More Pink Slips Coming for Public Employees: Is Austerity the Right Rx for a Weak Jobs Market?

When times were good Government just grew to spend over 100% of tax receipts as if revenues would grow forever. Now that we had a slowdown and tax reciepts dropped they want to cry a river. No cushion for tough times.

Even a squirrel knows to put a few nuts away for the winter. Our politicians are not that smart.

You can't spend what you don't have.

We preach austerity to other nations when they come to us begging. We may as well practice what we preach.

I would much rather we reduce the fat in the public sector as we go, as is happening now, and eventually reach a point of cost effective local, state and federal operations than pouring more money into a bloated bureaucratic black hole and ending up like the Soviet Union did in 1989.

The Public sector needs to remember they have a responsibility to use our tax dollars wisely.

There is no law that says we have to provide employment for immigrants from other countries, as a matter of fact we owe them nothing. They do not die for our country the way that American boys & girls do.

Give our jobs to Americans and we will no longer have an unemployment problem. (I will get plenty of thumbs down from foreigners).

The government had their shot at the basket and it blew it. It is out of ammmo and cannot put more debt on future generations as it implements its social experiments. The government has caused commodity prices to skyrocket and has created substantial economic uncertainty. No wonder their economy sucks.

Boo Hoo! Public sector employees will really be crying when they see private sector wages.

We have too many people for the jobs that are available....you know, supply vs demand.

Who do you want to be unemployed?

Cut government salaries. Government jobs pay more than private sector so there is room to cut pay and benefits, including congress.

There seems to be enough gov $ to funnel to the bankers for their multi million dollar bonuses, but not enough to keep teachers on the job. With this system in place there won't be a recovery -ever.

well all of you rich people are going to love what austerity will do to the stock market. eat up

I see the private sector, especially banks and large corporations, as having been significantly stimulated as a result of all of this, since everyone knows they���ve ended up with their pockets bulging with cash. The general theory is when the private sector becomes healthy and strong and they���ve got plenty of cash, they���re expected to start hiring and pull the country out of the ditch. But that���s not happening due to all the uncertainty, and that���s understandable. Business says the answer, though, is to give them tax breaks and other favors. But it seems the trend over the last thirty years has been toward creating more and more favorable conditions for businesses to operate, and for the wealthy to invest, yet at the same time the employment landscape for Americans has become increasingly barren.

In 1970, Canada and the United States both spent about 7 percent of their G.D.P. on health care. Since then, as United States health spending has soared to 16 percent of G.D.P., Canadian spending has risen much more modestly, to only 10.5 percent of G.D.P.
Better Service at lower costs is Productivity, which should be the Governement focus, NOT CUTTING JOBS

Import 40% of the workers in America and then wonder why we have a high unemployment rate.

I can preach to you all day, it amazes me that you cannot see it.

A simple example (sorry I have to do this): you have 20 apples for the week. Can you CONSUME 20 apples in a week? What happens to the apples you cannot eat?

Where is it written that America will ALWAYS have enough jobs for ALL of the job seekers in our country? You cannot let millions of Indian & Asian immigrants into our country and not expect to lose American jobs.

If our federal, state and local governments were private companies the stockholders would have long ago forced management and the board of directors out. If new management could not turn things around they would have had to file for bankruptcy and ALL employees would be let go.

Monopolies and Trusts have no room for the Republic for which it stood.

Wars have always been a profitable way of distracting/extorting the public from the REAL enemy within and increasing the DEBT. ( Debt to the Cartel and it's many minions )

The Ruling Class sees the world only ONE WAY.

THis is all going as planned.

Federal employees have to feel the same anxieties that we do in the private sector. The gravy train has to stop!

A call to pare back spending for all levels of government to what we take in tax revenue can not properly be called austerity. And the lefts reflexive sympathy government employee's while simultaneously having nothing but contempt for the private sector, which has been decimated, leaves little doubt as to their towering bias.