Rich Karlgaard at Forbes points out that public sector employees make A LOT more than folks in the private sector:
Who are America's fastest-growing class of millionaires? They are police officers, firefighters, teachers and federal bureaucrats who, unless things change drastically, will be paid something near their full salaries every year--until death--after retiring in their mid-50s. That is equivalent to a retirement sum worth millions of dollars.
If you further ask the question: How much salary would it take to live, save a build a $2 million stash over a 30-year career, the answer would be: somewhere close to $75,000 more than the nominal salary, if you include all the tax bites associated with earning, saving and investing money.
In other words, if a police officer, firefighter, teacher or federal bureaucrat is making $75,000 a year, she is effectively making twice that amount. Implied in her annual pension payout is that she diligently saved half of her annual salary--after taxes--in order to save, invest and build--again, after taxes--the $2 million pot.
I will repeat the political philosophical question I asked earlier this year: Is it just for the government to take money from people with less money so they can give it to people with more money?
It seems such an arrangement can be just for only two reasons:
1. "The public sector jobs are so much harder and valuable, the people deserve more." My response: Could be (but I'd eat my shorts if it were). I can't argue whether a federal bureaucrat in Bureaucracy 102AA8 is more valuable than Joe Schmidt and his party store, but I will argue this: I don't like being forced to recognizing such people as more valuable. If I value their services, I'll pay their premium. If I don't value their services, I shouldn't be forced to pay the premium.
2. "We live in a 'democracy' that gives us a voice in such decisions." My response: That's hokum. A representative government can be just as dictatorial and unjust as an hereditary one. If an arrangement is unjust, it doesn't matter how we got there. It's still unjust. If I run a person over with my car, it doesn't matter whether I was wearing my seat belt or not when I did it. It's still wrong.
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Lady killer, circa 1972.
Slow posting week.
