Unless you own your company you are taking a tad bit more risk then a public sector employee. It's just as easy to hide in a big company as it is the govement. I worked for two of the biggest and seen it. I seen it in middle sized companies as well, I work for a company that has 8 employees, and when things don't get done, it's real easy to point the finger. Those who own their own company are the ones taking the risk. Becareful what we wish for, slashing those jobs may do more harm then good. You are also taking money out of your local econonmy. At least on the federal side, until we touch the big three, we are still screwed. Just cutting programs is not going to fix the problem.
I have owned a business, been in the private sector, and now work for the county. I make less than I would in a comparable position in the private sector but, with benefits, it pretty much equals out. I am management, but our maintenance workers are union. Their "agreement" prohibits them from climbing a ladder to clean out a gutter. This is what is wrong With our system.
Spoken from a public sector person...lol. You must not know anything about me or my philosopical views NY. I thought the goal of owning your own business was to get wealthy and turn over the day to day operations of your business so that you do not have to work the 16-18 hour days that you always speak of when it comes to work. I mean you must love cleaning out the toilets and cutting the grass at the golf course. And please do not lump me into any one category. If it were up to me I would slash and terminate at least 25% of the staff where I work based on their incompetence. In fact I have mentioned it 557 times over the years. I believe in efficiency. I am the guy that does not call out unless I am on my death bed, will come in during a snow storm when noone else can make it, will take on the worst d-bags in our facility if necessary, and guards the public dollar within the scope of my authority (which ain't much). So please, enough of your "private" sector elitism.
Actually yes I do enjoy it. I'll do anything from cleaning a toilet to giving a golf lesson. Contrary to your belief I don't think I'm above anything that needs to be done to operate my business. I'm not afraid to do anything that needs to be done. I could take the easy route and pass it on to someone else. I enjoy every aspect of what I do. May ***** about it and get stressed over it. But at the end of the day I really like it and wouldn't trade it for anything. Also, I really don't HAVE to work 16 hour days if I chose not to. I like to push myself and get the most out of me. I don't even really do it for the money. I'm more than comfortable. Hell I could hire someone to manage my business and still be comfortable. I just enjoy creating, being productive, decision making, running a business, doing projects, seeing how good I can be etc.... Kind of a fun game.
I'm not lumping you personally into anything. I know nothing about you. But what you just said is exactly the problem. You know of 25% employees that are not efficient and should not have a job. BUT... they do. In the private sector you can't afford to be 25% NOT efficient and live. Yet it continues to go on day after day and dollar after dollar and will never stop. Go back to my tree limb example. I would say 50% efficient/productive. On that ONE job in ONE town. Expand that to every job in every town/city in the state. Kind of makes me want to puke calculating the dollars wasted. Especially when we calculate cost out every single thing involved in running a business from labor percentage, food cost, equipment, insurances, down to a freaking mop head. And everything in between. I'm sitting here everyday figuring out EVERY single angle of every aspect in my business to save and make money. No stone unturned. Racking my brain EVERYDAY! I drive down the road and see 9 guys cutting a tree limb (that I'm paying for). Kind of rubs you the wrong way.
Another good article. I wish I could find the time to keep up with the posts in the this thread. But unlike the Teachers who call in sick to protest. I have to keep working. http://www.jsonline.mobi/news/opinion/116355379.html?ua=android&dc=smart&c=y Unions want to overturn election result By Patrick McIlheran of the Journal Sentinel Feb. 16, 2011 | (32) Comments Say you generally liked Gov. Scott Walker's move to rein in government labor costs but had a few doubts on his method. The last few days should have cleared that up nicely. The public-sector union tantrums, meant to make lawmakers wobble, have an inadvertent message for the rest of us: Voters can vote all they want. We can elect a cheapskate governor and a Legislature to match. But come the moment, unions will have the last, loudest word. They'll have it if takes marches. They'll have it if it takes what amounts to an illegal strike, with so many Madison teachers calling in sick Wednesday that the district closed schools. If it takes showing up for a we-know-where-your-family-is protest on Walker's Wauwatosa lawn while he was at work, the unions are sure they can outshout any election result. This is exactly why Walker is right to limit the unions' power over government spending. Walker, remember, is not removing unions' fundamental power to bargain for wages. He is demanding that state workers put 5.8% of their wages toward retirement and that they cover 12.6% of their health care premiums, which would still have them paying more than $100 less a month than the average schmoe. He is also proposing that elected officials determine the shape of employee benefits without having to bargain them, and this as much as the added cost has unions crying "unfair." They insist this is the end of unionization in government, something to which they have as much right, they say, as anyone else. But they miss a bedrock difference. Unions in the private sector are a way of organizing private interests, those of employees, against other private interests, those of a company's owners, for economic gain and for protection against unfairness. In government, workers are already protected against unfairness by civil service laws, and Walker has supported expanding those. Economically, government unions pit a private interest, that of employees, against the public's interest, that of taxpayers and voters. We see the result. Walker's moves are prompted by the state's vast deficit. The alternative, he says, is to lay off thousands. Nonsense, charge the marchers: Just raise taxes. Unions and allies have for years been demanding more sales taxes, new business taxes and higher taxes on other people's incomes, all to keep the state flush and generous. We're taxed enough already, said a voting majority in November. Not yet, insist the unions that have become the largest players in Wisconsin politics precisely to counter any such voter sentiment. Anyway, union leaders were conceding the pension and health care premiums by this week. They said they knew they'd have to pay more eventually - so when unions in December said such payments were tantamount to slavery, it must have been just maneuvering. Bygones, say unions, as long as Walker leaves them the power to set health benefits via bargaining. Leave that, they say, and it's peace. Yeah? Recall how we got here. How is it that only in desperation will unions accept a deal that still leaves them better off than everyone else? How did we achieve not just next year's $3.3 billion deficit but the decade of structural deficits before? Easy: It's because labor costs for years have been outstripping taxpayers' capacity. That in turn was caused by officials, elected in a union-dominated political environment, buying labor peace via benefits, where it's harder for voters to see the costs adding up. If the Legislature takes the 5% and 12% and doesn't reform collective bargaining, the 5% and 12% soon will be won back by unions. Any further savings are out the window. Walker talks of moving to consumer-driven benefits, as many companies have done, to restrain medical costs. That's anathema to unions, who will resist it contract by contract. Without bargaining reform, government costs will have taken only a pause in their ascent. Union activists in Madison Tuesday spoke apocalyptically of "class war," hinting wildly at general strikes and takeovers of the Capitol. They correctly see their control of the state slipping and must figure that if they bring 13,000 shouting people to Madison, they can overrule the election. Any worried legislators should keep in mind that Walker drew about five times that many votes in Dane County alone in November. Patrick McIlheran is a Journal Sentinel editorial columnist. E-mail [email protected]
His complaint is that the private sector is not inefficient but the public sector is. The private sector can be just as inefficient as the public.
Why the misunderstanding here? Any private sector business can do what they want with THEIR money. When your talking government jobs It's our money your dealing with.
I know exactly what NYB Is talking about. I worked with these people for 5 years. He's spot on with 5 guys doing one mans job. The guys I worked with wouldn't have a problem In the least telling you the same thing what NYB and I just stated. Why do they care, their getting paid. It's the norm In maintenance county/state jobs. I have no business or experience commenting on your state job Bruce or on Brett's. I'm talking state and county road/maintenance workers that I've got plenty of experience with.
Where i differ, once I pay the tax and it leaves my hands, it's the states money or federal goverments. We put the elected officals in office, how they deem to spend it is up to those elected. If I feel they suck, I vote to vote them out. A lot of states made some bad deals, it's not the Unions fault or the people who work for the state. If your employer offered you better healthcare and more time off are you going to turn it down? I did the samething when I took this job, I bargained for more time off. Why like Wis we in MI even a lot of private unions here elected a Gov who is business guy and is going do a better job of spending the states money. Like it or not it's the state's money, not ours. We elect folks to spend it wisely and we have pretty much sucked at it the last 25 years. Since Regan we have had 3 Republican Presidents, who have 8.5 trillion in deficit spending. These are suppose to the fiscal responsible presidents
I haven't read any of this thread, but I just wanted to say that if you work for the public sector, 9/10 you're dumb. Oh...and lazy. And I'm completely jealous of your paid time off and benefits package. But I'm still better than you, you public sector trash.
Germ, With all due respect. There is so much fundamentally wrong with this. This is not what this country is about. You damn right it is OUR money because it's OUR government.
Then go ask for it back If you think this is our goverment anymore you are living in fantasy land. On the local front maybe, but the corporations with all the money, that's who goverment it is now. We let it happen
