How Did We Get So Stupid?

Spleen Vent # 1,456:  So we hire folks to do our work, but are forced to permit them to join organiztions dedicated to making it harder, and more expensive, and more time-consuming for us to get that work done?

You know we have more than 2,900,000 Federal employees, right?  

I know that you know that I know because I've researched the pi*s out it.  And written about it a dozen times.  It's one of my buggaboos, given that only about 15% of these highly-paid civil servants are declared "essential" on any snow day.  

Meaning the other 85% won't be missed if they don't come to work.  

What are these, patronage positions?  Your uncle Fred works in Social Security so he got your brother a job there?  And also your cousin Anthony?        

And as I mentioned in another recent posting, 31% of our millions of Federal workers are still at home, suffering from the Chinese Wuhan Killer Pandemic Virus.  No, not from the virus itself.  From the possibility of getting the virus.  So they're sitting in their 'jammies, eating bon-bons and watching Jerry Springer re-runs.  Tapping a key every now and again so the algorythm from the Mother Ship doesn't time them out.    

Or maybe it's like PTSD.  And if they don't have it, they're worried about getting it.  So much so they're not coming back to work.  For us.  Has anyone done research on how many of them have other jobs?  Just asking.  Except there's apparently nothing we can do about it.  Because they all joined unions.  

             Public Sector Unions.

Did you know that?  Did you know that our employees, the people we've hired to do our work, have banded together to try and extract ever better and bigger goodies from us, the Taxpayers?  It's like we hired them and then they put a gun to our heads.  Lemme' bring you up to speed:

There's the "American Federation of Government Employees."  The AFGE represents more than 750,000 Federal and government workers across more than 900 local unions.  AFGE represents doctors, nurses, SSA employees, TSA agents, law enforcement officers and park rangers.

All of whom supp at the public trough.  The Civil Servant trough.  Working for you and me.  But no more or no longer, and certainly for no less than they currently are.  And plans for a whole lot more.

And if that's not enough there's the "International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees (IFPTE)."  Whew!  It represents state and local Government professionals such as architects, accountants, engineers and healthcare professionals.  

And then we have public-sector trade and labor unions, and those representing the interests of Government organizations.  In 2023 total public-sector union membership was...

                       ...32.5%.

Meaning One out of Three of our employees is a member of an organization directly at odds with the interests of you and me, their employers...

Again, that's You and Me.

Did you ever axe yourself why we Taxpayers hire folks to get our work done, and then permit them to join organizations whose only reason for their existence is to make it harder for us to make them do the work we just hired them to do?

Uhhh, wha...?  

To try and use the weight of their membership to force us, YOU and ME, to give them more money, for less work, with more paid time off, while receiving better healthcare than any privately-employed American will ever enjoy.   And 11 paid holidays a year.  

Unless they've added another one while I was writing this humble missive.

When we were puked forth from college we knew working for The Man would get you job security (it would take a live boy in your bed or a dead girl in the trunk of your car to get yourself fired!), and the very best healthcare on Earth, but your pay would suck.  Your choice: low pay and great healthcare, but you're guaranteed to get that low pay forever!  

But Now?  

There's a sheriff's deputy in Lost Angeles County, I just noticed, who made $453,000 last year.  And his union was just fine with it.  With a base of $233,000 a year (are you kiddin' me?), he managed to work enough overtime to earn more than the President of the United States.  Or maybe I should say, we "pay" the POTUS.  There's more, much more, but that's enough.  And he's got great healthcare, too.

The little bastard who made you wear a mask and stand 6' away from everyone else just retired on $413,285 a year.  For funding the virus and then lying to us for years.   

Each and every one of those 2,900,000 Federal Employees I mentioned above earn, er..., are paid, an average of $108,433 a year.  

But only 15% of them are considered  "essential."  

Doesn't that just take your breath away?

And oh, BTW, Public Sector Unions cannot strike!  So any threats they might choose to make would be toothless!  Yet we treat them like the AFL/CIO!

How did we get so stupid?  Why are we negotiating against our own best interests?  Who bought off whomever to permit this outrage to gain traction?  Why do our Public Sector employees earn twice the National Average?  It seems to me we need some sort of massive investigation.  FBI, NSA, CIA, MI-5, AAA, ASPCA, etc.  All those guys.  

And lastly, why don't we vote in leaders who will abolish this crap?  ASAP?  

("Abolish This Crap, ASAP!"  Catchy little bumper sticker, yes?)