When I first read this story in the Washington Post about supposedly under-appreciated federal bureaucrats, I was tempted to focus on the sentence referring to “the sledgehammer of budget cuts scheduled to hit today.”
Is the Washington Post so biased and/or clueless that reporters really think that a 1.2 percent reduction in overall spending for the current fiscal year (which means the federal budget would still be larger than it was last year) represents a “sledgehammer of budget cuts”?
But I just mocked the New York Times last week for its reporting about supposed “deep spending cuts” and I also nailed the Washington Post back in 2011 for using the term “slash” for a budget plan that would have shaved a miniscule $6 billion from a budget of $3,800 billion.
So instead I want to focus on the part of the story featuring self-pitying remarks of federal bureaucrats. Here’s a good sampling.
…federal workers in Mantua say…having “United States Treasury” atop their paycheck [now] means having to defend yourself against arguments, from strangers and even from your own relatives, that you’re an overpaid and underworked leech. …many federal workers are…bothered by the growing sense that the careers they chose may now seem unattractive, even unworthy. …on a recent visit to Missouri, he got fed up with ritual denunciations of federal workers… Won, a federal worker for 31 years, resents the notion, now commonplace on talk radio and Web sites devoted to bashing the government, that federal workers carry a lighter load than their for-profit counterparts. …older government workers…are concerned about their pensions but even more anxious about why politicians are so willing to make federal employees the target of popular rage.
Excuse me while I wipe away the tears and compose myself. There are so many stories of unbearable hardship.
- It’s absolutely heartbreaking to read about those unfortunate, oppressed, and under-appreciated bureaucrats who live in “a leafy section of Fairfax County where houses sell in the $700,000 range.”
- And you can understand my tears of sympathy for folks who, as one bureaucrat admitted, had jobs where the “pay was guaranteed and you couldn’t get laid off.”
- Moreover, we all share the pain of bureaucrats who must deal with uncomfortable comparisons, such as the fact that “pensions, once considered routine, have become a wild luxury in the private sector, so when many Americans hear that public employees still get retirement pay, they can get frustrated.”
Perhaps we can create a civilian version of the Medal of Honor, given to the bureaucrat who suffers the most because of the “sledgehammer” cuts and those mean people on “web sites.”
Indeed, I think we have our first recipient. But brace yourself before you read this passage. The anguish and suffering may haunt you for the rest of your life. This bureaucrat is enduring unimaginable hardship.
..has already cut back in anticipation of the forthcoming budget slashing: He told a carpenter who was going to build bookshelves in the living room that the $5,000 job will have to be put off, and he told his doggie day care provider that he’ll have to go without that service when the furloughs kick in.
Oh my God! Not only are we failing to appreciate government bureaucrats, but the “budget slashing” will lead to neglected pets as well. What sort of cruel and heartless society have we become?!?
And imagine the Keynesian death spiral that will occur when the carpenter and dog walker then have to cut back on their purchases? Maybe we need to take Bastiat’s advice and go break some windows!
To make matters worse, there are mean-spirited people such as Chris Edwards at places such as the Cato Institute that have the nerve to point out that federal bureaucrats get about twice the overall level of compensation as those in the productive sector of the economy.
How can that man sleep at night after making such an invidious comparison?
But there’s another cad at the Cato Institute who actually had the nerve to narrate this video, which unfairly uses facts and data to show that the federal workforce is over-compensated.
Worst of all, he actually suggests at the end of the video is that the real problem is that the federal government is far too large. What sort of place would employ such unreasonable folks?
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It is time to recognize that we need to measure PRODUCTIVE labor in Gross Domestic Product separated from non-productive and counterproductive government. GDP is grossly overstated by the number of government workers that eat away at our productivity. What value do you put on the productivity of a Dept of Energy or Education worker who has not increased our output since inception.
Same is true of employment. With so many jobs getting reduced to part-time we need to calculate hours-worked instead of just looking at number of jobs. Looking at unemployment is totally false. We all know that doesn’t account for people who dropped out of the workforce.
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Yummy…the bureacrats’ tears are salty-sweet 🙂
Well done, Dan! I read this piece this morning and immediately hoped that someone (someone of our ideological bent, that is) would take it apart. I especially liked the dire warning that no longer would the kinds of talented folks we have come to know and love be drawn to federal government employment if these kinds of negative images of “public servants” be allowed to stand! There outta be a law!
Cry me a f***ing river! May I first remind everyone that no matter what, if any useful services any of these bureaucrat/leeches performs, 100% of their compensation is extorted from honest, working taxpayers. They are therefore, a drain on the GDP. Every Czar, and every last government job created since 2008 should be eliminated! The country did very well in the years previous without their services. I’m sure we will manage to survive in the years to come without them.
Why does Cato compare Private Industry to “Federal Civilian” – which is the highest category for government pay? Federal civilian employees are more educated and experienced, on average, than private sector workers.
The CBO recently compared total compensation for federal civilian employees and adjusted for the differences in education and experience. They determined those government employees were paid 2% more. When benefits were included, they were paid 16% more.
This same argument works for the “teachers are underpaid” argument. Teachers only work 9 months of the year and barely that! They get a great pension and pay nothing or very little into it. If they do pay into their own pension, that has only changed recent! Their educational requirements aren’t that difficult, which is why there are not any shortages of teachers! And, some GOOD teachers are underpaid but that is ONLY because 20x more are overpaid due to mandatory wage increases.
Some teachers will claim they HAVE to work during their breaks but that’s only because they don’t live within their means. Their average starting wage of 32k (varies from state to state) is paid for 9 months of work! If they worked all year like private sector employees, that would be approx 40k. That’s with only a bachelors and a teaching certification. I know some engineers that barely make that coming out of college!
If this salary was truly terrible, there would be shortages of people willing to be teachers! End rant about teacher’s salary.
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Reblogged this on This Got My Attention and commented:
Hey, you’re under-appreciated. But look at it this way, Mr Federal Bureaucrat. You make a boatload of money.
Reblogged this on Public Secrets and commented:
The horror. I weep for our poor, oppressed bureaucratic mandarins.
“Maybe we need to take Bastiat’s advice and go break some windows!”
Just need to point out that this is wrong; inverse, in fact. Bastiat pointed out the fallacy of broken windows, etc. creating productive economic activity. I also realize you know this Dan, and it was an error in writing.
Great post, by the way. These people have become so insulated from the normal world that they are clueless. I saw this in the military as well; uniformed and civilians.