Posted by Jack
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK – Examples #14,012,345/346
77,000 federal employees earn more than the governor of the state in which they work. More than 77,000 federal government employees throughout the country — including computer operators, more than 5,000 air traffic controllers, 22 librarians and one interior designer — earned more than the governors of the states in which they work. This according to the Washington Times. Click here for more info.
CA has at least one $822,000 worker, and we also lead the nation in high state salaries. Nine years ago, California Democrat Gray Davis became the first U.S. governor in 82 years to be recalled by voters. The state’s 20 million taxpayers still bear the cost of his four years and 10 months on the job. Davis escalated salaries and benefits for 164,000 state workers, including a 34 percent raise for prison guards, the first of a series of steps in which he and successors saddled California with a legacy of dysfunction. Today, the state’s highest-paid employees make far more than comparable workers elsewhere in almost all job and wage categories, from public safety to health care, base pay to overtime. Click here for more info.
Gov. Jerry Brown today announced two appointments to the California Public Employment Relations Board. Both jobs pay $128,109 per year and require Senate confirmation. The five-member board administers the collective bargaining laws that cover state, local and regional public employees in California. Both are democrats. Click here for more info.
BEST AND WORST: According to a 2012 study by 24/7 Wall Street, California is the worst run state taking into account debt per capita, budget deficits, unemployment, median household income, and the percentage of the percentage of the population below the poverty line. The best run state is North Dakota. Read more here.
The chart below represents how much of the state’s budget comes from the federal government. The number is the corresponding ranking in relation to the rest of the nation (if #1, the state receives the highest percentage of federal funding in the nation):
| State | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| California | 26.99% (#33) | 32.49% (#29) | 34.48% (#33) | 32.38% (#37) |
And who is hit hardesr for it? Have you had enough of the liar-in-chief? http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2013/0222/Why-is-Wal-Mart-worried-Payroll-tax-could-cut-consumer-spending.-video?nav=87-frontpage-entryLeadStory
Certainly many of these government workers are overpaid, but why does this blog pay so much attention to that issue, and so little attention to the millions of Americans who are being *under*paid?
Certainly it’s a bigger problem for our economy that the average worker today makes less than the average worker in 1968?
http://thecontributor.com/40-americans-now-make-less-1968-minimum-wage
Conservatives say that raising the minimum wage won’t work, but you’ve offered no alternative plan for increasing the take-home pay of the average worker, other than “individuals should just negotiate with their bosses”–a proposal that would cause any minimum wage worker to laugh in your face. Other times conservatives simply dismiss the issue entirely, often mocking the concept of a living wage.
Low wages = low consumer demand, which most economists and small business owners say is the central problem with our economy right now.
https://feefighters.com/blog/the-1-concern-for-us-small-business-low-demand/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/08/03/us-column-markets-saft-idUSTRE6722NO20100803
http://www.bizfilings.com/blog/index.php/2010/12/21/many-small-businesses-asserting-problem-is-not-tax-credits-but-low-demand/
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/whats-holding-back-small-businesses/
Low wages also cause more people to go on government assistance. For instance, Wal-Mart is also the largest employer of people on Medicaid and food stamps:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/dec/06/alan-grayson/alan-grayson-says-more-walmart-employees-medicaid-/
Why does it not bother conservatives that the world’s largest corporation is asking the taxpayer to pick up the tab for their employees?
Jack, you say you are concerned about government waste and overspending. But you ignore the role that corporations play in creating the need for government spending. If Wal-Mart paid its employees slightly more, less people would qualify for government assistance.