary paid to me out of the taxes I'm paying on the salary I'm getting for not doing anything. I love government contracting. Where the hell do i fall in? The government pays me (state), but the money they use to pay me comes from a privately funded source.
Booster4324 Posted April 19, 2007 Posted April 19, 2007 Probably only about half of them. The other half the time, your taxes are supporting my importing documents no one reads into an online document management system that not only has no one ever used but they're talking about getting rid of (okay, actually only 6 of the 23 project managers are talking about ditching it)...and believe me when I say that my salary is a pitifully small portion of the millions of dollars they've wasted on this stupid thing. It's actually expected that in one month I'll have something to do...and in a month and a half, the project will be cancelled, rendering anything I do moot, so that if I don't work, no one will notice. And imagine how I feel about the irony of paying taxes on my salary paid to me out of the taxes I'm paying on the salary I'm getting for not doing anything. I love government contracting. Thats sad. In a way thats why I became a moderate. I am liberal in a lot of ways but I hate big government and their wasteful ways. Talk about conflicted. I feel for you after those posts as I have worked for a company where the left hand not only didn't know what the right hand was doing, but actively fought them despite it's ignorance. I am glad that the small company I work for (about 200 employees in the home office) is privately owned and receives no government contracts. I am not saying it runs like a well oiled machine but man things get done. And when they are the wrong things they usually reverse course.
molson_golden2002 Posted April 19, 2007 Author Posted April 19, 2007 Thats sad. In a way thats why I became a moderate. I am liberal in a lot of ways but I hate big government and their wasteful ways. Talk about conflicted. I feel for you after those posts as I have worked for a company where the left hand not only didn't know what the right hand was doing, but actively fought them despite it's ignorance. I think its necessary to keep the economy in balance. The government redistributes the wealth so people can buy things, businesses can sell things and hire workers and the world can keep turning
DC Tom Posted April 19, 2007 Posted April 19, 2007 The government redistributes the wealth so people can buy things, businesses can sell things and hire workers and the world can keep turning You have got to be shitting me.
molson_golden2002 Posted April 19, 2007 Author Posted April 19, 2007 You have got to be shitting me. not at all. If the rich have all the money the average person couldn't buy cars and all the auto workers would lose their jobs. So we have Progressive [i.e. very good] taxation which re-distributes the wealth so the economy can keep going around.
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