Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Adding Bodies To Watch Over You

Everyone Should Work for the Government - Vast new patronage for Democrats to win election and re-election.

While many in the left-leaning media are indicating the the "stimulus" bill was a success, think again. With less than maybe $120,000,000,000 spent (not even 1% of GDP) for one-time, barely-boosting tax cuts, and other monies that would have been spent by states anyway, such as Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment insurance, the impact on the economy and unemployment has been not even marginal. Now on the opposite, job-killing side, Obama has nationalized the student-loan industry (loss: 35,000 jobs), gone after successful technology companies and appointed czars over each industry to keep them in line. Jobs are NOT created with highly-burdensome regulation and threatened tax hikes. NOT. Please check out my posts about Obama diminishing business.

Editorial (In The Seattle Times)
More students drawn to public-service careers
The College Class of 2009 is more interested than its predecessors in public service and government. The surge of applications at graduate schools of government and public policy is good news for a nation in economic trouble.
Seattle Times editorial
AS the college Class of 2009 heads out into the world the next few months, the career paths these bright-eyed graduates are choosing should encourage a troubled nation.
A country in financial turmoil ought to cheer the fact that more college students than before are interested in public service and government — and the idea of giving something back.
Yes, of course, students flock to fields that offer the best chance of landing a job. Government offers more opportunities in certain disciplines than the private sector.
That only explains part of what is happening. Graduate schools of government and public policy are receiving a surge of applications.
"Young people today understand that government has a powerful role to play in solving these problems," said Sandra Archibald, dean of the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. Applications increased 26 percent this year.
College experts report fewer students seeking careers on Wall Street. The switch is obviously because of the enormous mess in the financial world.
More compelling, however, is where the students are going. Officials at universities report a trend toward government and public service. The energy and ideas of young people eager to help in social services, health care, energy and climate change will benefit communities.
The New York Times reminds us that college students flooded into civil engineering during the Great Depression seeking jobs, yes, but also to help the nation rebuild itself. They designed highways, dams and bridges. In the Sputnik era, the trend was toward sciences, and some of that is taking place today.
President Obama said during the campaign he wanted government to be cool again. Some will argue government could never be cool. High schools emphasizing community service also deserve credit for boosting interest in the public sector.
Perhaps. Yet young altruists can help chart the country's direction. Everyone benefits if an emerging generation devotes enthusiasm and bright ideas to the numerous public-policy problems vexing our nation.
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

My response.

To the Seattle Times Editorial Board:
"The career paths these bright-eyed graduates are choosing should encourage a troubled nation". Would these exact same graduates be "bright-eyed" if they had chosen to work on Wall Street? To the "enormous mess in the financial world"? "Wall Street" which is a all-embracing term for the mechanism that raises capital from American citizens who have some to spare, institutions and foreign individuals and institutions and deploys it into American business to add to capacity, perform research and development of new products and services and create jobs. A base of lasting jobs. Yes, those jobs ebb and flow with the over-all economy. But without that "Wall Street" you so easily dismiss as a "mess", our country would not be the most prosperous country ever known to humankind.
OK, the Seattle Times Editorial Board, from where does the money to pay the salaries and expenses of these "public-service careers" come? (The answer, which you probably won't get from the University of Washington Evans School of Public Affairs, is business.) Now, for the sake of argument, if everyone in this country were young (and old) altruists working for the government, exactly who would pay for their salaries and expenses?
The answers can be emailed to:
superamerican@att.net

Early May, 2009, The House Committee on Oversight and Government "Reform" approved a bill to provide paid parental leave (four weeks) to federal workers. It should help attract more private sector workers to government, attract more Democratic voters and expand the number of children born, adopted or foster parented by government employees.

California has the highest teachers salaries in the United States. (California has the second lowest math and reading test scores in the United States.) California's unions have it spend $49,000 per year on prisoners, 50% more than average. California gets more than 50% of its income from the second highest income tax rate in the country (11% second only to NY's 12.5+%) from Kobe Bryant and the other rich 1%.

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