[Newsbot]

Title: B.C. public servants overpaid: Taxpayers Federation
Category: Provincial Politics
Posted By: Strutz
Date: 2011-08-31 10:36:47
Canadian

[Velcro]

So is this really why carbon tax and HST was pushed on us? To pay these salaries

[Prof_Chomsky]

I'd just be curious to see how it compares to the private sector directly...

I've worked for a few large corporations and the government, and cost effectiveness was never what the corporations were good at.

[martin14]

Prof_Chomsky Prof_Chomsky:

I'd just be curious to see how it compares to the private sector directly...

I've worked for a few large corporations and the government, and cost effectiveness was never what the corporations were good at.

And the government is ?



That leftard tinfoil weed must be really good.

[Prof_Chomsky]

That's my point.

It's easy to say the government overpays it's people, or isn't efficient enough. But compared to what better alternative?

We've seen what privitization does in the USA. Doubling of electric bills. Tripling of water bills. Health care that is over 5X what the same treatment costs in Canada. Invade a couple countries using private contractors for 10X what it costs to send your own army, then "losing" 60 Billion $ by accident...

My mom always taught me that ANYONE can be a critic, but only dickwads are critical when they don't have a better working solution to provide.

[Macguyver]

martin14 martin14:

That leftard tinfoil weed must be really good.

Why so hostile?

[Zipperfish]

martin14 martin14:

That leftard tinfoil weed must be really good.

Yeah, and you're such an intellectual giant.

I know for a fact that engineers that work for BC don't make close to what they make in the private sector. They can't hang on to engineers. I got a buddy who makes a pretty good living head-hunting underpaid execs and engineers from the BC civil service.

[andyt]

Funny, when they hired David Hahn to run the ferries, Gordo said they had to pay him what the private sector makes because BC ferries was now a 'private' (ie crown) corporation. Hahn makes twice as much as any govt swivel servant, and just negotiated a 300+k pension that is 3 on top of his regular govt pension. So who's bullshitting whom here?

Martin - at least your autonomic reflexes are in good shape.

[Gunnair]

Prof_Chomsky Prof_Chomsky:

That's my point.

It's easy to say the government overpays it's people, or isn't efficient enough. But compared to what better alternative?

We've seen what privitization does in the USA. Doubling of electric bills. Tripling of water bills. Health care that is over 5X what the same treatment costs in Canada. Invade a couple countries using private contractors for 10X what it costs to send your own army, then "losing" 60 Billion $ by accident...

Actually, I've seen my power and water bills increase because I, like many others, have drastically reduced consumption. One of the downsides of being green is that the loss of revenue, which is needed for maintenance and upgrades, means an increase in fees to cover the losses.

Mind, I don't mind paying it, but it was a point that was not raised very well in the discussions.

[Gunnair]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

martin14 martin14:

That leftard tinfoil weed must be really good.

Yeah, and you're such an intellectual giant.

I know for a fact that engineers that work for BC don't make close to what they make in the private sector. They can't hang on to engineers. I got a buddy who makes a pretty good living head-hunting underpaid execs and engineers from the BC civil service.

Same with the military. DND, which pays well, can't compete with the private sector. We lose a lot of highly trained and very skilled personnel to the private sector every year.

[andyt]

Yes - and the private run of river projects that Gordo foisted on BC Hydro, paying rates far above what it costs Hydro to generate power doesn't help either.

Bring back Wacky Bennet. He knew when socializing an industry made sense, but also knew how to pinch a penny.

[herbie]

The title is loaded.
The TP federation is showing the top bureaucrats are overpaid. As much as they'd like to claim it but can't, Joe Public Servant isn't.
David Hahn was a splendid example. What were the figures published a few weeks back, six, eight times the salary compared to Washington State Ferries?

[Bruce_the_vii]

Of course the Tax Federation thinks the unionized, government monopolies are over paid. However there is a social attitude that corporations over pay. At corporations a lot of the jobs are mundane, pretty mechanical once you got the on the job training, and any body that was so benefited could do them. There's a word for it on the street, "salary". This is in comparison to the general labor market, which is pretty low wage at this time. It's true, most jobs are pretty limited once your trained and their practitioners will tell you that. This is sort of the anti-dote to the work hard and get trained philosophy. The answer is you'll wind up a corporate hole for life.

[bootlegga]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

I know for a fact that engineers that work for BC don't make close to what they make in the private sector. They can't hang on to engineers. I got a buddy who makes a pretty good living head-hunting underpaid execs and engineers from the BC civil service.

I don't know about BC, but the Alberta government is always looking for engineers, lawyers, and other well-educated professionals simply because it doesn't pay anywhere near what the private sector (here in AB its the oil/gas industry) offers.

Some of the more senior civil servants (like deputy ministers and head of large departments) might make large salaries, but most civil servants don't earn anywhere near what they would in the private sector. A friend who is a mechanical engineer looked at working for the AB government a few years back, but his pay would have dropped from around $150k to around 100k if he worked for them. Because his is an one income family, he still works in the private sector.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Gunnair Gunnair:

Prof_Chomsky Prof_Chomsky:

That's my point.

It's easy to say the government overpays it's people, or isn't efficient enough. But compared to what better alternative?

We've seen what privitization does in the USA. Doubling of electric bills. Tripling of water bills. Health care that is over 5X what the same treatment costs in Canada. Invade a couple countries using private contractors for 10X what it costs to send your own army, then "losing" 60 Billion $ by accident...

Actually, I've seen my power and water bills increase because I, like many others, have drastically reduced consumption. One of the downsides of being green is that the loss of revenue, which is needed for maintenance and upgrades, means an increase in fees to cover the losses.

Mind, I don't mind paying it, but it was a point that was not raised very well in the discussions.

Of course it wasn't. Who in their right mind would tell you that even if you do reduce your energy consumption, yer still going to have higher bills?