Desperation of US Government Workers

Desperation of US Government Workers

Certainly, it is the toxic combination of public unions and municipal government that has turned hitherto mundane occupations into professions that allow people to retire with impressive pay packages after 20 or 25 years. The early-to-mid 2000s were probably the high-water mark for these services and now the contracts and retirements packages are proving overwhelmingly expensive for the cities and states that approved them.

Nonetheless, such pay packages and perks will not be willingly surrendered. As we can see from the article excerpted above, governments will do almost anything to keep funds flowing. In the end, however, it will not do much to correct economics that have been distorted by decades of collective bargaining and political acquiescence for vote-gathering purposes. The cash flows of the present will not support the expensive contracts of the past.

The cult of the municipal service worker has been relentlessly expanded in the US despite some level of cultural resistance. This divide has been growing for a while but as the second decade of the 2000s looms it is safe to say that it will be continually aggravated. The result will be further discord between those serve and those who are "served."

Begin with the police. What has also grown in the past decades is the idea of "law enforcement" as a career. The problem is not with the career itself but the collateral damage that stems from having so many men (and women) devoted to enforcing law and order. As the number of civil authorities has climbed throughout the West, so has the pressure to utilize the services of these individuals. The result: "broken homes, welfare payments, divorces, fines, jail terms and shattered lives, all resulting from the law enforcement growth industry."