Economic Illiteracy in America

[DinoDoc]

Seriously? A 2% raise is a pay cut?

If you've already been promised more, then yes.

[action=DinoDoc]plays world's smallest violin[/action]

[Drake Tungsten]

What's the point of working in the public sector if you're going to get screwed in downturns just like the folks in the private sector? Public sector workers certainly aren't going to get a share of the wealth in the next boom period. Obama is completely wrong about this not affecting future hiring and retention, as he's undermining the very security that makes government work attractive.

[KrazyHorse]

[Drake Tungsten]

Damn, I was hoping that would be more persuasive.

[JEELEN]

I'm sorry, but the evidence presented so far suggests that the economic illiterate here is you. Cutting down a 2.4% pay raise to 2.0% is quite modest in these hard economic times - especially compared to the spending during the Bush years. If you think that such a measure will hamper recruitment in the public sector with a 9+ unemployment rate, I suggest you take matters elsewhere than a game thread. I fear however that you are making a huge generalization based upon a single 'case' - your own.

[SlowwHand]

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

[Drake Tungsten]

Who the **** are you?

[SlowwHand]

Sloww. Good to meet you.

[Drake Tungsten]

This message is hidden because SlowwHand is on your ignore list.

I wasn't talking to you...

[Darius871]

the very security that makes government work attractive.

Having worked for a bank one year and a federal agency the next, I have to say there are upsides to the latter more salient than "security."

[KrazyHorse]

Drake, just in case you're actually arguing this instead of being silly, the thought that a 0.4% reduction in pay relative to a previously promised pay increase will have a significant effect on hiring or retention is...extraordinary, I'd say. On the other hand, it will obviously have SOME effect.

[Drake Tungsten]

I'm only arguing for some effect, not necessarily a significant one. I doubt the .4% cut will have a significant effect, but a further cut in the locality pay increase might.

[SlowwHand]

I wasn't talking to you...

EDIT:
NM. The lightbulb finally went on.

[KrazyHorse]

That's what happens when you let the gov't write laws about economics.

For example, the standard applied in "permanent labor certification" is absolutely hilarious; the business has to prove that:

"there are no qualified U.S. workers able, willing, qualified and available to accept the job at the prevailing wage for that occupation in the area of intended employment and that employment of the alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers."

[Drake Tungsten]

The thing that really pisses me off is that these *******s wasted $700 billion in "stimulus" money on pet projects and the lining of the pockets of their favored special interest groups, but now they're blaming the monster deficits they helped create to justify a pay cut for federal workers. I'm sure the deficit won't stop them from forcing a budget-busting healthcare reform bill through Congress by the end of the year, though.