Scapegoating the Public Sector
Bob:
Hope you and yours had a good Xmas and New Years.
My son Steve was up here last night and launched an attack on public sector employees. Steve, like most younger private sector workers has been subject to a pay freeze for more than 3 years and has a 401(k) plan rather than a pension plan. Steve launched an attack on Social Security, Medicare, and pension plans for public employees. These, he has be convinced, are the bogeymen which are dragging the economy into the hole.
Lest we forget years of unending war, the Bush tax cuts and the bursting of the real estate bubble, why is it that all the aged and the public workers are lazy, union members, public employees, welfare queens, etc.; but the idea like raising taxes both income and estate taxes on those who can afford to pay them are viewed as socialist and not a legitimate area of discussion.
I don't have a problem talking about raising retirement ages or the taxation of social security benefits...etc., but any discussion of the upper 1 or 2% of the country getting all the goodies, while real wages for everybody else declines is particularly upsetting.
Why, because, while private sector wages decline (and corporate profits rise), Steve and his ilk attack public sector workers who have some union protection and thus have not had their wages and benefits eroded as fast, rather than blaming the real villains in this economy -- the rich and powerful.
Hope you and yours had a good Xmas and New Years.
My son Steve was up here last night and launched an attack on public sector employees. Steve, like most younger private sector workers has been subject to a pay freeze for more than 3 years and has a 401(k) plan rather than a pension plan. Steve launched an attack on Social Security, Medicare, and pension plans for public employees. These, he has be convinced, are the bogeymen which are dragging the economy into the hole.
Lest we forget years of unending war, the Bush tax cuts and the bursting of the real estate bubble, why is it that all the aged and the public workers are lazy, union members, public employees, welfare queens, etc.; but the idea like raising taxes both income and estate taxes on those who can afford to pay them are viewed as socialist and not a legitimate area of discussion.
I don't have a problem talking about raising retirement ages or the taxation of social security benefits...etc., but any discussion of the upper 1 or 2% of the country getting all the goodies, while real wages for everybody else declines is particularly upsetting.
Why, because, while private sector wages decline (and corporate profits rise), Steve and his ilk attack public sector workers who have some union protection and thus have not had their wages and benefits eroded as fast, rather than blaming the real villains in this economy -- the rich and powerful.
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