To expand on the idea of personal transformation to self-employed from employee, let me now concentrate on the government employee. What cannot go on will eventually stop. The system that feeds you is defunct, and if you depend on a government pension you too will find yourself short, like a Soviet pensioner.
The election in Wisconsin is presented as greedy union folk getting upset about a tiny adjustment to their contributions. How you are abused on right-wing radio. Indeed it looks like it by the numbers, but that is not the point. If the state can trim a bit at the edges, there is no rational limit to what they can trim. Although this controversy can get people worked up, it is all street theatre for the USA, but serious business to the powers that be. The rest of the world sees that in USA one huge obligation on the USAs balance sheet, that is pension liabilities, is as good as gone. Country’ll grow. There is no rational limit to the cuts.
I touched on Coase and the Chicago school because it represents a rational basis for "limited government." By eliminating property rights, and subverting the rule of law, there is a way for the state to govern with far smaller state apparatus. The means is in place. We know have with Facebook, Google, Oracle and so on, total information awareness. The powers that be who control the state can now manage far more with far less resources, just as Boeing and Safeway can. No more armies invading lands, we have hit teams. We have Stuxnet. WE have drones. Country'll grow. Who needs health inspectors when Twitter can ascertain three people puked within minutes after eating at Jimmy's drive in? Jimmy gets an email saying shut it down until further notice. All by computer.
This is no brave new world. In capitalism, it is about credit, and leveraging power. Our competitive advantage is in USA we figured out how to get people to self-report at their own expense, and then submit to the authority of the Google search results. Who needs all these people working for the state?
This is no new trend. I believe Hoffa was murdered in the 1970s because he saw what was coming and tried to protect union labor. The Reagan broke PATCO in 1981, and in 1982 I was on management side negotiating the Longshoreman's west coast master contract. (I am a also a longshoreman, and paid teamster dues, but I can be soooo mercenary!) The strike issue was "unfunded pension liabilities." Two longshoremen were murdered.
Then came trucking deregulation and the busting of teamster pensions. And then the airline pilots got it. Wave after wave of private pensions were gutted, with no blood in the streets (after the early murders). They have not come after state employee pensions first, they came last.
Tax revenues, the purpose of the state, can only be paid from productive labor. All taxes are paid by the ultimate consumer. If you buy a Hershey bar, you are paying all of Hershey's taxes. It is simply not possible in theory or practice to derive taxes from anyone but the end-user, no matter where in the process you collect the tax. Further, all taxes are derived from productive labor. Only labor can pay taxes, for everything else is ephemeral,and won't count. If you work for the state, you do not pay taxes. Yes, I understand your take home pay is less than your salary because there is a deduction for "taxes." If 100% of your wages comes from taxes, then any percent paid in taxes is just laundering taxes. It was productive labor paying taxes that paid your salary and taxes. This is the cleverest innovation yet, to mime paying taxes with money you gained from taxpayers. This is why you are being targeted: not only do you not pay taxes, you represent a pension liability. The free markets can repudiate its debt to the banks, or the state can back the banks and refund the banks by repudiating the state obligation to you. Take a wild guess what the decision was. Country'll grow.
Look on the bright side, by not paying taxes, you actually have not contributed to the wars, genocide, gitmo, domestic spying, war on drugs, false imprisonment, genocide, etc... the elite always exempt themselves from taxes.
The economic landscape was hit by a tsunami, and those toxic wastes are sitting in rickety storage. Wisconsin was just nibbling at the edges. With this minor tweaking, SEIU lost 30% of its dues paying members. Expect this to snowball.
You can complain it is not fair, but the worm has turned the die is cast, it is over. You may commiserate with the person who lost his home because the SEC is corrupt. The world can be a wicked place, and that is good to know. It is not the cards you are dealt, it is how you play the hand.
I touched on Coase and the Chicago school because it represents a rational basis for "limited government." By eliminating property rights, and subverting the rule of law, there is a way for the state to govern with far smaller state apparatus. The means is in place. We know have with Facebook, Google, Oracle and so on, total information awareness. The powers that be who control the state can now manage far more with far less resources, just as Boeing and Safeway can. No more armies invading lands, we have hit teams. We have Stuxnet. WE have drones. Country'll grow. Who needs health inspectors when Twitter can ascertain three people puked within minutes after eating at Jimmy's drive in? Jimmy gets an email saying shut it down until further notice. All by computer.
This is no brave new world. In capitalism, it is about credit, and leveraging power. Our competitive advantage is in USA we figured out how to get people to self-report at their own expense, and then submit to the authority of the Google search results. Who needs all these people working for the state?
This is no new trend. I believe Hoffa was murdered in the 1970s because he saw what was coming and tried to protect union labor. The Reagan broke PATCO in 1981, and in 1982 I was on management side negotiating the Longshoreman's west coast master contract. (I am a also a longshoreman, and paid teamster dues, but I can be soooo mercenary!) The strike issue was "unfunded pension liabilities." Two longshoremen were murdered.
Then came trucking deregulation and the busting of teamster pensions. And then the airline pilots got it. Wave after wave of private pensions were gutted, with no blood in the streets (after the early murders). They have not come after state employee pensions first, they came last.
Tax revenues, the purpose of the state, can only be paid from productive labor. All taxes are paid by the ultimate consumer. If you buy a Hershey bar, you are paying all of Hershey's taxes. It is simply not possible in theory or practice to derive taxes from anyone but the end-user, no matter where in the process you collect the tax. Further, all taxes are derived from productive labor. Only labor can pay taxes, for everything else is ephemeral,and won't count. If you work for the state, you do not pay taxes. Yes, I understand your take home pay is less than your salary because there is a deduction for "taxes." If 100% of your wages comes from taxes, then any percent paid in taxes is just laundering taxes. It was productive labor paying taxes that paid your salary and taxes. This is the cleverest innovation yet, to mime paying taxes with money you gained from taxpayers. This is why you are being targeted: not only do you not pay taxes, you represent a pension liability. The free markets can repudiate its debt to the banks, or the state can back the banks and refund the banks by repudiating the state obligation to you. Take a wild guess what the decision was. Country'll grow.
Look on the bright side, by not paying taxes, you actually have not contributed to the wars, genocide, gitmo, domestic spying, war on drugs, false imprisonment, genocide, etc... the elite always exempt themselves from taxes.
The economic landscape was hit by a tsunami, and those toxic wastes are sitting in rickety storage. Wisconsin was just nibbling at the edges. With this minor tweaking, SEIU lost 30% of its dues paying members. Expect this to snowball.
You can complain it is not fair, but the worm has turned the die is cast, it is over. You may commiserate with the person who lost his home because the SEC is corrupt. The world can be a wicked place, and that is good to know. It is not the cards you are dealt, it is how you play the hand.
Now, to be fair, FDR warned everyone what a state union would look like, and in labor relations a house union is no union at all (and all state unions are house unions). You had constructive notice that your pensions would not be funded.
I've dealt with individual wealth vs communal wealth here. Exceptional wealth can only occur when there is a state. You can get rich working with or against state policy. Bill Gates got rich computerizing the State, working with policy. Marc Rich got individually wealthy by working against public policy, and lowering the price of gasoline in USA, all by himself.
I've dealt with individual wealth vs communal wealth here. Exceptional wealth can only occur when there is a state. You can get rich working with or against state policy. Bill Gates got rich computerizing the State, working with policy. Marc Rich got individually wealthy by working against public policy, and lowering the price of gasoline in USA, all by himself.
Now, as a state worker, you have a unique perspective, an esoteric view. You know the reality of the state. You have ideas for accomplishing the goals of your agency which are rational and no doubt workable and efficacious. You know how it can be done better for less, the entire mission or just one part. But you learned long ago such ideas are not welcome. The state solves problems that do not exist, or offers huge solutions to small problems. The powers that be are looking to cut costs to keep their role in the world. Work with the policy. Leverage that into an income to replace the lost benefits.
But the gig is over. Work with the new state policy. Figure out a way to replace whatever value there was in your agency, but in the free market. Your office may have had a budget of 200 million, but you know it can be done for $50,000 and you could likely yield $250,000 for your services. Get crackin.' If not you, someone else will do it. Stake out your territory now.
If you believe your welfare is in trouble, you are sitting on a goldmine in your government job. (If you think there is no problem, then you hardly need ot think up a solution.) You already know you have countless great ideas that the your superiors reject, for systemic reasons.
And you know that if you were to act all entrepreneurial in government work, as opposed to doing so in a private business, you’d get in trouble. But you also know you can never be fired.
But the gig is over. Work with the new state policy. Figure out a way to replace whatever value there was in your agency, but in the free market. Your office may have had a budget of 200 million, but you know it can be done for $50,000 and you could likely yield $250,000 for your services. Get crackin.' If not you, someone else will do it. Stake out your territory now.
Now, one thing I will not recommend is “privatization” for 2 reasons:
1, When they say privatization they mean corporatization, which is capitalism and a dreadful thing.
2. Having Republicans waste people and treasure on Republicans as opposed to the state is no improvement. Set up something that is within your means so you own it, and contributes to communal wealth rather than individual wealth. Or do so with a group, as described in the case of REI in the same article cited above. Isn’t that what you originally, ideally thought you were getting in to with state service?
Don't think for a second that this is only the wascawwy wepubwicans. The democrats are every bit as committed to this change. It is about power. This will only accelerate when Hillary is president.
Don't think for a second that this is only the wascawwy wepubwicans. The democrats are every bit as committed to this change. It is about power. This will only accelerate when Hillary is president.
It is no secret to people outside the government that there are people who hope to move up inside the government by “pushing the envelope.” Those people in the Ag department who run raids on raw milk farmers with swat teams, those department of education people who order shotguns, are all hoping to rise up the ladder with the bad guys in state government. The people willing to make “hard choices.” You see prosecutors put countless innocent people behind bars to make a name for themselves. I am not talking about that.
That stuff is expensive, so what do we see? We see cops, prosecutors, jailers all taking constant disrespectful treatment. We are being socially conditioned to disrespect them so it is easier for the powers that be to dispossess them too. Wisconsin exempted police and firefighters from the changes. Divide and conquer.
Here is an idea: a key mechanism in our freedom is the warrant. Make a database of judges and the warrants they issue. Load up police reports on warrant service. Then load up the outcome of the case built in the warrant. The result is objective data on the perspicacity of a judge. Get kickstarter funding.
That stuff is expensive, so what do we see? We see cops, prosecutors, jailers all taking constant disrespectful treatment. We are being socially conditioned to disrespect them so it is easier for the powers that be to dispossess them too. Wisconsin exempted police and firefighters from the changes. Divide and conquer.
Here is an idea: a key mechanism in our freedom is the warrant. Make a database of judges and the warrants they issue. Load up police reports on warrant service. Then load up the outcome of the case built in the warrant. The result is objective data on the perspicacity of a judge. Get kickstarter funding.
I am talking about seeing an opportunity where you were told no. Instead of county health inspectors, create a org that self-polices a restaurant association. Who needs state health inspectors? The restaurants at casinos on Indian reservations are not inspected by the city country state or feds, and they have served billions of meals without a single case of food poisoning. But people do want 3rd party assurance of cleanliness. You do it.
Some rules: Do not break the rules of the law. Keep people informed. I bet your supervisors will help if only to see how you do. You are a pioneer reporting back form over the hills.
I recall a small town USA mayor who took an official exchange trip to China. His report on his return, “Why, the problems in communist China are exactly the same as here!” Precisely. Maybe the international trade angle is consulting on change.
What workable ideas do you have that will never fly in government? Share them here and will let them be critiqued, and get advice on how to test them out. Let me know so I can share some with your peers.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
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