Smarter than You: the public vs private sector edition

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

kentuck (61,675 posts)

 Why is the "private sector" better than the "public sector"?
Last edited Mon Jun 11, 2012, 10:13 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

Teachers, firemen, and policemen are losing their jobs because they are part of the public sector rather than the private sector. According to some on the right, they are useless eaters and leeches, that are worse than anyone that works in the private sector. That would include pimps, whores, radio propagandists, and private equity thieves. These folks that put their lives on the line to make other people's lives better and safer are vilified as robbers of tax revenues, as if their services are unneeded and worthless.

I can think of a lot of "private sector" jobs that do not serve society and we should be so lucky as to replace them with "public sector" jobs that make our country a better and healthier place to live. I am sick of their bullshit. They can take their "private sector" crap and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

I'll make a deal with you.

Let's keep the police, fire fighters and a few of the teachers and get rid of EPA enforcement agents, IRS tax code people, etc.

Zalatix (4,780 posts)
7. The USSR collapsed because of its dynasty of brutal dictatorships.

Problem is, Capitalism is rapidly becoming a dictatorship of the Plutocracy.

And the leftist mania for centralizing everything under a single government party made that possible.

And now...

A noble but futile ttempt to learn them:

badtoworse (2,348 posts)
6. If private sector employees didn't first earn the money and pay taxes...

...where would the money to pay the public sector employees come from? Without the private sector adding value, there would be nothing to tax and government would have no revenue to pay anyone.

kentuck (61,675 posts)
8. And if you didn't have a teacher to teach you how to read...

you would not have a job to earn the big bucks and pay your measly share of taxes...One is not independent of the other. They are dependent on each other. A private sector that exists merely to make profits is a sick and useless society.

badtoworse (2,348 posts)
27. I went to private schools and I have done quite well.

As a society, we need many services, but they don't have to be provided by public servants. A great many services currently done by the public sector could easily be contracted out and paid for by taxing the wealth created by the private sector.

mmonk (46,530 posts)
32. Corporate charters aren't created generally to benefit the public.

They are created to bring profit to the share holders as their only fiduciary duty. That duty at times can be at the expense of the public interest.

badtoworse (2,348 posts)
33. The same is true for public sector workers. Who do you think public employee unions represent?

girl gone mad (20,063 posts)
21. If the federal government didn't first spend the money into existence..

how would the private sector be able to pay taxes?

badtoworse (2,348 posts)
30. The concept of money existed before the government started printing it.

After barter, it was coinage that had intrinsic value. The government did not invent money, print a lot of it and convince people that it was valuable. Government have always been limited in what they can do by the amount of value they take from the private sector. Greece is a great example of that - tax evasion is a cottage industry and a substantial amount of potential revenue goes uncollected. This greatly diminishes the government's ability to pay its public workers and provide basic services. Why doesn't the Greek government just "spend money into existence"? (You've made the point about a sovereign currency before. Printing more money would not add value; it would just dilute the value of what currently existed and make everything more expensive.)

Puzzledtraveller (441 posts)
29. Shame on you for inserting logic into this

I ve been a public employee for all my working years and I totally appreciate and respect the private sector, they pay my salary!

Enjoy your stay.

ibegurpard (10,500 posts)
18. people trumpet how "inefficient" big government is

big business is just as bloated, bureaucratic and inefficient. I deal with a huge corporation every day in my job and trying to nail down someone for an answer or approval for something makes my head explode.

Yes, but inefficient businesses lose profit and go out of business.

Inefficient government gives itself more funding and a raise by the barrel of the tax man's gun.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002798120

[JohnnyReb]

What I have learned about DUmmies has just been reaffirmed.....you can teach them to read and write but you can't make them think.

[diesel driver]

kentuck (61,675 posts)
8. And if you didn't have a teacher to teach you how to read...

you would not have a job to earn the big bucks and pay your measly share of taxes...One is not independent of the other. They are dependent on each other. A private sector that exists merely to make profits is a sick and useless society.

Believe it or not, DUmmie, I taught MYSELF to read and write by the age of 4.  School BORED me, because I already KNEW the subject the teacher was teaching.

girl gone mad (20,063 posts)
21. If the federal government didn't first spend the money into existence..

how would the private sector be able to pay taxes?

Chicken and egg here,  DUmmie girl gone mad (must have been a very short trip).

Where does the government get the money in the first place????

Mankind has been swapping things of "value" long before ANY government printed the first currency, or even existed!   

[diesel driver]

What I have learned about DUmmies has just been reaffirmed.....you can teach them to read and write but you can't make them think.

They can't/don't think.

They can only recite what was taught to them by leftist profs, who themselves can't/don't think, who were taught by THEIR leftist profs, who themselves can't/don't think, etc., etc.

You see a pattern here?

[USA4ME]

The main problem with public sector jobs is the inability to fire the dead weight.  Once they are employed, it takes an act of Congress to get the goof-offs fired, whereas in the private sector if you don't do your job, you get canned.

.

[diesel driver]

The main problem with public sector jobs is the inability to fire the dead weight.  Once they are employed, it takes an act of Congress to get the goof-offs fired, whereas in the private sector if you don't do your job, you get canned.

.

EXACTLY!   

[hillneck]

They can't/don't think.

They can only recite what was taught to them by leftist profs, who themselves can't/don't think, who were taught by THEIR leftist profs, who themselves can't/don't think, etc., etc.

You see a pattern here?

Most leftist live in a echo chamber, devoid of any other points of view.  They're incapable of listening to other views even if the disagree with that view. 

[Ballygrl]

Since when does the left care about policemen?

[BEG]

When I hear the term "public sector" I don't think of police and firefighters (or good teachers). I think of crappy teachers that can't be fired and bloated number of government employees that sit in an office cubical and may or may not do their job.

[Karin]

I'm sorry, I can't read past the first line, because I'm having a terrible allergic reaction to the following phrase:

"Teachers, Firemen and Policemen."  

They keep saying this, repeating it over and over and over and over and over again, and I'm ****ing sick of it.  It's like these are the only jobs available in the government sector.  There is no waste from do-nothing, no-show jobs that pay 6 figures.  There's no redundancy or frivolous bureaucratic jobs.  There is no dreadfully-performing, mindless yet meddlesome mid-level pencil-pusher who doesn't give a shit about those who pay his salary.  Shut the **** UP about your T, F & P, because people are tuning you the **** out.  

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

I'm sorry, I can't read past the first line, because I'm having a terrible allergic reaction to the following phrase:

"Teachers, Firemen and Policemen."  

They keep saying this, repeating it over and over and over and over and over again, and I'm ****ing sick of it.  It's like these are the only jobs available in the government sector.  There is no waste from do-nothing, no-show jobs that pay 6 figures.  There's no redundancy or frivolous bureaucratic jobs.  There is no dreadfully-performing, mindless yet meddlesome mid-level pencil-pusher who doesn't give a shit about those who pay his salary.  Shut the **** UP about your T, F & P, because people are tuning you the **** out.  

The military is also a government job.

They don't like the military very much.

To them the military is the only gov't job that fancies itself a solution looking for problems. Yet, history has shown the greatest tyrannies don't announce themselves wilth calls to arms but with pleadings of, "I'm here to help you."

[Karin]

girl gone mad (20,063 posts)
21. If the federal government didn't first spend the money into existence..

how would the private sector be able to pay taxes?

     This belongs in the Posts that Stand Alone. 

[JohnnyReb]

   This belongs in the Posts that Stand Alone. 

It belongs in the iron lung section of a polio ward. It's clear that the DUmmie can't remember to breathe.

[BEG]

By the way, what do police officers and firefighters have to do with Obama?  They are municipal jobs.

[Chris_]

Why do liberals hate firefighters, police, and teachers?  They're always the first people who get threatened whenever the city/state/county runs out of money.

[thundley4]

By the way, what do police officers and firefighters have to do with Obama?  They are municipal jobs.

Obama is talking about bailing out states as part of his future failed bailout plan.  That was brought up when he said the private sector was doing fine.

[BEG]

The perfect example of the public sector, The Post Office:

LINK From CNN

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- The head of the U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday that if the service doesn't cut costs and Congress fails to act, it's going to be in the same dire straits as Greece.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe drew chuckles from a group of postal policy conference attendees by comparing the beleaguered, indebted Postal Service to the beleaguered, indebted nation.

He said that Greece's ratio of debt compared to gross domestic product is 1.61 and the U.S. Postal Service's ratio of debt compared to revenue is 1.51.

*snip*

[NHSparky]

The more I read shit like the DUmmies put out, I don't think they're as well-travelled or as worldly as they think they are.

Most of them laud the Eurosocialist system, which tells me one thing: most of them have never dealt with the Eurosocialist system.  If they had, they wouldn't praise it.