Wednesday 30 November 2011

Public Servants Are Not The Bad Guys

Approximately 2 million public servants didn't turn up for work today and the Government has been attempting to turn the private sector against them in a divide and rule movement.
They tried this before with some success when they moved the argument away from bankers bonuses and got the public condemning those on benefits and disability benefit instead.
Now they are attempting to pit the private sector against the public sector with the cry of 'Look, they have better pensions then you, the bastards!'
The Governments argument is that the public servants strike to resist the 20% reduction in their pensions is unjustified because those people who don't work in the public sector have even worse ones.
Rather than work to drag up the worst pensions to the level of the decent public servants ones, they are looking to bust the decent ones down to the worst level.
Things are really bad but what they would really like is things to be bad for everyone, yes everyone suffering equally, that's the ticket and logical if you are a Conservative Prime Minister.
The nurses, policemen, firemen and teachers are not the bad guys here, it's a right wing Government using the excuse of a a weak economy to fulfil their political ideological dreams.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since 100% of the public sector income comes from the private sector in the form of fees and taxes, the smaller the private sector gets the less able it is to fund the public sector. If you make the public sector more lucrative than the private sector eventually the private sector will diminish to the point that it cannot support the public sector. Sounds like yawl are close to the tipping point...

By the way, redistribution of wealth via taxes is the best way to insure that everybody is equally poor.

Capitalism acutally gives some people a chance to have more...

q

Lucy said...

You resent paying for the teachers, police, nurses and fireman? Good luck if you ever get stuck up a tree and try to get help. You will be told they might be able to rescue you a week on Tuesday.
Instead of busting down the public service to the low level of the private sector, why not try and bring up the private service to the level of the public service? I don't hear anyone calling to bring down male pay to the level of females pay in order to level the pay gap so why should there be a race to the bottom on this one?

I don't know why you pro-capitalist types always assume any attempot at equality equals everyone being poor, actually i do but your argument is growing weaker each day. Capitalism is flawed and destroys lives in regular cycles but we have had this debate many times.

You know i am going to disagree with you on your last point.

Anonymous said...

“You resent paying for the teachers, police, nurses and fireman? Good luck if you ever get stuck up a tree and try to get help. You will be told they might be able to rescue you a week on Tuesday.”
Wow, that is a huge stretch even in question form. Where did I indicate my feelings? You’re really sounding like a professional journalist...

“Instead of busting down the public service to the low level of the private sector, why not try and bring up the private service to the level of the public service?”
Are you hard of hearing? I’ll try yelling: THE PRIVATE SECTOR PAYS FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR 100%.
Also, the private sector can’t be “brought up” because people like you raise taxes every time people in the private sector gain ground... and you go bananas when the private sector gets ahead.

“I don't hear anyone calling to bring down male pay to the level of females pay in order to level the pay gap so why should there be a race to the bottom on this one?”
You should listen closer... that is exactly what people are saying when they say “CEOs should get paid less.”

“I don't know why you pro-capitalist types always assume any attempt at equality equals everyone being poor, actually i do but your argument is growing weaker each day. Capitalism is flawed and destroys lives in regular cycles but we have had this debate many times.”
Capitalism is flawed but is better than any other method. We have 5,000 years of human history to prove it. Even the Chinese are finally giving in to the fact. Now only 95% of China lives in poverty...

“You know i am going to disagree with you on your last point.”
Of course, even though there is no logical way to explain your position... Face it, the “rich” people that you envy and despise so much are proof that people can get ahead in a capitalist system.

q

Lucy said...

I reached straight for the emotive angle because everybody likes nurses and fireman and it should humble you. It also gave me scope for a cheap joke. Can't believe that you hate nurses though, you monster.

Of course the private sector can be bought up. If it is easier to just whine than to join a decent union who will fight for better pension rights than you get the crap pension you deserve.

I must have missed all those banners that said pay the CEOs less and give it to women instead.

All economic systems are flawed to a degree, the flaw of capitalism is that it benefits the few over the many and when it falls over, as it does on a regular cycle, it devastates the bottom portion of society first.

The 'poor' people that you want to keep down are so much proof that regular people get screwed in a capitalist system.

Anonymous said...

when it falls the GOVERNMENT devestates the bottom...

the advantage of capitalism is that there are good times.

the other systems avoid the big falls by never having good times... ala China, ala USSR, ala Cuba, ala all the rest

q

Anonymous said...

and when the union negotiates their pensions up in the private sector who pays for that?

why the consumer pays with higher prices of course!

only problem is that the union members are consumers so they get a faux improvement - oh never mind you think minimum wage works... i'm wasting my time.

q

Lucy said...

Miminum wage now, wow, you really are hitting out at all the things that try and drag up the least well off in society.

Anonymous said...

yeah, at the macro economic level the result is inflationary overall with very little, temporary help for the people on minimum wage.

There is also almost always an increase in unemployment for the people that earn minimum wage.

go figure small business people cutting costs...

q

Nog said...

"Public servants" get paid; and they get paid thru taxes. So what's a fireman worth? That's what this is about right?

Lucy said...

The strike was about pensions and how the amount the public servants have to pay in is rising by approx 3%, but the amount they receive is being reduced by approix 20%.

Anonymous said...

follow up, nurses are not yet public servants in the USA...

i don't hate nurses in general, but the one i dated, well hate isn't the right word, more like relieved that it didn't work out...

q