Anybody know exactly when did it all get so ugly - the hatred for government and public employees?
I recall when going to work for the government was considered a good thing to do - an honorable thing, in fact. The pay was modest and the benefits were comparable to the private sector. Teachers were respected - highly respected. As a child, I used to live next door to two single brothers who were postal employees and they were considered to be very upstanding members of the community.
Today, while listening to a local financial program on the radio, I heard the host all of a sudden take a sharp right turn in his rhetoric and begin lambasting of all people - librarians, then teachers, active and retired, for being over paid and "greedily sopping up huge dough in their salaries and retirement" while the state "goes bankrupt."
When did it all turn around and the actual hatred for librarians, teachers, even for police and firemen (due to THEIR "fatcat" benefits) begin?
Was it with Reagan ("the government is not your friend" attitude) in the '80's? The Bush's? I'm trying to pin it down - at least to the era.
My own opinion is that maybe if the state wasn't so busy giving big tax breaks to businesses there would now be adequate money in the state coffers, that in addition to the legislature contributing the proper amount, by law, to fund the retirement programs which it did not do.
Thanks
= new reply since forum marked as read
you're assertion is made up.
as your sigline says.
because if you were, your highest tax bracket is lower now than then.
and your dividends are taxed lower.
and your capital gains tax is lower.
or were you just making stuff up when you said you were in the 1%.
Your moniker always joggles me a little, recalling to my mind a French pioneer aeroplane designer, Robert Esnault-Pelterie, whose firm is generally known by his initials. Here is a picture of one of his designs, circa 1910, on display at Paris:
REP are the initials of my hyphenated name, and how I've been identifying myself since my full name was too long to slug type with. Plus I'm a huge Shaw fangirl
"The worst words in the English language are I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
That has been the driving mantra of the GOP since about 1985.
But if you look at the damage these asswipes have done - the most dangerous words now are "Mind if I take a peek in your bedroom?"
I never hear about teachers, librarians, or other public servants pulling down salaries or benefits ANYWHERE near Wall Street CEOs. There are some school administrators IMHO whom are pulling down some questionably high salaries (for their actual duties) but, in general, the outrage against public employees and their salaries/benefits is somewhat of a mystery to me. I've worked for my state in child protection services for nearly 10 years and am only pushing (close to) $40K and I've been all but priced out of anything but a high deductible health insurance plan yet some Wall Street CEOs are earning millions of dollars and public employees are the ones whose salaries/benefits people are getting upset over and governors in states across the nation are trying to cut in order to balance their budgets.
BTW did you read about an article that somebody put up last week (I think) that was saying that some states actually allow businesses to keep some tax revenues paid?
