Government Employees Stealing From Private Sector Wealth

Government expansion of it's work force, at the expense of the private sector, will destroy the very base that the government depends on to support it own expansion. A short term gain for a long term loose of just about everything we, as citizens, have to be proud of. Our personal freedom will be the biggest loser.

And as the saying goes, "Freedom means having nothing else to lose". Just how long will we allow this to go on?

ECONOMY CONTRACTS, GOVERNMENT EXPANDS
Source: Michael Jahr, "Economy Contracts, Government Expands,"
Mackinac Center, February 8, 2010.

"Detroitification" is defined as the hollowing out of the private economy to prop up unsustainable (and often unresponsive) government establishments. Is this an apt description of Washington's policies, asks Michael Jahr, senior director of communications for the Mackinac Center?

The comparison seems unavoidable with the federal government spending at a frenetic pace and racking up record debt, while adding to the numbers and cost of government employment, says Jahr: According to USA Today, during the current recession, the number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded. While Americans struggle with unemployment, falling wages, failing businesses and housing foreclosures, federal employees are flourishing on the taxpayer dole.

One example, according to USA Today:

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000. In just one federal agency, the top echelon bureaucrats have padded their generous government packages to the tune of $287,300,000.

So much for shared sacrifice, says Jahr. The decades-long policies that fattened the public sector at the expense of the private have produced tragic results in Detroit. Only if our elected officials realize that the private economy does not exist to provide for the political class can the nation avoid Detroit's fate.