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Open thread October 15, 2010

Dan Crawford | October 15, 2010 8:03 pm

Comments (17) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
17 Comments
  • ilsm says:
    October 16, 2010 at 8:28 am

    Military industrial congress complex schills want the US to be able to tilt with itself as it was armed in 1944. No other reason to compare GDP today with GDP spent in 1970.
    If you use GDP look to what others’ GDP is sent to their militarists.

    I don’t have a figure for UK GDP (I think about 1%) but UK military was 7% of outlays while US is 21%.

    The US spends more than the next 15 combined and likely as much as all. Among the differences US is enured to expensive junk designed and maintained ready 7/24 for specific capabilities that are based on military sci fi novels, and the hope that someone other than those in the pentagon would like to fight WW II again.

    US would be better off with a warfare state burden about the same percent as the UK.

    That is cut to one third the size.

  • ilsm says:
    October 16, 2010 at 8:57 am

    What has the Afghanistan surge accomplished?

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derrick-crowe/general-petraeus-proconsu_b_764972.html 

    Not an issue in the mid term elections?

  • CoRev says:
    October 16, 2010 at 7:10 pm

    ILSM said: “Not an issue in the mid term elections?”

    I answer: NOPE!!!!!

  • Nancy Ortiz says:
    October 16, 2010 at 8:04 pm

    Well, it seems to me this place needs something to perk it up. So, I will provide a link to a shamelessly left wing cartoon. Here it is.
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/16/910823/-Animal-NUZ:-A-Daily-Kos-Exclusive-Comic-Strip#16
    In view of the fact that no one is here but me and the crickets, I doubt anyone will care. TTFN. NancyO.

  • amateur socialist says:
    October 17, 2010 at 7:03 am

    It’s expensive!  It pisses off dirty fucking hippies and muslims!  Why wouldn’t a tea bagging wingnut be bullish on it?

  • MG says:
    October 17, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    The gloves are coming off in Germany.  What happens next?   
     
    Angela Merkel declares death of German multiculturalism
    Sunday 17 October 2010
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/17/angela-merkel-germany-multiculturalism-failures
    and
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Multiculturalism-has-failed-in-Germany-says-Merkel/articleshow/6766594.cms
     
    Multicultural Germany turning against Muslims
    October 10, 2010
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/germany-turning-against-muslims/story-e6frg6so-1225936757751

  • MG says:
    October 18, 2010 at 12:30 am

    The clock is running… 

    (AFP)
    PARIS — Saudi security services warned several days ago about an Al-Qaeda threat to Europe and in particular France, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Sunday.
    Several days ago European intelligence agencies received “a new message from the Saudi services which indicated that Al-Qaeda’s branch on the Arabian Peninsula was possibly active or planned to be active” and was targeting “the European continent and in particular France”, Hortefeux said in a radio and television interview.

    “The threat is real and we remain alert,” said the minister, adding that France’s security threat level remains at one level below the highest level of scarlet.

    The Saudi warning follows several warnings in the past weeks.

    —-

    Another U.S. alert:

    The terror alert is for US travel citizens in certain parts of Europe. US Department of State issued the alert on Sunday, advising citization’s to be cautious when traveling to tourist attractions or transportation hubs.

  • MG says:
    October 18, 2010 at 1:46 am

    Federal Employment in the News
     
    Obama considers leaving government jobs unfilled 
    October 16, 2010 
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/15/AR2010101506297.html
     
    New Post poll finds negativity toward federal workers 
    By Lisa Reinand Ed O’Keefe Washington Post Staff Writers 
    October 17, 2010; 11:57 PM 
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/17/AR2010101703866.html
     
    Washington Post Poll on Federal workers conducted Sep 30-Oct 3, 2010 
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_10172010.html?sid=ST2010101703889
      
    John Gage shoots off his mouth 
    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/10/republicans_have_little_love_f.html 
      
    But John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees and one of the federal sector’s biggest defenders, said blanket comparisons between federal workers and the private sector are unfair. 
      
    “How the hell do they know what federal employees are paid?” Gage said of the poll’s respondents. 
      
    —- 
      
    What an arrogant SOB.

  • MG says:
    October 18, 2010 at 1:55 am

    “How the hell do they know what federal employees are paid?” Gage said of the poll’s respondents.   

    Some of the poll respondents may have read USA Today:
     
    For feds, more get 6-figure salaries
    By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
    December 11, 2009
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-12-10-federal-pay-salaries_N.htm
     
    Federal pay ahead of private industry
    By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
    March 8, 2010
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm
     
    Federal workers earning double their private counterparts
    By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
    Updated August 13, 2010
    http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-08-10-1Afedpay10_ST_N.htm
     
    Some may have read articles that have quoted or cited CATO studies by Chris Edwards and Tad DeHaven:
     
    Wall Street, Big Oil, and Federal Workers
    by Chris Edwards
    August 31, 2009
    http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/wall-street-big-oil-and-federal-workers/
     
    Overpaid Federal Workers
    by Chris Edwards
    June 2010
    http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/overpaid-federal-workers
     
    Federal Government Is a Lucrative ‘Industry’
    by Tad DeHaven
    August 11, 2010
    http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/federal-government-is-a-lucrative-industry/
     
    A few may have read the Washington Post which has cited this Heritage Foundation study three times recently:
     
    Inflated Federal Pay: How Americans Are Overtaxed to Overpay the Civil Service
    by James Sherk
    July 7, 2010
    http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/07/Inflated-Federal-Pay-How-Americans-Are-Overtaxed-to-Overpay-the-Civil-Service
     

  • amateur socialist says:
    October 18, 2010 at 8:24 am

    Maybe you could save yourself a lot of pasting here MG.  Help me out please:  Is the problem federal workers are overpaid?  Or private sector ones are underpaid?  

    Or maybe you have some other problem/solution in mind.  

  • CoRev says:
    October 18, 2010 at 4:10 pm

    AS, try matching job catgories first before making assumptions.  Y’ano, there’s an official review annually, that compares the basic Govt salary against equivalent private sector jobs.  It seldom shows the govt jobs being overpaid.

    Here’s a hint:  compare the quantity of entry level (GS 1, 2, 3 & 4) Govt job holders with the quantity of entry level private sector job holders.  You’ll find a large difference.  Govt employees are generally older and more experienced than the private sector.

  • amateur socialist says:
    October 18, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    Which answers neither question I asked, nor does it suggest whatever else MG might be trying to sell.

    Thanks for nothing.

  • amateur socialist says:
    October 19, 2010 at 8:06 am

    Ok MG thanks for that.  I have appreciated your comments on other threads arguing that aggressive free trade policies over the last 30ish years have damaged our industrial capacity and undermined the stability of our middle class.  It’s an argument I’m sympathetic to at least.

    So I have to ask:  In the regulated trade environment you advocate, should Federal bureaucrats administering these supposed regulations have the kind of income security and benefits you seem to think excessive?  Doesn’t it make sense that those people should be paid at least enough to focus on the work at hand, rather than cultivating future career opportunities at the businesses they’re supposed to be supervising?  Is there some value in providing career length opportunities within the federal government that protects institutional memory and skills spanning multiple administrations?  If not, can you explain why not?  As you say it’s complicated isn’t it?

    I’m going to leave alone the assertion that the slowing rate of growth for private industry pay and benefits has been beneficial to our economy.  For now.

  • amateur socialist says:
    October 19, 2010 at 11:29 am

    should have said “beneficial or neutral impact on our economy” above. 

  • Jack says:
    October 19, 2010 at 4:27 pm

     “In the regulated trade environment you advocate, should Federal bureaucrats administering these supposed regulations have the kind of income security and benefits you seem to think excessive?”

    A good question, but too limited in its scope if the goal is to come to some conclusion regarding the value of an individual’s work responsibilities.  Bureaucrat is an unflattering term even if literally correct.  There are highly skilled and highly educated peole working throughout the government carrying out the responsibilites of government agencies.  If the gripe is with the existence of those agencies or with the specific tasks and goals of those agencies then take it up with a congressional representative.  The people doing the  work deserve to be compensated in a fair and reasonable manner.  Campoarisons to private industry are difficult and fraught with the risk of incomparability.  What is a freshly miinted PhD analyst worth to the agency that will rely on his/her attention to detail and abillity to measure events in a clear, valid and reliable manner?   Significant decisions will be made on the basis of those measured observations.  As has already been pointed out maybe private industry in the US is falling behind in its evaluation of its professional work force.  Certainly the  current condition of the national economy implies that someone is making slip shod decisions.  Maybe they have been based on inferior observations and analysis.   Maybe we should pay government professionals on the scale that the financial industry pays personnel with  similar educational credentials.  A PhD program analyst in the most expensive localities in the country start at just under $65,000(G11).  Big deal!!!

  • amateur socialist says:
    October 19, 2010 at 4:42 pm

    And more to the point (maybe the question I should have asked):  What is a public service minded by the book regulator worth?

    If he’s responsible for (not) letting BP approve their own disaster relief plans, maybe quite a bit.  Just to cite a recent example.

  • amateur socialist says:
    October 20, 2010 at 1:58 pm

    Net domestic profits earned by US corporations since 4Q 2008:  $609B
    Net decrease since then in the amount these companies spent on wages and benefits:  $171B
    -courtesy Harper’s Index (from the paper version online is sub only sorry)

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