The unemployment rate is now over ten percent. Ten percent of the working, producing, public has been laid off. Not government workers, in fact, the government work force is growing. The Stimulus Plan pays for the education and training of new government workers.
Does government have a growing problem?
Why is government so big and getting bigger?
Who hires all these government workers and why?
What are they all doing and are we getting our money's worth?
Who is the biggest employer in your town, city, county, state?
Government!
Millions of government employees and more added every day to take care of us.
Who pays the best pensions for their employees?
Government!
Of course there may be and exception or two, a factory, or a corporate headquarters but check your town, who is the biggest or second biggest employer?
Where does all this government get the money to pay all those government salaries and pensions? Income taxes? Yeah, but that's just a drop in the giant tax revenue bucket. The government collects hundreds of different taxes from our pockets every day. You have heard it all before, from property, to school, to sales tax to tax at the gas pump, to telephone, excise, cigarette, booze, power of all kinds, wind, solar, coal, oil, restaurant, hotel, movie, entertainment of all kinds, products of all kinds are taxed by multiple government entities. Looked at your cell phone bill lately? Those are taxes you can actually read about but there are numerous hidden taxes you have no idea about. You pay the taxes for small businesses and corporations because they pass them on in the form of higher prices. Investment profits are taxed to the discouragement of investors. We even tax the dead. Rich people can afford all these nuisance taxes but the poor, who probably don't pay income taxes, feel the 'creative' tax burden.
Every bureaucrat worth his salt is looking to create new ways to invent a new tax, on soda and juice for instance.
Watch out, the Value Added Tax, 'VAT' is just around the corner.
Even setting aside the new government workers being hired every day we must remember that we pay tremendous amounts into pensions for retired military, elected and appointed officials, judges, postal workers, Am Trac workers, Secret Service, FBI, CIA, INS, Homeland Security employees, and the list goes on, and on, and on. Millions of guaranteed pensions, good pensions, most with health benefits. That's just federal employees. What about city, county, and state police, teachers, administrators, garbage collectors, water and sewer department people. Every mayor, councilman, jail keeper and street sweeper gets a salary or a pension.
All of these people provide a service that we vitally need of course, but who decided we vitally needed all these people and services and why?
All of government works on budget plans submitted on a yearly basis. Every department of every branch of government submits a proposed budget within the guidelines of the heads of the departments. Without getting into details, be it understood that every department submits a larger budget every year than the year before. Why, because larger budgets increase the power, security, and incomes of all in the department. It's all about power, money and security. If this year your department has ten people and next year you can sell the idea that the department needs ten more, your power and worth just doubled. That goes for sections, departments, agencies, sectors, regions, cities, counties, states, federal, what ever.
Government grows because everyone that works in government wants it to, and we sit back and expect better services. Translation..., better roads, better schools, better protection. Sounds simple, but when I was a kid a cop was a protector of the community now he is more of a revenue generator, a cop in a high speed cruiser giving out two hundred dollar parking tickets. Teachers who turn out eighteen year old kids ill equipped to earn because they can't read and employment application, qualifiy for college, balance a checkbook, or speak in the language of their country, and most roads have pot holes.
Our priorities should be have the best educated kids in the world, the healthiest population in the world and one of the wealthiest populations in the world. We can't do that with the heavy burden of over sized government weighing down the revenue generating public,. Thing about it, how many non-working, retired senior citizens living on Social Security or disability are there? Add that huge number to government workers, and military, deriving their incomes and pensions from taxes? Add to that, children, teachers, police, firemen, garbage, government contractors, etc, etc, also getting their income from revenue generating tax paying public.
How many people, producers, (producers are those making something for profit), are left to generate taxable revenue to support those working for the government? The ratio is getting worse by the day. As secure government jobs grow, the producer jobs shrink, sort of like the number of people paying into Social Security, (producers) compared to those taking money out. The numbers ratio in the Social Security Ponzi Scheme will eventually be apparent, even to the most hopeful progressive Democrat. That taking from a few to support the many just doesn't work.
It seems like a lot of people want something for nothing like government health care, housing, food, pensions, etc. The sleeping, pacified public keep voting in politicians that promise to give it to them. After all it's a much easier sell to the downtroden, or altrustic, the promise of something for nothing that someone else is going to pay for, than selling responsibility, self reliance, and industry. The last three as being old fashioned and backward looking.
Which political party do you think wants to shrink the size of government.
Are you crazy, why should they eliminate themselves?
