The real ‘two Americas’: government and the governed
The public sector sees a totally different America than the rest of us do.
That’s true in the broadest sense: Two-thirds of the political class believe the country is moving in the right direction, while 84 percent of other Americans think we’re headed the wrong way, according to a Rasmussen Reports opinion poll earlier this month.
But the divide between government and the governed goes deeper than these momentary feelings. It shows up in our paychecks as well.
Last week USA Today reported that the average federal civilian employee earns twice as much in salary and benefits as the average private-sector worker. These federal workers are paid 61 percent more than the rest of us and receive almost four times as much in retirement and other benefits.
President Barack Obama has proposed an across-the-board pay raise of 1.4 percent next year for these 2 million workers, at a cost of $2.2 billion. The USA Today story noted that this would be the smallest federal pay hike in a decade.
To those whose pay has been frozen for a while now, a raise of “only” 1.4 percent doesn’t sound like much of a sacrifice.
But hey, don’t blame the feds for feeling like they’re getting shortchanged this year: Even adjusted for inflation, their pay has climbed almost 37 percent since 2000, or four times faster than wages for the rest of us.
Despite Obama’s new, ahem, restraint on salaries, it doesn’t look as if this gap will get narrower anytime soon.
On Thursday, I searched the federal government’s employment website, USAJobs.gov, for openings in metro Atlanta.
A search for jobs in my ZIP code turned up 169 listings from the North Carolina border to the Florida line, even though the search was supposed to be within a 20-mile radius (that’s close enough for government work, I guess).
A dozen jobs listed no salary figure. Of the other 157, a staggering 110 were for more than the average wage in their county, according to the latest federal data. Add the greater value of public benefits, and 144 of the 157 were above average.
And these are just minimums — each of the 157 listings had a pay scale based on factors like experience, and I’ve cited the bottom of these ranges. But for 92 of the jobs, the scale topped out above $100,000.
Some openings were for jobs like epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control, which you’d expect to pay better than the average job in DeKalb County. But there were also jobs like the one paying up to $85,000 a year for a maintenance mechanic supervisor in Calhoun, where the average annual wage is less than $35,000.
No wonder the political/bureaucratic class thinks we have it so good.
And no wonder the political/bureaucratic class thinks the answer to problems ranging from health care to Wall Street is to hire more bureaucrats and give more power to politicians. From their vantage point, the world works pretty well.
But when you’re one of the millions of Americans who earns half as much as a federal bureaucrat simply because your employer has to answer to market conditions and his doesn’t, things aren’t so rosy.
Ditto if you’re one of the millions more who pays for his salary regardless of whether he provides you with a service — much less whether you think that service is valuable.
The political class likes to talk about whether we can countenance a new age of austerity. What its members don’t realize is that, for many of the rest of us, it’s already here.
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290 comments Add your comment
problem solved
August 15th, 2010
9:59 pm
Dusty….I have never been banned from any web site…..
problem solved
August 15th, 2010
10:12 pm
By the way Dusty except for my most recent post where are all those Vietnam stories????
@@
August 15th, 2010
10:23 pm
problem solved’s pet monkey stories remind me of something I saw on Redeye.
The topic of discussion was about the woman whose pet monkey tore off her face during an attack.
Anyhoo….Dr. Charles Lamont Hill was on that night….he turns it into a racial issue. The other guests moan that Dr. Hill always focuses on race. Hill laughingly says they should all know that he doesn’t like to talk about race.
He continues on with….but some woman, for all intents and purposes, marries a monkey, and authorities want to do an autopsy on the chimp to determine what HIS problem was????
Too funny!
His linking race to a chimpanzee made me a bit uncomfortable, but Hill is black so I thought what the hey…
@@
August 15th, 2010
10:44 pm
Democrats Uncertain About Approach to Midterms–WaPo
It’s a far cry from the heady days of early 2009, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) began trumpeting the “four pillars” of what was the most ambitious Capitol Hill agenda since President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” of the 1960s. With Obama’s sweeping 2008 victory and the largest congressional majorities in three decades, Democrats passed the $862 billion stimulus in less than a month before moving on to health care and other major issues.
The problem for Democrats is that voters have given them virtually no credit for these ambitious projects
Are Democrats wondering why they’ve gotten no credit? Are they oblivious?
Linda
August 15th, 2010
10:53 pm
Problem @ 9:58, You were disrespectful to our soldiers & their commander by trying to to put the words from an ultra-liberal website into Gen. Petraeus’ mouth.
Your actions in 1966 have nothing to do with what you spun today & are still trying to spin tonight.
You are trying to change the subject at hand & cause my attention to be diverted to your actions from 44 yrs. ago. It’s not working.
I was testing you. If you actually served in the military, you would know & agree that disrespect is not tolerated.
You lied today. If you’re dishonest with you words, you’re dishonest with your actions.
Good night. May God bless you.
Grand Forks
August 15th, 2010
10:53 pm
“Democrats Uncertain About Approach to Midterms–WaPo”
That’s because democrats are very stupid people.
“Are they oblivious?”
No, they are stupid.
@@
August 15th, 2010
11:02 pm
Stooooooopid.
How’s it goin’ Grand? I saw Governor Christie (sp?) on the telly yesterday. Impressive…very impressive.
G-nite.
Linda
August 15th, 2010
11:22 pm
@@ @ 10:44 & others, After the Nov. elections, the “Party of No” will be telling the “Party of Yes, We Can” what they can no longer do.
The “Party of Yes, We Can & Did” will be asking themselves why they did what they did.
The “Party of No” has several other names:
the “Party of No, Sir,”
the “Party of No, Maam,”
the “Party of !@#$%^&* No,!”
The “Party of Yes, We Can & Did” will have several other names, inappropriate for this blog.
This is change you can believe in.
Dusty
August 15th, 2010
11:22 pm
Problem solved
Your stories are familiar, ’specially the one about the ‘Nam soldier getting the medal. I have heard them before. Perhaps you have not been banned with this ID but you sound just like one who was.
When did you mention Viet Nam? On this one blog? Try 5:32, 6:14. 8:24 & 9:58. You asked. There’s the answer. I will give you no more answers because you want to talk irresponsibly about our current military. Good night.
Big Man
August 16th, 2010
1:13 am
Why not post the Studies that also include the private industies CEO pay, and it’s Board? Remember, that their are no CEO’s who make 1000% of the avg. income of it’s employee. You can shape an article that will either favor or oppose your views Kyle. O yeah; add the Tax incentives that states offer those overcompensated CEO’s who pit one state vs. another to relocate their corporation. Does NCR ring a bell? 31.1 million in tax breaks, and they left Dayton Ohio devastated. Facts are facts, and Oh yeah to all you partisan hacks: I’m an Independant voter, so save that spin.
Big Man
August 16th, 2010
1:35 am
@Conservatism needs some Intellect. Man you put Gran Folks in his place. People need to stop drinking the Kool-aide. Because families are out here trying to live off of minimum wages, and all these Glen Beck Zombies on here can rant about is Fox news talking points. “Quit relying on the Feds for help.” Not everyone will graduate from college, but still want the opportunity to make a decent livable wage in this world. The Midwest has almost died, with the closing of good paying factory jobs, that have headed to Asia. SMH????????
Lil' Barry Bailout
August 16th, 2010
4:37 am
And the really galling thing is that these government tools attribute their higher pay to their higher intelligence. Right. That’s why our schools, entitlement programs, national parks, roads, bridges, and tax system are in such fine shape.
Government workers are nearly universally incompetent. They can’t cut it in the world where you only get to keep your job if you add value to your employer.
khc
August 16th, 2010
7:16 am
gran need to change your need to mini forks….to match the size of your intellect
khc
August 16th, 2010
7:21 am
or instead of grand fup , could be grand hydrant
stands for decibels
August 16th, 2010
7:37 am
I see that Kyle tolerates Grand Forks.
He’ll get over that.
Grand Forks
August 16th, 2010
8:40 am
kfc, don’t you have welfare checks to steal?
Grand Forks
August 16th, 2010
8:41 am
“I see that Kyle tolerates Grand Forks.”
Yeah, because Kyle isn’t a bed wetting baby like the other two ajc opinion writers.
stands for decibels
August 16th, 2010
9:05 am
GF, two things:
1) Jay has kicked out plenty of abusive/badly-behaved lefties as well as righties over at his blog.
2) I don’t know what “bed wetting” is supposed to actually mean (it sounds like something you were fed by the likes of radio skank-ho’ Neal Boortz), but for the record, Jay craps bigger than you.
Have fun. I’ve got a life.
Intown
August 16th, 2010
9:34 am
What’s the matter Kyle. Are you looking for a job?
Grand Forks
August 16th, 2010
9:38 am
“Have fun. I’ve got a life.”
Says the gal who posted twice.
Grand Forks
August 16th, 2010
9:39 am
“I don’t know what “bed wetting” is supposed to actually mean”
Not my problem, ma’am.
Grand Forks
August 16th, 2010
9:40 am
“Jay has kicked out plenty of abusive/badly-behaved lefties as well as righties over at his blog.”
Like who?
khc
August 16th, 2010
9:56 am
gran fup, what’s your address so i can steal your welfare check
Grand Forks
August 16th, 2010
10:06 am
“gran fup, what’s your address so i can steal your welfare check”
kfc,
it’s
101 FU Street
FU, FU 11111
khc
August 16th, 2010
10:23 am
thanks missy
@@
August 16th, 2010
10:47 am
Well, I see jay’s koffee klatch, or as RW has dubbed them…jay’s morning magpies, have found their way over here.
And their objective is….?
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of Grand Forks.
An odd bunch, to be sure.
OSAMA BIN LADEN
August 16th, 2010
10:48 am
kyle is just another angry conservative white rightwinger that hate to see a black family in the whitehouse…now after carrying water for the TEXAS THUG for the last 8 yrs…all of a sudden, the government is now the problem…typical
typical angry rightwinger
August 16th, 2010
10:54 am
i loved the guvment when DUBYA was president…now i hate the government…
GEORGE BUSH
August 16th, 2010
10:59 am
I know y’all miss me now…remember 9/11, taking CLINTONS surplus and turning it into a deficit,remember declaring a war on a country that did nothing to us,thereby insuring thousands of our brave men and women will get killed and crippled, remember losing millions of jobs?..well i miss the good ole days too..vote republican
problem solved
August 16th, 2010
11:07 am
Dusty @ 11:22 last night….
Again I have NEVER been banned by Jay…I post as popeye over there.
Yes, I have told that story before…and the reason, I did was to prove a point to the brainless Linda.
The only reason I cited Vietnam is because I was called a coward!
You know Scout, and Del? Two legitimate Vietnam warriors both totally opposite of me in politics. Through questions only someone who served in that sh*t hole would be able to answer, I was vetted by both.
So my suggestion to you is if you don’t know what you are talking about
just shut your yap!
problem solved
August 16th, 2010
11:21 am
@@ I happen to understand Grand Forks….A coservative North Dakota native as my parents were. Although I was born and raised in Oregon, which would shape my fundamental beliefs. Every summer as a teen my parents would put me on the train, and I would be off to Williston ND to work on my uncles wheat farm….some of my fondest memories! Like Oregon shaped my political beliefs…I assume growing up in North Dakota shaped Grand Forks beliefs.
I'm a government worker
August 16th, 2010
11:23 am
I just joined the United States Army. But it seems to me that conservatives hate the government and it’s employees. I wonder why?
christian
August 16th, 2010
11:25 am
@problemsolved
so growing up in N. DAKOTA made GRAND FORKS so angry and bitter?
problem solved
August 16th, 2010
11:42 am
Christian .. I guess so. How would you like growing up where in the winter it’s like living in Siberia, and the summers thick with mosquitos, horse flies, and hotter then, well you know what. I have a friend here in Atlanta who grew up in North Dakota, and he is the same. Angry and bitter!
Jefferson
August 16th, 2010
11:42 am
The private sector has failed to become competitive, thus falling behind. Raises anyone ?
@@
August 16th, 2010
11:51 am
problem solved/popeye?:
And I grew up on “the leftcoast”…California to be specific. After seeing what leftist policies have done there, I’ll go with conservative policies for a change.
From a beloved Oregonian:
California’s massive economic collapse — which has resulted in 926,700 jobs lost from July 2007 through June 2009 and an unemployment rate of 11.6 percent — is now becoming Oregon’s problem. As Californians, largely for lifestyle and cost reasons, head north across the border, they have helped swell Oregon’s ranks of both unemployed and, perhaps equally important, underemployed.
California disease: Oregon at risk of economic malady
problem solved
August 16th, 2010
12:12 pm
@@…Let us not forget what party has been in charge of California for the last seven years…correct me if I’m wrong but is not Ah-nold a republican?
I know what you are saying about Oregon, my sister still resides there!
We used to have a republican governor named Tom McCall (a great environmentalist) who had billboards put up in strategic places that read…
“Come visit us again and again. This is a state of excitement. But for heaven’s sake, don’t come here to live”.
Linda
August 16th, 2010
2:07 pm
Problem @ 11:07, You did not prove any points with me. I called you a liar & backed up what I said.
Now I see this morning that you are talking about me behind my back. If you have any thing to say about me, say it to ME if you are man enough.
Not only do you lie but you would not hesitate to try to hit someone below the belt or stab them in the back, any way to take advantage. You have no morals, ethics, values or pride.
I might be “brainless” but I at least did not vote for a community organizer.
khc
August 17th, 2010
11:51 am
if you voted for yosemite sam and the dimwit you are brainless
buck@gon
August 18th, 2010
10:53 am
GOOD COLUMN KYLE!!!
Sort of shines another light of truth into the myth that Obasm is governing sensitively from the “consent of the governed”. What he’s doing is creating his most vocal supporters by paying them exorbitantly.