Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSpecialist
If you want to hate, hate on the CEO's making far more money than they will ever need....
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Wrong again, because you don't get economics 101.
I agree that CEO compensation is insane. But CEOs in the private sector, unlike unionized employees in the public sector, cannot force anyone to absorb those costs.
If Bill Gates pays himself too much, the marketplace will respond by buying from his competitors. So Gates, unlike public unions, is only getting from his customers that which his customers freely choose to give him. He can't force his costs on anybody. Bill Gates isn't hurting anybody, the free marketplace does not allow him to do so. (On a side note, what he's doing is creating thousands of good jobs, and creating wealth for his millions of shareholders. He is also taxed at the highest rate, which reduces the tax burden on the rest of us.)
Taxpayers don't have the luxury of buying from someone else. Last time I checked, I don't have the option of not paying the portion of my taxes that I think are ridiculously excessive.
By what right do public unionized employees forcibly confiscate from taxpayers, revenue to cover costs that no one in the private sector would ever be williung to pay?
We have buried this issue for decades, but the check has arrived at our table, and it's a big check. We have elected politicians who are much more concerned with getting re-elected than they are concerned with solving tough problems, and it's about to blow up in our faces.
Or do you union guys not agree that we are facing a debt crisis, due in large part to your benefits?
I want to be clear, I do not hate cops and teachers. If my property taxes are raised so that cops and teachers don't have to live in trailers and eat cat food, that's one thing. If my property taxes are raised so that cops and teachers and cops can cling to insane, antiquated benefits that dwarf anything available in the private sector, that's something else. And no rational person can suggest that the latter isn't exactly what's happening.
In the private sector, we live with 401(k)s, and we pay, on average, 35% - 40% of our healthcare costs (the company pays the rest). And we all survive. There's no reason why public employees cannot do the same. They obviously won't LIKE making the switch, but that doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do.
I have never heard of anyone who had to sell their house because of Bill Gates. Lots of people are forced out of their homes by property tax hikes.