The COSTS of Public Services Are Reaching Critical Mass

Margaret Wente





This (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/why-firefighters-are-underworked-and-overpaid/article24459593/?fb_action_ids=923328281047508&fb_action_types=og.shares) is an interesting article ("Why firefighters are underworked and overpaid") from a perspective that many public sector workers don't hear much....nor want to hear.

This is going to be a continuing discussion. One that'll almost certainly only get louder and LOUDER. It's also a very uncomfortable conversation for a lot of public workers (cops, firefighters, teachers, even public nurses, physicians, etc.).

We've seen rampant wage deflation throughout the U.S. and what Margaret Went (the author) is saying in this article is that (especially) small communities can't afford the high costs of their public services any more.

Here's a part of our problem, so many "pro-Union" public service workers did NOTHING while other industires (mostly in the private sector) were "outsourced" (sending factories to foreign destinations) and "in-sourced" (with chaep migrant labor) forcing millions of Americans to compete in a downward wage spiral. We took the reviled "IGM" (I've got mine") approach.

NOW we're increasingly living in a low wage world and the rest of America's low wage workers are looking squarely at us. That's a BIG part of the reason both wages and benefits (pensions and medical benefits) are under attack.

Like in a lot of areas, "we are all too often our own worst enemies."