Writer Steven Greenhut wrote yesterday on Cal Watchdog that, "this 'study' is far more about politics than research."
The study Greenhut is referring to has been plastered on just about every left-leaning blog and print media for the better part of two weeks.
Read Greenhut's column here...
So the study was done by what could be considered the opposite of the US Chamber of Commerce. Instead of taking money from other countries and multi national corporations to influence elections and outsource US labor, they are advocating for pro US labor policies.
ReplyDeleteThis is bad because municipalities can't be sent overseas as easily as our factories and private sector jobs.
Greenhunt says that the study was to defend cities like Bell but I disagree. I think the study was to defend public service and US Jobs.
Yes we could get people in other countries to run our cities and counties for a lot less. The council meetings could be done through video teleconferencing and we could communicate with the council via translating computers. The council could outsource all city duties to private corporations and those jobs could be done by the lowest bidder to win the contract.
This would eliminate the citizens in this country from having to figure out what to do about garbage pickup, sewers, building permits, tax collection and the like.
We could then just sit back and watch TV after working our 10 dollar an hour jobs. The same jobs that used to afford us the pleasures of going out to eat and seeing a movie. Sending our kids through college and being able to pay for health insurance. You don't expect people making 10 dollars an hour to be able to pay for all of that and taxes at the same time do you?
They can't and that will lead us down the path to government ala carte'. People won't be able to get services they can't afford and will only subscribe to those that they absolutely have to have.
Those that can't afford to have their garbage collected or those that get their sewer turned off will have to pay the price. We will have to put them in jails or prison camps otherwise this won't be a nice place for the rich to live in.
This will create economic activity as everyone that goes to jail will support the private prison systems. They will become more and more profitable. The wealthy will have to pay for this in the end since no one else will be able to afford it. They won't mind though since it was their plan from the beginning.
The money saved in paying city workers verses outsourced workers will be spent on shareholders and advertising. This creates economic activity and dividends.
Of course none of this economic activity would exist unless some people are starving. That's how capitalism works here and in China. Two different systems of government but both capitalistic. In a social democracy that uses capitalism, things are different. The people decide what is best for them and have rules that business must adhere to. They defend their jobs the best they can through tariffs and legislation.
They don't want sick
beggars in their streets and predatory capitalism. They and I mean all of them, have some sort of guaranteed basic health care provided by the entire country to assure that the country as a whole is healthy. This means that they would clean up diesel engines if their scientists found that for every dollar spent to do so saved 13 dollars in healthcare. US and China would not. We have the Koch brothers to tell us otherwise. Social Democracies don't let foreign governments and companies influence their elections and even China wouldn't stand for that. We embrace Citizens United and the US Chamber of Commerce (the largest lobby group in the US}. We have privatized our voting systems and unless you live in Humboldt County Ca., have no system in place to do a proper recount. We do but we had to developed our own system to do it.
I know this seems a crazy rant but that's where I see this anti people, anti labor, anti social democratic capitalism taking us. There is a movement of people my age and older that have theirs and don't care if the next generation has the same opportunities they had. They are selfish, uninspired, uneducated and see the future in quarterly profits rather than long term prosperity.
Back on point, the initial study does not compare actual job descriptions and that is a huge problem. There are very few jobs in the private sector that require a Masters degree, much less a Ph.D. So using degrees as an evaluation tool is not valid. Rather a comparison should be made between the responsibilities performed.
ReplyDelete"The money saved in paying city workers verses outsourced workers will be spent on shareholders and advertising. This creates economic activity and dividends.
Of course none of this economic activity would exist unless some people are starving."
I'm not sure how the money saved (tax dollars not spent) will go to share holders. In a municipality, WE are the shareholders. The city is incorporated and it is OUR bottom line, not some distant Wall Street executive. Each dollar I get to keep is a dollar I can spend taking my family on vacation or just out to a movie.
People are starving for several reasons and it is irresponsible to dump the entire problem on capitalists. Hunger can be a symptom of mental illness, drug addiction, laziness, and social tolerance. It can also be a product of someone who loses their job, loses their home, and soon loses all hope. This latter group represents a very small segment of the homeless/hungry population.
The Berkley group who conducted the study seems to believe that everyone should make the same amount of money. That's socialism and it clearly worked well in the Soviet Union as well as Cuba...at least for a short period of time. The population grew lazy; why work hard when you will NEVER get ahead??? People need hope. They should be rewarded for their hard work and not for their laziness.
Why shouldn't a government agency outsource services?? My city outsources the operation of the municipal golf course. Why not outsource the parks maintenance? Why not continue to outsource street repairs? Why should the citizens of Fullerton (shareholders in the municipal corporation) not look for ways to minimize our costs? Is it WRONG to be thrifty? Is it wrong to look for he best deal that stretches my dollar's buying power?