Three Articles on Government Employees

The first article is about how the Congress is putting forth a bill that would allow them to fire federal employees that are behind on their taxes. Yea, yea, everybody cheer about getting those bad federal employees. I want my readers to take a moment and think about this rather than just react. Lets put this in perspective.

Firstly, the congress is more than happy to allow insider trading by congressmen and it is not illegal for them to do it. Secondly, most congressmen make their money from their investments and are not taxed at the same rate as people who make their money from their wages. Finally, there are a lot of reasons that people are behind on their taxes, especially if they are self employed. Finally, if they work for the federal government then the government should be taking the money out in advance of the employee being paid, just like they do for everyone else (and they deduct federal taxes from federal workers the exact same way). We should also remember, as I previously wrote about, that the federal government has also passed a law that allows them to cancel or suspend your passport if you are behind on your taxes.

AP - House bill: Fire US workers who are tax deadbeats

This one is just ridiculous. The L.A. Times reported that LA City Hall employees were streaming the Olympics and it was causing their computer system to slow down. This article was picked up internationally. Really? Personally, I have not watched the Olympics except for the opening ceremony, I don't watch television as a rule. But, lets be serious, how many people in the world are watching parts of the Olympics at work? I would not freak out if I found out that one of my employees had watched a swim race or something that was special to them, I would just expect them to make sure they completed their work for the day. In either case, does this really deserve to be international news? I file this one under over-reacting and exaggeration in order to impact ongoing negotiations with unions.

What the article didn't say was which departments they were in. I wonder how many of the people streaming it had desk jobs? I would guess all of them. The guy picking up your trash cannot watch the internet in his garbage truck. I wonder many of the people streaming the internet were in Council Offices or the Mayor's Office, they tend to have more control over their time.

L.A. Times - L.A. City Hall employees urged to stop watching Olympics at work

Finally, an article on the Post Office. I have written on the post office a few times; but, want to re-raise some issues. The post office is not technically a governmental agency anymore. It has also managed to survive with no government subsidy since being set on it's own. What changed was that the Postal Service is now being asked to fund employee benefits in advance of them being used. This is really nothing more than an attempt to benefit Wall Street and privatize the Post Office. The point people miss is that if they privatize the Postal Service then your mail will cease being private, it is not constitutionally protected as private with UPS.

It is not that the Post Office lost money, in fact, the Post Office has been amazing at finding ways to survive in a world of e-mail. They changed their business model and made it work. Nope, they are being asked to fund retirement benefits 10, 20 and 30 years before they might come due.

Time - Moneyland - Post Office to Default on $5.5 Billion Pre-Retiree Health Payment