>From Horace,
> The following recent broadcast by "Need to Know" may provide some > useful data. > > http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/economy/video-are-public- > employee-unions-to-blame-for-states-budget-problems/7904/ > > http://tinyurl.com/4hyt6jw > > "Public plans are substantially underfunded, however, in the > aggregate they only account for 3.8% of state spending." Some additional information. From the Economic Policy Institute. "Are Wisconsin Public Employees Over-compensated?" http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/6759/ Hardly. One of the subtle statistics that has been lost in the current on-going vilification of public employees - as being overpaid is the fact that when you perform a more accurate comparison of educational levels of state employees with a sampling of private sector workers WITH THE SAME EDUCATIONAL LEVEL is the fact that public employees are actually underpaid. Public employees, on average are higher educated (with more degrees) than their private counterparts. That's why it gives many the illusion that public employees are overpaid. That "advantage" goes away when one performs a more accurate statistical sampling with individuals with the same education level on both sides of the fence. If the statistics are sampled more accurately public employees are paid less than their private sector counterparts. And now, with significant increases in health insurance and retirement payments, we stand to be paid substantially less than our counter parts in the private sector. Trying to attract new workers to the public sector will now be extremely difficult to do. There is no incentive whatsoever to work in the public sector. Scott Walker claimed that if his "Budget Repair Bill" wasn't passed as-is he would have to send out thousands of pink slips. He doesn't have to do that. Public employees are retiring in massive droves - far more than what the number of pink slips he claims he will have to issue. But that's not the point. Scott Walker made his dire pink slip warning because he is attempting to keep everyone in line by constantly instilling fear in the minds of everyone. That's how tyrants and dictators "rule" - through fear and tyranny. In the last couple of weeks I have never seen so many public employees get up and retire early. There were five "happy retirement!" cards placed on the reception desk at the front of our office last week. This accelerated retirement trend is likely to continue for a while longer, resulting in a massive gutting the accumulated knowledge base within our department, as well as in every other state agency. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
