Salary increases? In this economy? They can’t be serious, can they?

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011 | 2 a.m.

When we read recent reports that many Clark County government workers were receiving salary increases, we had one thought: Seriously?

Yes, seriously.

As the Las Vegas Sun’s Joe Schoenmann has reported, Clark County has been working with unions representing its employees to try to whittle down costs and has received concessions from several unions over the past few years. However, many county employees have still seen their wages increase over the past three years. (You can find coverage here.)

For example, county officials said members of the Service International Employees Union received average wage increases of 12.6 percent over that time. A spokesman for the SEIU, which is negotiating its contract with the county, disputed the number and said the union was doing its own analysis.

County officials have been accused of overstating wages before. This year, county officials said prosecutors had received total wage increases of 15 percent over three years. As Schoenmann noted, District Attorney David Roger complained, saying the county had grossly overstated the increases. However, an audit backed the county, saying the number was 14.6 percent.

Regardless, the squabbling over numbers misses the larger point: Times are tough. Thousands of workers in Clark County have lost their jobs, and many workers have taken pay cuts. Nevada continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the nation. And an untold number of others have gone years without pay increases. 

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/oct/13/salary-increases-economy-they-cant-be-serious-can-/

‘We are caught in a systemic debt trap’

Our world faces a large, profound, and very important problem: systemic debt.

We are each and all in debt, whether or not we have actually borrowed from anyone.

This is because our financial system is based on debt and interest on debt.

Our individual interest payments are disguised as taxes and hidden in the inexorable price inflation we each experience.

You are already directly in debt if you are a citizen of a country in debt, and all countries are in debt. The fact of your citizenship makes you liable even if you don't think you are personally in debt to anyone.

The collateral for each country's interest-bearing debt is the ability of its inhabitants to work and pay taxes. The taxes are used to cover the nation's interest payments, and since the interest is compound interest our financial system is biased toward unstoppable exponential growth reflected in price inflation.

So it becomes imperative to grow the economy in line with exploding interest-bearing debt so that money does not lose its purchasing power in terms of goods and services.

But real world growth is limited by the laws of physics (broadly construed) and ecology, since we live in nature; and by the laws of psychology and sociology since we live in cultures and are all real beings with finite needs. For example, no single person can live in a thousand houses. And we can each eat only so many meals in a day.  


http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/we-are-caught-in-a-systemic-debt-trap-1.1153270

139 central Pennsylvania officials tout membership in the $100k club

School district superintendents make the list. So do principals. But surprises on the local government top-earners list in the capital region came from police officers, firefighters, a borough manager and an athletic director. The first-ever snapshot of earnings paid out by 75 local government agencies in the Harrisburg area — county governments, townships, boroughs, cities and school districts — shows 139 officials can tout membership in the coveted $100,000 Club. Sixty-six others earning between $95,000 and $100,000 were close to knocking on that clubhouse door. 
    
The data compiled by The Patriot-News through Right-to-Know requests is from the end of 2009. Many of the people on the list have since left their jobs. 
    
But this survey shows the payroll for the 17 school districts, four county governments and 53 townships, boroughs or cities included in the survey totaled just over $755 million for nearly 23,000 full- and part-time employees. 
    
Former Harrisburg School District Superintendent Gerald Kohn topped the list of salaries at $235,431. Following him was his former deputy superintendent Julie Botel, who made $204,790. They were the only ones to top the $200,000 mark. 
    
A few, including former Harrisburg fire chiefs Donald Konkle and Daniel Soulier, made the list only because their earnings included the leave pay-outs they received when retiring that year, which they had accrued over decades of service. http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/10/139_central_pennsylvania_offic.html

Biden: Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party Have Frustration in Common

Vice President Joe Biden today likened the Occupy Wall Street protests to expressions of grassroots frustration by members of the Tea Party.

“Let’s be honest with one another,” Biden told an audience on camera at the Washington Ideas Forum. “What is the core of that protest? The core is: The bargain has been breached. The core is the American people do not think the system is fair, or on the level. That is the core is what you’re seeing with Wall Street.

“There’s a lot in common with the Tea Party,” he said. “The Tea Party started, why? TARP. They thought it was unfair.”

Biden cited Bank of America’s recent decision to impose a $5 monthly fee on some debit card users as an example of new perceived unfairness related to the banking sector that has fueled more popular frustration.

“The middle class folks, these guys with the debit cards, are on their back. And [banks] are going to charge them $5 to use the cards? At minimum, they are totally tone-deaf,” Biden said.  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/biden-occupy-wall-streettea-party-have-frustration-in-common/

Biden: GOP Strong Enough to Beat Obama in 2012

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden says the Republican Party is more than strong enough to beat President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

"A significant majority of the American people believe that the country is not moving in the right direction," Biden said. "That is never a good place to be going into reelection whether it’s your fault or not your fault. It’s almost sometimes irrelevant."
During an appearance Thursday at the Washington Ideas Forum, Biden was asked by NBC News host David Gregory if a significant majority of the American people don't believe the country is moving in the right direction. And he says that is never a good place to be going into re-election, regardless of whether it is the current administration's fault or not.

“Is it strong enough of a Republican Party for its nominee to beat this president?” Gregory asked.

“Oh absolutely, absolutely," Biden replied. "It’s strong enough to beat both of us. Look, look – no matter what the circumstance, at the end of the day, the American people right now are - many of them are in real trouble – an even larger percentage have stagnant wages and a significant majority of the American people believe that the country is not moving in the right direction.


Read more on Newsmax.com: Biden: GOP Strong Enough to Beat Obama in 2012
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

Public employee salaries, pensions far outpace private sector's

John R. Smith

October 5, 2011

For decades, I was told by friends who work in local government that they were entitled to higher job benefits than private sector workers because they received less in terms of salary.

Why is it I don't hear that anymore? It's because these days the numbers decisively show that most government workers earn more pay than their counterparts in private sector jobs, and earn far more in benefits, too. In fact, the benefits are four times greater for federal workers than private industry workers.

Even union-friendly media are turning a critical eye to public sector unions, who throw up picket lines and pack the halls of government to bleed dry the American taxpayer.  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-jscol-pensions-salaries-public-smith-1005-20111005,0,4134099.column