The Government Union
Dec 12I have frequently heard people advocating government jobs. That is, the people that I know will talk about how good it is to be a government employee. They talk about the pension, benefits, and job security, to name a few. All of these things are true. But just as the unions will get you in the private sector, so also will the unions affect the public sector. Sometimes the unions in the government are organized, but one could make a case for the entire federal government being one gigantic union that stands against their employer (aka the American people).
In a USA Today article, we find out that things are in fact not too good. People are being paid quite a bit nowadays, don’t you think? It is especially interesting that there has been such a boom in government increases during the same time as the private sector losing so many jobs. And by interesting I mean awfully disturbing. The government is becoming a behemoth that is going to continue growing until it collapses and knocks down the support columns that hold up this house.
The thing that I do not understand in the least is how people in government positions can work without the fear of being fired! Whether incompetent or able, they will keep their job (unless perhaps they are grossly ill-performing where even then it will take quite some effort to make a move on them). So when people are presented with the option to try their best or do as little as possible with both seeming to result in the same outcome, what would people do? Exactly, they would do the least possible. There is no incentive for people in government jobs to continue to do their best. Now you see what I am saying about the government employees being similar to a union.
Just as the unions have been able to cripple portions of the private sector (such as the American automakers), it is going to be the government employees that are going to bring down the government. If you have not read what unions can do to the world, I suggest that you read the ever popular Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
All of the signs are there. Health care reform that will dictate much more than we need or want it to, a growing government influence in our lives, a government that dictates what companies will do (since it owns them), perhaps even the degradation of freedoms to which we are rightly entitled to under the Constitution. This is something that concerns all of us, and we all need to care about it. Because we sure are going to have the live with the consequences together. And disregarding warning is a terribly foolhardy thing to do.