"Government Employees Are the True 1%"

Wednesday, March 07, 2012


"Government Employees Are the True 1%"

We are on track in the United States to pay more money to 20 million public sector retirees – at an average pension of $65,000 we will pay these retirees $1.3 trillion per year, then we will be paying in social security to 80 million private sector retirees – at an average social security benefit of $15,000 per year that will cost less, about $1.2 trillion per year. Providing a level of retirement security to government workers that only the wealthiest 1% can enjoy in the private sector is not “protecting the middle class,” it is economic enslavement by government unions over the taxpayer.

Wayne Allen Root explains how public sector unions are bankrupting the United States, by the numbers:

How did America become broke and insolvent? How did we build up an unimaginable $115 trillion in debt and unfunded liabilities? How did we allow the American Dream to become a nightmare?

...The truth is that government employees are the true 1%. We have far too many of them (21 million), many of them are paid too much, and their union demands are straining taxpayers to the breaking point.

They have become a privileged class that expects to be treated superior to the taxpayers — the same folks who pay their salaries and pensions. But it is their obscene pensions that are the big problem moving forward for America.

• A retired New York City toll-taker will received a taxpayer-funded pension of $120,000 a year for the rest of his life. And he's only 50 years old.

• Nearly 80,000 federal employees earned more than the governor of their state of residence.

• The compensation of the average federal worker is more than $123,000-a-year, more than double the average private sector worker.

• The average firefighter in Las Vegas, NV earns $199,678 per year.

• Over the course of his or her career, the average janitor working in government makes over $600,000 more than a private sector janitor.

• More than a third of the Las Vegas teachers' union's entire $4.1 million annual budget went to pay just nine union leaders (including salaries of $632,546 and $546,133).

• Roughly 50% of all Clark County (Las Vegas, NV) firefighters retired with work-related injuries in recent years and received an average bonus payment of $320,000 each, in addition to gold-plated pensions for life.

...do you know any small business owners who retire with $5 to $10 million? They are few and far between. But that’s exactly what a private sector employee would need in the bank on the day of his or her retirement to match the $100,000 per year pensions (plus health care benefits and cost of living increases) of government employees paid out over 30 to 50 years.

Keep in mind that government employees never risk a dollar of their own money. They have lifetime job security. And they rarely work beyond 9 to 5, let alone weekends or holidays.

Yet government employees are paid millions by taxpayers to retire early, often on pensions fattened by gaming the corrupt system.

They are the true 1%.

No country anywhere in the world can afford this insanity.

The arithmetic is unassailable. If this country is to survive, public sector unions must be eradicated.

Related: A Brief, Illustrated History of the Public Sector Unions That Are Bleeding America Dry With the Full Support of the Democrat Party