Mail Magazine 24...
The Governmental Job Machine
Government is creating jobs after all… welfare offices on hiring spree
by Candice Lanier, LibertyNews 

Public sector jobs, in the state of New York, increased due, according to an NBC affiliate in New York, to “economic woes” leading to the addition of more public employees in order to manage the increase in demand for public assistance. 

The NBC affiliate reports that the amount of people on food stamps in New York has increased by 65% over the past four years. 

The state of Illinois is in no better shape and has a long history of growing government. Here are some facts, assembled by American Thinker: 

The state of Illinois has the largest number of government units of any state in the US 

Cook County has 2,200 government agencies,[vi] more than some states’ totals 

The Circuit Court of Cook County is not just the largest County court system in the US it is the largest in the world. 

The Cook County jail complex is also the largest in the US, and Chicago refuses to privatize the prison guards, keeping those jobs under political control. 

To help pay for the legacy costs of this bloated patronage system, the seven county area of metro Chicago-land now has 1,450 taxing bodies 

Thanks to these taxing bodies, Chicago now has the highest gasoline price of any city in the United States,[x] and the highest big city sales tax (10.25%) in the nation,[xi] as well as high property taxes, fees, permit costs, etc. 

Residents of the state of Illinois now have the highest per capita debt of any large state 

In 2009 the City of Chicago had a debt of $23.95 billion while its operating budget of that year was $6.6 billion 

According to Forbes, under the Obama administration, there are more Medicaid recipients than there have been under any other president. What’s more, Forbes also reports that the food stamp program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – SNAP) has ballooned from 26.3 million recipients in 2007 to 44.7 in 2010. That’s an escalation of approximately 70%. 

Medicaid is the largest budget item for most states (representing around 25% of the budget), according to Forbes. And, in the next decade, health care costs are projected to double. 

Private Sector vs. Public Sector 

Back in June, 2010, National Review reported that, though, approximately 7.9 million jobs in the private sector had been lost at that time, since January of 2008, during the same time period, 590,000 government jobs were created. 

And, this week the CBO released information regarding the pay of federal workers, which had already been addressed by the Heritage Foundation, back in 2010: 

In July 2010, Heritage’s James Sherk explained that Americans are overtaxed to pay the civil service. Salaries and benefits–for identical jobs–are 30 percent to 40 percent higher in the federal government than in the private sector. And in June 2011, Heritage’s Jason Richwine authored a study showing that workers who change jobs receive a substantially larger raise when they switch into federal employment rather than into another private job. In fact, Sherk testified before Congress on this very subject in March 2011, bringing the fact of the pay disparities to the House’s attention: 

The federal pay system unnecessarily inflates federal pay. My research shows that, on average, federal employees earn hourly wages 22 percent higher than otherwise comparable private-sector workers. Numerous studies by researchers whose personal views span the political spectrum come to similar conclusions. 

The Heritage Foundation also points out that the CBO’s report this week was hardly surprising as it was “spurred in part by two years of work” on federal compensation compiled by The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. 

Then too, there is always some abuse of the system and Save America Foundation provides some examples of this: 

For example, Star Parker [3] who lived off of government welfare for seven years, who writes that as long as she did not get married, did not save and did not hold a job, she got two checks per month from the federal government. She also received food stamps, freed medical treatment, free daycare for her kids, and says she spent her days sunbathing on Venis Beach. Now,60% of American households take more from welfare than they give in.[4] Or people like Patrick Berry, who was fired from his job in software development. During his 99 weeks of unemployment, he actually turned down several job offers, because they paid less than the government welfare. Kathy Bray of Denham Resources, an unemployment agency, says that 1/4th of the people she talks to aren’t really looking for jobs, and frequently turn down job offers. 

A good example of government handouts not doing what they were intended is unemployment. Unemployment has always increased when the benefits have increased, which is only logical. For example, look at Denmark, with one of the best welfare programs for the unemployed [6]. Despite its great system, Denmark still seeshigh levels of unemployment, and increasing mortality levels. [7] Denmark even realized eventually thatit’s unemployment benefits were causing people to stay unemployed for longer. [8] They also found that the longer people stayed unemployed, the harder it was for people to get a job. 

We certainly don’t want to find ourselves going down the same road Greece has traveled. As Mike Egan, at macromike.com explains, Greece, at one time (2000), was doing quite well. It was actually one of the fastest growing countries in the Euro zone, Egan points out. But alas, they began living above their means, borrowing money they eventually couldn’t pay back. Greece’s economy was growing fast – but their spending was accelerating at a pace faster than the economy’s growth. Sound familiar? 

Read this and other articles at Mail Magazine 24