Two Americas: Public Employee Unions vs. the Rest of Us

Fred Barnes has a great piece in The Weekly Standard about public employee unions and how they are bankrupting our federal, state and local governments. When you hear politicians talking about budget shortfalls and possible bankruptcies, it’s important that you know what’s behind it all. This is another big story that the main stream media refuses to cover and most politicians are too afraid to take on.

John Edwards was right. There are two Americas, just not his two (the rich and powerful versus everyone else). The real divide today is, on one side, the 20 million people who work for state and local governments and the additional 3 million who’ve retired with fat pensions. On the other, the rest of us, roughly 280 million Americans. In short, there’s a gulf between the bureaucrats and the people.

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey puts his fight with teachers and their union in roughly those terms. He says there are “two classes of citizens in New Jersey: those who enjoy rich public benefits and those who pay for them.” The teachers want to keep a pay raise and continue to pay a minimal share of their retiree benefits.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, state and local government salaries are 34 percent higher than those for private sector jobs. Okay, that’s partly because government workers tend to have white-collar jobs. Benefits, 70 percent higher for these workers, are the real rub. And benefits for government retirees are the most flagrant. They’ve become a national scandal, a fiscal nightmare for states, cities, and towns, and an example of unfairness of the sort liberals routinely complain about but are mostly silent about just now.

Let’s start with horror stories of pensions run amok. If these tales of wretched excess at the expense of taxpayers don’t infuriate you, you’re jaded from decades of overindulgence by governments large and small: ….

Read the whole thing. It is infuriating. Well, at least if you’re one of the 280 million of us footing the bill and not the 3 million reaping the rewards. Of course, most of the examples come from California and New York. What a shock. But it’s happening everywhere and we need to get the word out. Unless people start getting angry about this, and demanding that something be done, nothing is going to change. Well, I take that back, things will change – we’ll all be bankrupt. Let’s just hope it isn’t too late.

The next time you hear about services in your state being cut, or state parks closing, think of all of the public employees retiring at the age of 55 with full pensions. Then think about who’s funding those pensions. Then ask yourself how that is fair.

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