In this instance the Firemen and Police, who actually risk their lives
in performance of the duty are exempted. .
By the way there are plenty of protests against CEO's and executives
compensation. Usually in stock holders meetings. The difference is
that they can't hold a gun to your head and say pay up. If enough
people are unhappy with how a company is run they sell their stock and
the price plummets. If you don't like a companies products no one buys
them and the company goes bust. It's a voluntary relationship. Being a
taxpayer, (statements on the IRS forms to the contrary), is not.
By the way you must have missed the protests against the executives of a
number of mutual funds who had the temerity to demand that the GM
bankruptcy be handled by the Standard US Code. Rather than with the
special deal that was cooked up by the current administration. to reward
it's supporters.
On 2/27/2011 9:56 AM, frank theriault wrote:
On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Bob Sullivan<rf.sulli...@gmail.com> wrote:
Boris,
No armed revolts here, but many unhappy people.
The perception is that public employees - teachers, police,& firemen
are retiring at 2/3 or 3/4 of annual salary as paid by the state government.
Most people are not covered by such pensions and have seen their
retirement 'nest egg' fall by 50% or more in the financial crisis.
(Falling home prices vs fixed mortgage loans have wiped out homes as assets.)
So the 'have-nots' now resent the union deals and see pensions
as something they will pay increased taxes to cover in the future.
<snip>
These people (the unionized public employees) perform important
functions in our society, and for the most part deserve their salaries
and other benefits. They unionized and made their deals when times
were good, and one can't blame them for holding on to them as best
they can.
I don't know about Chicago or elsewhere in the US, but here there has
been an ongoing attack on unionized public sector workers for some
time. Since government can't simply wipe out contracts already made,
they now have things like hiring freezes, hire loads of part time
employees (who aren't unionized) or contract out lots of work (which
studies show often don't save money in the long run). Services are
being trimmed and shut down to the detriment of those who can least
afford it. But hey, it saves tax payers' money, so that's okay,
right?
Funny, but I don't see mass protests about how much CEOs and
executives at car companies or banks make - or what their pension
plans are worth. I'd bet it's a lot more than what the average cop or
teacher makes. How many billions of government dollars went into
bailing out those two industries?
cheers,
frank
--
Where's the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom!
--Marvin the Martian.
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