Economic Illiteracy in America

[SlowwHand]

Latest in Stimulus: 'Cash for Refrigerators' - Yahoo! News
A $300 million cash-for-clunkers-type federal program to boost sales of energy- efficient home appliances provides a glimmer of hope for beleaguered makers ...

also

Cash for Refrigerator
Govt. is giving out $50-$200 rebate
for energy-efficient appliances.
FamilyFinancialHelpUSA.com

[Drake Tungsten]

Citing the ongoing economic crisis and a ballooning federal budget, President Obama announced he would use his authority to set a 2 percent pay raise for federal employees starting in January 2010.

The proposal angered employee groups and lawmakers who have pushed for pay parity between civilians and members of the military, who are slated to receive a 3.4 percent raise if appropriators follow the guidelines in the 2010 Defense authorization act, or a 2.9 percent boost if Congress sticks to President Obama's February recommendation. But the Obama administration promised a leading House Democrat that that the president would pursue pay parity in subsequent years.

"A national emergency... has existed since Sept. 11, 2001," Obama wrote in an Aug. 31 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "Likewise, with unemployment at 9.5 percent in June to cite just one economic indicator, few would disagree that our country is facing serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare. The growth in federal requirements is straining the federal budget." ...

Under the law governing pay for civilian federal employees, workers are entitled to an across-the-board raise equal to 0.5 percentage points less than the growth in the Labor Department's Employment Cost Index. This year, that would have been a 2.4 percent raise, plus an increase in locality pay. But Obama said the $22.6 billion required to implement that pay hike would be too costly. Congress could still override the president's plan.

Max Stier, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, criticized Obama for refusing to acknowledge that he simply does not want to raise federal pay.

"We're operating under a fiction where every year, every president cites a national emergency to avoid a pay raise the law otherwise requires for the federal workforce," Stier said. "That's not a way to run a railroad or a way to run a government.... It becomes Kabuki theater, and for an administration that wants transparency, this is not transparency."

Large sections of Obama's letter, including the reference to Sept. 11, and, with one minor alteration, the entire final paragraph, in which the president argued that his proposed raise would not affect federal hiring, are copied verbatim from a similar letter President George W. Bush sent to Congress in 2007, regarding the 2008 pay raise.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43512&dcn=todaysnews

[Dis]

You act as though any schlub off the street can perform these jobs. That's not the case. You, for example, are grossly unqualified to perform my job should I choose to bolt to the private sector.

I'm assuming you work for the goverment? I'm so friggin' tired of hearing how difficult their jobs are and their "equivalent" makes $80,000 a year. I don't think people realize how few people make that kind of money. strippers and other high tip earners aside. You better have a law or medical degree if you want to make that kind of money.

The average wages are $43,000, yet goverment employees insist on being payed 50 or 60 thousand a year. What's wrong with this picture? And even though the average is $43,000, most people make less than $35,000 a year. It's just the few fat cats that make millions make the average that high.

[Dis]

Seriously? A 2% raise is a pay cut?

****ing whining goverment employees. My company is giving no raises this year and says inflation is static. So if there is no inflation why are goverment employees getting 2%

The time to overthrow the U.S. goverment is now. It's completely corrupted from top to bottom.

[Dis]

Oh and I can guarantee I can do any goverment employees job. Including the president. I am simply good at everything (except sports ). There is nothing I can't do. I am a jack of all trades. Goverment employee jobs aren't exactly difficult. Sitting in an office posting at Apolyton isn't exactly real work. Or maybe you are a post office carrier who shoves mail through a mail slot- and they even screw that up. Don't get me started how incompetent the U.S. mail service is.

Yes I would work a goverment job, but it appears you need connections to get one. I tried to get a county job. I took the test and all, but did not have the right connections. You really have to know someone to get in.

I can do their job, so therefore there is no reason they should make more than me.

[KrazyHorse]

I don't think people realize how few people make that kind of money. strippers and other high tip earners aside. You better have a law or medical degree if you want to make that kind of money.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Obama

You'd think a smart politician would realize not to piss off one of his bases of support.

[rah]

Almost everyone I know that works in the private sector got no raises this year due to the economy. Our company was so bad that they basically said that since so many other companies were doing it they thought they could get away with it also.
So if you got a 2% increase, you should feel happy and STFU. If anything this would make government work more attractive since no matter how bad things get you can count on some type of raise unlike a majority of the workforce in the US.

[Dauphin]

Let me build on that thought. Keeping your job is a raise.

I agree. A 2% pay rise beats a 100% pay cut.

Not that I am implying those are the only two options.

[KrazyHorse]

Rah: saying that you can count on a raise only appears to be true for FEDERAL employees. The fixed budgetary constraint that most states and municipalities operate under means that state and local employees are actually some of the most likely to receive pay cuts.

I'm aware of proposals/actions to cut state employee pay or mandate furloughs in at least 10 states that I can think of off the top of my head.

[rah]

Yeah, I should have been more specific, you are correct. There have been a considerable number of mandated furloughs in local government jobs. Though mostly local union jobs where it was negotiated instead of layoffs. No different then in the private sectors. I have yet to see this applied to elected officials.

[KrazyHorse]

Our thief* of a mayor tried to avoid taking a furlough along with all of her employees, but the protest was loud enough that she ended up being forced into it

*alleged thief, until the conviction comes down, I suppose

[rah]

A little outside pressure can be a wonderful thing.

[KrazyHorse]

The wonderful Sheila Dixon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Dixon

The Shoe incident

In 1991 Dixon waved her shoe at white colleagues on the Baltimore City Council and yelled, "You've been running things for the last 20 years. Now the shoe is on the other foot."[12] This incident led many people including some of her opponents to view her as a divisive person.[13]

Dixon explained her earlier comment by stating that she has "matured" since making the shoe comment and that she now attempts "to communicate better with individuals."[14]

In her first inaugural address as Mayor, Dixon alluded to what she considers people's wrong impression of her and stated, "I want you to know that I am much more than a newspaper headline or a sound bite on the evening news."[15]

Investigation and indictment

On June 17, 2008, investigators from the Office of the State Prosecutor executed a search and seizure warrant at Dixon's residence in southwest Baltimore. The result of, or purpose for the search was not immediately revealed by investigators. However, several subpoenas were issued to aides, and local reports indicate that the investigation includes a look at gifts, including several fur coats, as well as Dixon's spending habits. Two of Dixon's associates, campaign chair Dale Clark, and Mildred Boyer, a businesswoman who had hired Dixon's sister, pleaded guilty in Spring 2008 to tax charges and are cooperating with prosecutors in the Dixon investigation. The affidavit filed to support a search warrant on the company Doracon was published on the Baltimore Sun's website on June 23, 2008. The affidavit states that Dixon is being investigated regarding bribery.[16][17]

On January 9, 2009, Dixon was indicted by a Baltimore Grand Jury on twelve counts, comprising four counts of perjury, two counts of misconduct, three counts of theft, and three counts of fraudulent misappropriations.[1]

Dixon's trial, originally scheduled for September 8, 2009, was postponed to November 9, 2009.[18]

She's also reduced garbage pickup to 1 day a week in the last couple of months. The other thing I've noticed is that whenever there's road repair work being done there are signs put up WITH HER NAME ON THEM describing the project. I have no idea where the **** she gets off advertising herself as being responsible for work done with my money.

[Lorizael]

Stop whining. Wife just finished 4 months of 5% furloughs (and might have to do more). Luckily, she was also given a 17% raise this year.

Bah! I'm (hopefully) at the end of 3 months of 20% furloughs.