Public Employees

On Monday, President Obama said the following: "I don't think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon. We need to attract the best and the brightest to public service."

I agree that public employees should not be denigrated or vilified.  I haven't seen any evidence that public employees are being denigrated or vilified, with the obvious exception of the state employee that holds the title of governor.  He is being denigrated by union bosses and liberal politicians every day.

I would also agree that public employees rights should not be infringed upon and would ask who is suggesting they should?  Is a change in the terms of employment considered to be an infringement of rights?  If so, where exactly would that be found in the Constitution?  Should public employees be afforded special rights that private employees do not receive.  I believe the Wisconsin unions are asking for exactly that - special rights - "you can't change the deal I have now".

Did you know what the Governor of Wisconsin is asking of the state public employee's union is the exact same deal the Feds give federal employee unions?  Does that mean that administrations from Obama back through Carter have been infringing on the rights of federal employees?

It would be nice if pubic and private entities could compete for employees on a level playing field.  Unfortunately, local governments have provided such a sweet deal in terms of retirement, salary and benefits, the playing field is not level.  For any individual, it is better to get the best government job one is qualified for than the best private sector job one is qualified.  Getting the best private sector job a person is qualified for means the benefits are not as good as the local government employee, and that you expected to help pay for the government employee's better benefit package in perpetuity.

While not the fault of the government employee, the politician and government bureaucrat has the advantage of spending the money (tax revenue) generated by the private sector to sweeten the deal for the public employee.  Without any form of restraint, there is no surprise that public job perks have become an incentive for job seekers.

But these perks can no longer be afforded by the private sector job.  In 2000, private companies began slashing budgets.  At first, employees were shielded from the effects as manager cut non-labor related expenses.  Those cuts were soon followed by salary reductions, lay offs and reduced benefits.  It would be unfair and painful to now ask those employees to pay more in taxes so that public employees can maintain their benefits and salaries. 

Obama seems not to understand this and chooses to do what he does best - pit one group of people against another.