The Massive Costs of Governments

[MisterVeritis]

About 19 million public employees cost taxpayers nearly $1 trillion annually.
That’s according to OpenTheBooks.com, which publishes the salaries of public employees from every level of U.S. government. The online database is free and accessible to the public.

Are they worth it? How many current government functions can we stop doing? Can we convert some functions or many functions to private for-profit firms? By that I mean to announce the government will no longer perform the functions but private companies are free to start up to accomplish them.


Data also show that 105,000 local and state government employees earned more than every governor of all 50 U.S. states, with a salary of $190,000 or more.
Andrzejewski highlights examples of what he describes as government waste and abuse of taxpayer money. Some Chicago tree trimmers, he points out, earned $106,000 and some New York City school janitors earned $165,000 – more than the principals at the same schools, who earn $135,000.
Some lifeguards in Los Angeles County, California, earned $365,000, while the school superintendent of a small school district in Southlake, Texas, earned $420,000, Andrzejewski notes.


https://www.westernjournal.com/19-mi...ly-1-trillion/
We are being fleeced and few people care.

But let's pretend a convention of States to give the Constitution some teeth and claws is too dangerous.

[DGUtley]

The salaries paid some government employees are outright obscene. I was listening to XM yesterday and this website was being discussed and they were rattling off lists of what various government employees were being paid. Not to mention pension costs. It'll all crash some day.

[Chris]

Let's not forget lost opportunity costs. People could be spending or investing all that money on alternatives of their choosing.

[Lummy]

Let's not forget lost opportunity costs. People could be spending or investing all that money on alternatives of their choosing.

You are correct. But been there, done that, got burned. Came out with suspicion of the system. But that's just me.

[Tahuyaman]

It sounds like we need to downsize government.

[Common]

The problem with govt managing anything is that the treat their budgets like they are unlimited and they have no one to answer to for fraud and waste.

Anyone who has ever had a part in creating a govt budget knows, how you ask for big ticket items that you have no intention to buy to use for something else. Budgets are incredibly padded and confusing and everyone wants as much as they can get, then of course there are always special appropriations that come up midyear for something you "MUST HAVE" It will always cost the govt far more to do anything then the private sector.

[DGUtley]

The problem with govt managing anything is that the treat their budgets like they are unlimited and they have no one to answer to for fraud and waste. Anyone who has ever had a part in creating a govt budget knows, how you ask for big ticket items that you have no intention to buy to use for something else. Budgets are incredibly padded and confusing and everyone wants as much as they can get, then of course there are always special appropriations that come up midyear for something you "MUST HAVE" It will always cost the govt far more to do anything then the private sector.

This is why I have long advocated for the elimination of baseline budgeting. https://www.cagw.org/content/baseline-budgeting

[Captain Obvious]

We need to privatize gubmint so all that money plus more can go to 3 old white guys.

[DGUtley]

We need to privatize gubmint so all that money plus more can go to 3 old white guys.

Angry ones?

[Chris]

The problem with govt managing anything is that the treat their budgets like they are unlimited and they have no one to answer to for fraud and waste.

Anyone who has ever had a part in creating a govt budget knows, how you ask for big ticket items that you have no intention to buy to use for something else. Budgets are incredibly padded and confusing and everyone wants as much as they can get, then of course there are always special appropriations that come up midyear for something you "MUST HAVE" It will always cost the govt far more to do anything then the private sector.

A brother worked for a city budgeting department for a while. He never understood, and dealt with it as if it were a private company, and always proposed cutbacks and savings. The city manager took him aside one day and told him to stop, that the budget depended on always asking for more funding. He quit shortly after that.