When people whine about wages and benefits state workers get...

[Deja Q]

...remind them all of a far bigger problem: Sports players and managers. Their wages and their desires to mooch off taxpayers in order to get a publicly funded stadium is surely a far worse proposition?

[Skittles]

1. I read that state workers call in sick an average of nine times a year

is that true? I'd be WAY fired. I call in sick about once every two years.

[HuckleB]

5. Was an actual study done on this?

It sure doesn't match my experience working for the state for three years, and with state employees from a number of different positions several other years.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. Whoa. Players and managers get paid by the team owners...

...and never see any of the tax money raised to pay for new stadiums. Those are completely seperate issues.

Additionally, since we're talking about capitalism, players and managers contribute significantly to the bottom line of their particular franchise, and should be paid commensurate to that level of contribution.

Here's the real problem facing America today. The wealthy are literally getting more wealthy by the second as their tax cuts kick in and additional corporate-friendly laws are enacted by the Bush Junta.

Meanwhile, 40 million Americans are below the poverty line; 40-50 million cannot afford healthcare premiums; a record number of people/small businesses are declaring bancruptcy on a daily basis; manufacturing jobs are being shipped overseas, never to return; white collar service sector jobs are starting to be shipped overseas; unemployment is actually closer to 9.1% because we don't count the people that have exhausted their unemployment checks; costs of gasoline, utilities, clothing, food, housing, and other items continue to rise, far outstripping increses in salaries/wages.

But let's feed another $87.5 billion over the next twelve months to the Iraq "problem", also started by the Bush Junta with no provocation for doing so. And just how much are we spending on Afghanistan? What are we spending on the latest version of the totally inoperable "Star Wars" system?

And you're worried about what sports players and managers make?

[HuckleB]

4. Sure they do...

Since professional sports teams don't cover the full cost of business, their profits are artificially high, making their salaries artificially high, all via the mechanism of a tax subsidy for sports arenas/stadiums/ballparks, and all that goes with those facilities.

The rest of your post is true enough.

[Lars39]

3. My husband worked for the state for 15 yrs,

working his way up from appraising houses to supervisor of a 9 million dollar/year tax relief program. We qualified for food stamps for about the first 4 years, with husband working a 2nd job. We paid our dues; it was time for someone else to work for peanuts. The state lost his considerable math, computer and social skills(dealing with the county trustees).

I don't really know what you would consider good benefits. Who could afford to put away anything in the 401K? The health insurance started out pretty good, but then it got mixed in with TennCare and went downhill. The only thing left is being treated like a human being by getting holidays off and having half-way decent sick day allowances.