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.
(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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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!!!
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)
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.
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?
ILSM said: “Not an issue in the mid term elections?”
I answer: NOPE!!!!!
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.
It’s expensive! It pisses off dirty fucking hippies and muslims! Why wouldn’t a tea bagging wingnut be bullish on it?
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
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.
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.
“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
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.
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.
Which answers neither question I asked, nor does it suggest whatever else MG might be trying to sell.
Thanks for nothing.
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.
should have said “beneficial or neutral impact on our economy” above.
“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!!!
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.
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)