Powerline’s Two Americas

Comments

1. Rufus McCain says

   March 28, 2010 at 10:34 pm

   As an employee of a state instituion, I'm of two minds about it. Maybe private employers are more likely to pay their people an unfairly meager wage. Maybe adminstrators in both the public and private realm are paid too much and the worker bees are paid too little.

   I would have liked to have stayed at the private Catholic institution where I was formerly employed, but I couldn't reasonably pass up the significant salary increase offered by the state institution (with a faculty union) that now employs me. The fact that my wife was pregnant with our first child was a big motivating factor in making that move. We'd have been hardpressed to live on what I was making. And we're still pretty financially challenged despite the relative extravegance of what the state is willing to pay me.

   There is a lot of injustice in the world when it comes to who makes what — and the disparities stretch across a weird host of often topsy-turvy societal values and economic factors.

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2. Quin Finnegan says

   March 28, 2010 at 11:23 pm

   Very well said. I'm not sure it needs to be said, but I'm a prime benficiary of the headlock my public union has been able to put on administrators in the public sector.

   The public vs. private compensation has been coming up a lot lately, and I'm getting a little nervous about a revolt. I picture being pulled out of the seat of my bus, stripped naked, tarred and feathered (or honey and feathered) and made to walk up 3rd Avenue while host of hardworking folk from the private sector jeer at me from the sidewalk and throw pennies at me, screaming: "here's more of your filthy lucre, you communist!"

   I'm addicted now; I'd find it very difficult to move to a private sector job – not just for the sake of the money, but the security is very reassuring. And of course I have none of the legitimate reasons you list.

   Topsy-turvy is the word.

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3. Rufus McCain says

   March 28, 2010 at 11:36 pm

   If it happened on Broadway, I could see them using honey.

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4. Jonathan Webb says

   March 29, 2010 at 1:41 pm

   This question touches on the relationship between Unions and management generally. I see a lot of waste where we work because our union is so unwilling to work with the county to make the operation more cost effective. I believe that it will hurt us in the long.

   On the broader question of government unions, there shouldn't be government unions. In fact, if a person receives money from the government (apart from military personnel), they shouldn't be allowed to vote. Present company included.

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