Maybe the following sobering statistics will penetrate the thick skulls of those who crave the creation of new government departments filled with workers who are free to pay themselves very generous packages, out of tax dollars, while looking forward to retiring a decade sooner than the stiffs who support them; and providing, in return, that stellar service for which the US Postal Service has become famous. Ah, for a government job!
The obscene numbers come courtesy of the “The Free Enterprise Nation”:
• When wages and benefits are combined, federal civilian workers averaged $119,982 in 2008, twice the average compensation of $59,909 for private sector workers.
• A State of California retiree gets an annual pension of $500,000
• A driver’s education teacher in Illinois gets a $170,000 annual salary and $120,000 annual pension.
• In New York, some city workers amass more than $100,000 in overtime during their last year before retirement to create a monthly pension higher than their salary.
• 420 of Illinois’s physical education teachers, 332 English teachers and 94 driver’s education teachers make more than $100,000 a year, with salaries for each position topping out at more than $160,000 a year.
• A senior citizen in Houston, Texas would find their number of police officers has remained the same for six years running, despite a 40 percent budget increase to cover higher salaries, pension and healthcare benefits.
• A small business receiving an IOU in California might be surprised to learn that in 2008, 40 percent of Vallejo’s 613 employees had salaries greater than $100,000 a year, the same year the city filed for bankruptcy.
• In Fort Worth, Texas, one police chief recently retired at age 55 with a guaranteed annual pension of $188,692. His successor retired at age 52 with an annual pension of $113,614. In the Northeast, two University of Connecticut professors are currently collecting six-figure pensions while simultaneously collecting a six-figure salary.
There are 115 million workers in the private sector, a portion of whom carry 20 million of these pampered parasites on their backs. (Yes, Republicans: Your beloved police and military are numbered among them!)
ANY PUNDIT WHO preaches, as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow does nightly, more bureaucracies, should have to hear from YOU. Flood their miserable cable station with indignant letters.
“The Free Enterprise Nation” “is beginning a national effort to unite more than 5 million businesses with 115 million employees and everyday citizens to fight excessive government spending on a bureaucracy too big to sustain.”
The Free Enterprise Nation represents the economic interests of the businesses and employees who are taxed to provide government and public education employees higher wages and pension benefits, 10 to 25 years sooner, than can be provided in the private sector. The effort launched today with a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal to be followed by full-page ads in Inc., FORTUNE Small Business, Forbes, and Fast Co.