Every so often (about 362 days per year), I come to the conclusion that government is a racket for the benefit of special interests.
Greece would be an example. And if we limit ourselves to the United States, California is probably the poster child for a kleptocracy masquerading as a government.
Here are some absurd details, from a Bloomberg report, about bureaucrats ripping off taxpayers.
Manglicmot is one of 42 state nurses who each made more than $1 million in those six years, mostly by tapping overtime, according to payroll data compiled by Bloomberg News. Together, those nurses collected $47.5 million. In 2008, Manglicmot was paid $331,346, including $211,257 in overtime. The extra pay that allows some nurses to triple their regular compensation underscores a broader trend in California, where government workers are paid more than in other states for similar duties and civil-service job protections hamper efforts to close budget gaps. Governor Jerry Brown said this week that revenue will fall short of expectations, triggering $1 billion in cuts to school busing, libraries and care for children, the elderly and the disabled, among other programs. “California taxpayers should be outraged,” said Lanny Ebenstein, an economics lecturer at the University of California at Santa Barbara and president of the California Center for Public Policy, a research institution critical of public-sector compensation. …California is home to city managers whose compensation is higher than the governor’s, prison doctors who make more than counterparts elsewhere, Los Angeles firefighters who collect twice the national mean and state workers who reaped $1.7 billion more than their regular salaries last year, from overtime and unused vacation pay to physical-fitness incentives.
I can only imagine how horrible it would feel to be a California taxpayer, particularly since the story just cited is merely the tip of the iceberg.
This video from Reason TV is a good explanation of how bloated bureaucracy has helped to cause a deteriorating situation in the Golden State.
And here’s my video on the overall topic of overpaid bureaucrats.
Last but not least, don’t forget the video from the folks at Government Gone Wild.
[…] it also has high taxes, absurd regulations, a bloated bureaucracy, and a costly welfare […]
[…] it also has high taxes, absurd regulations, a bloated bureaucracy, and a costly welfare state. The net result of all these factors is […]
[…] it also has high taxes, absurd regulations, a bloated bureaucracy, and a costly welfare […]
[…] A state nurse getting $331,000 of annual compensation. […]
[…] can decide to do crazy things (such as regulate babysitters and give bureaucrats too much pay) and Texas can choose to do sane things (such as no income tax), but neither state could dictate […]
[…] work, produce, and pay tax, it’s very discouraging that so many bureaucrats have figured out how to become part of the top 1 percent. And it’s doubly discouraging when you consider how excessive pay and benefits are […]
[…] On another topic, I’ve written several times about the excessive pay and special privileges of bureaucrats in […]
[…] Is it California, which is infamous for over-compensated bureaucrats? […]
[…] A state nurse getting $331,000 of annual compensation. […]
[…] over-compensates government employees, distorting labor markets and imposing ever-growing burdens on […]
[…] A state nurse getting $331,000 of annual compensation. […]
[…] A state nurse getting $331,000 of annual compensation. […]
[…] I’ve explicitly expressed this sentiment in the past, and hinted at it here, here, and here. […]
[…] politicians in Sacramento impose very high taxes to fund a bloated bureaucracy that oversees a bunch of politically correct […]
[…] Much of this spending has been to employ and over-compensate a bloated civil service (in this respect, Cayman is sort of a Caribbean version of California). […]
[…] Much of this spending has been to employ and over-compensate a bloated civil service (in this respect, Cayman is sort of a Caribbean version of California). […]
[…] and local governments such as California and Stockton is that there are too many bureaucrats and they are paid too much (this cartoon makes the same point in a more amusing […]
[…] over-compensates government employees, distorting labor markets and imposing ever-growing burdens on […]
[…] about whether California is the Greece of America, in part because of crazy policies such as overpaid bureaucrats and expensive forms of political […]
[…] before about whether California is the Greece of America, in part because of crazy policies such as overpaid bureaucrats and expensive forms of political […]
[…] before about whether California is the Greece of America, in part because of crazy policies such as overpaid bureaucrats and expensive forms of political […]
[…] before about whether California is the Greece of America, in part because of crazy policies such as overpaid bureaucrats and expensive forms of political […]
[…] before about whether California is the Greece of America, in part because of crazy policies such as overpaid bureaucrats and expensive forms of political […]
[…] / Govt. California’s Top-One-Percent Bureaucrats Perry is collecting Texas state pension Rachel Maddow on Obama’s Indefinite detention ideas […]
The main thing is America shouldn’t go down the same path or even the same direction. That is an obvious multi-faceted disaster.
The power and prestige of bureaucrats in America pales in compared to that held by bureaucrats in India. Their share of income and incentives they get make the bureaucratic jobs the most sought after of all jobs. It is said that it is best to have at least one family member in bureaucratic job to make things easier for you or to get things done easily. This is the most striking example of when the common citizen is small and bureaucrats or government is big. Amazingly most people find nothing wrong with that and take big government to be some kind of natural law. Most people find it difficult to grasp that it’s government that is towering over the ‘common man’ and not the top 1%.