Friday, February 25, 2011 :::
 
One Overlooked Fact

In Wisconsin

Plus, A Thought for the Weekend

It is breathtaking that the battle has spread so quickly.  The mere introduction of President Obama's legislative program almost instantly sparked the Tea Party movement, which has simply gone from strength to strength.  When they brought revolution through the means the Constitution mandates--elections--the Left showed instantly what it thought about those mandates, and started breaking both the spirit and the letter of the law willy-nilly.

And The Great Issue of the Next Decade--the state of public education--is on us, now.

There is only one thing that A Mind That Suits would add:  Conservative commentators seem unwilling to state an obvious fact, when stating it would help their case instantly.

Much has been made about how public employees are paid as against private sector salaries, but either won't or can't.

It's the "employer contribution" to a worker's benefits.

In the private sector, the worker contributes 100 percent toward their benefits.  Read that again: 100 percent. 

But, but, but..."I only pay 50%, 40%, whatever..."  No, you don't.  When an employer takes you on, it calculates the total cost of employing you.  Add up everything your pay stub: that's how the corporation sees your payments.  The names given to each little slot on the form are just annoying accounting fictions, mandated by law.

The reason this works--the reason that socialism still seems plausible--is that people really think that corporarations are drawing on some vast reserve of gold coins in a safe behind the boss's desk, that it is part of some static thing called "wealth" that is kept from workers.  The fact is that a business creates wealth through managing its assets to engage in trade, and at the end of each year it needs to show at least a 5% profit, or it goes under.

How much do public sector employees pay in to their benefits?  Zero.  Nothing. Nada.  Their salary is fixed by some standard to make it look reasonable when compared to the private sector, and then the benefits are added on.  In the  case of public employers, they really do draw from a cash reserve--taxes and borrowing, which is taxing people later--and just hand it to the employees.  No one is creating wealth.  They just redistribute it.

Is there anyway to rectify the situation?  Not really.  Which is one more reason why public unions should not have easy access to the public vaults.

Thought for the Weekend

A Mind That Suits had a formal portrait taken, for the first time in decades, by a long time friend, a professioanl photographer.  He would not hesitate to recommend his friend's services to one and all, but, alas, the friend's website is currently down, perhaps because it is February and the fees have not been rolling in.

In any case, he is much pleased with the results.  His photographer friend was whipping through PhotoShop, eliminating what few flaws there are in the awesome visage that is A Mind That Suits, when he commented, "The camera never lies."

"Yeah," commented A Mind That Suits, "but the software does."

::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 8:31 AM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.