http://www.governing.com/articles/0811vallejo.htm
"But the largest share of the blame in Vallejo has centered on public-
safety salaries and benefits, which make up about 75 percent of the
city=92s general fund budget. Base pay for firefighters is more than
$80,000 per year and employees can retire at age 50 with a pension
equal to 90 percent of their salary, the result of a retroactive
pension increase several years ago. . . . The California Professional
Firefighters union proclaims, =93If allowed to stand, Vallejo=92s attack
on its own employees would send shock waves throughout the labor
movement.=94"
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2008/12/01/executive-pay-cuts/
=93But what if the government were held to the same standard as private
management? If the government were a private company it would be too
broke and uncreditworthy to continue operating. . . . Yet who among
the political class =96 the very managers who remorselessly oversee the
financial train wreck in their own institution =96 has called for a pay
or benefit cut for the President or Congress, let alone actually taken
one? Which officials have curtailed travel by private jet, forgone
their annual salary, or cancelled scheduled retreats and
vacations? . . . So in a show of good faith, I would like to see our
federal leaders take the lead in fiscal accountability by refusing to
accept a salary until, as they=92ve demanded of the automakers seeking a
bailout, they can demonstrate a plan to bring their enterprise into
the black and repay their debt.=94
http://briansullivan.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2008/11/17/why-isnt-anyone-talki=
ng-later-retirement-for-government-workers/
=93Why Isn=92t Anyone Talking Later Retirement for Government
Workers? . . . The irony is that much of the news around GM, Ford and
Chrysler involves their huge defined benefit obligations. Much of the
debate around whether to put more government money into these
companies tends to come back to the issue of pension and health care
payments to those companies millions of retirees. Private workers may
end up working longer to balance out the good news that they are
living longer. Yet there is virtually no discussion of this with
regard to government and public sector workers. I imagine that is
because government workers tend to be the ones who vote on their own
retirement ages.=94
----------------------------------------------------
-Tom Enright
"For Scandinavians who can=92t swing a trip to Cuba, the next best
thing=96
and right in their own neighborhood, too=96is a little corner of
Copenhagen known as Christiania. [...] Founded in 1971 by hippies,
artists, and activists on a site newly vacated by the Danish army,
Christiania is the permanent address of approximately one thousand
people who don=92t pay Danish taxes but whose communal expenses are
covered by Danish taxpayers and whose security needs are attended to
by the Danish police. [...] In short, Christiania is the quintessence
of European socialism at its most puerile: just as the Continent=92s
elite routinely mocks and insults its long-time guardian, the United
States, so the spoiled brats of Christiania mock and insult their
protector, the government of Denmark. In true Sixties-anarchist
fa****on, they think of themselves as rebels against the state when in
fact they=92re
its wards."
=96 Bruce Bawer, While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the
West from Within, 2006
|
