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billybud wrote:In Florida..you get no dental, no medical...and after 30 years, 48% of the average of your "high five" years (which usually amounts to about 40% of current salary.

Most southern states do it different. Maybe that is why they are doing better economically and why lots of people who used to be from northern states now live and work in the south.

This I know for sure, in the private sector, you can only lose money so long before you have to shut the doors. The government just raises taxes or "fees" it charges business that gets passed down to consumers - which is a tax the way I see it. I don't have a problem with anyone making as much money as as they can make. There just has to be some sanity in the process. Here if the police have a pay or benefit dispute they go to arbitration. The arbitrator doesn't consider available funds at all when making a decision - which is generally the only argument the state has since they can't make a profit. The police earn their money - as do lots of other state and federal employees. I don't think most would argue with that. I also wouldn't argue with the fact that private sector generally makes higher salaries than the public employees. The benefits - at least here - tip the scales the other way. I know a school administrator who retired a couple of years ago at 80% of his pay and then he took a job in another school district teaching for just pay - no benefits. He now makes more than he ever did before he "retired".

billybud wrote:The government was "owned" by Fannie, Freddie, and their banking freinds...

Fannie and Freddie are private....but they and their budies bought the policies that they wanted.

For those that don't know this...

"240 former legislators, bank committee staffers, and Treasury officials deployed to lobby. $600 million spent in lobbying, trade association activity and political contributions since March 2008. And that is just from the six biggest banks. The entire financial industry is spending an estimated $1.4 million a day, hiring 70 former members of Congress to make their case."

Read on:

http://www.dailypaul.com/134327/banking ... g-congress

Calling Fannie and Freddie "private" is a bit of a misnomer. Of course businesses can buy off governments and they do it incessantly. You blame the "free" market for such practices, but perhaps this is a problem with democracy and not with capitalism? The government infiltrating the market completely perverts incentive structures. BP, GE, Goldman Sachs, AIG, etc. are all in bed with the "regulators" and the main function of (the rather presumptuous title of) "regulation" is to limit competition for the big dogs on top. The only reason they are able to get away with it is public apathy and our dismissal of laissez-faire tenets because we believe that the federal government's job is to "lead the economy."

Also wealth isn't static. Overseas labor leads to much, much cheaper prices in more developed areas of the world that already have built up capital. You're just dismissing the seen for the unseen because American products of video games, CDs, plastic goods, t-shirts, shoes, etc. wouldn't cost the same as they do currently. They would cost much more if businesses were forced to hire American first and foremost. You can't on the one hand talk about the plight of the poor and then expect them to have their cost of living increased significantly.

Corruption does not know the difference between public and private.