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Yet this very site thinks paying these wages to Google interns is just fine. I have 4 decades of experience and deliver products that make $100M a year and I do

Yet this very site thinks paying these wages to Google interns is just fine. I have 4 decades of experience and deliver products that make $100M a year and I don't get paid these salaries because I don't work for a FAANG company, nor live in NY or SF, and am quite happy with what I make because the cost of living is reasonable and I like it here. The median union worker does not make $400,000 a year in any city in the US. Picking extremes and calling it the norm is just picking facts to promote an opinion. Whether you support or dislike unions in general is no reason to argue without useful facts to allow for reasoned discussion. This isn't Reddit.

sokoloff 6y ago
I doubt that Google interns are making $200K-300K/yr. Even if they were, I grant companies far greater leeway to set the wages that make sense for them, with the only control being whether I'm willing to shop there and/or hold their shares. Government salaries should be subject to greater public scrutiny than corporate compensation, IMO.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  The only thing that needs to happen for government workers is removal of defined benefit pensions and retiree healthcare. Once those fudge-able numbers are removed from the equation, the overpaying by promising future taxpayer money will automatically stop.
  - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
    Honest question: how does removing pensions and retirement healthcare eliminate overpaid salaries? I don’t see the connection.
    - lotsofpulp 6y ago
      The real cost of those benefits decades into the future aren’t properly reflected in government budgets. It allows politicians to promise lavish benefits who need the votes from the government employee unions, and then the costs get understated, or just straight up ignored since who is going to force the government to set aside money for the future? End result is people today paying for labor performed decades ago, and not allowing for proper pricing of government labor compared to private sector. For proof, check your local and state government pension plans reports. And note that those numbers are optimistic by at least 30% (compared to how the government forces private employers to value defined benefit pension liabilities).

sokoloff 6y ago

I doubt that Google interns are making $200K-300K/yr. Even if they were, I grant companies far greater leeway to set the wages that make sense for them, with the only control being whether I'm willing to shop there and/or hold their shares. Government salaries should be subject to greater public scrutiny than corporate compensation, IMO.

lotsofpulp 6y ago
The only thing that needs to happen for government workers is removal of defined benefit pensions and retiree healthcare. Once those fudge-able numbers are removed from the equation, the overpaying by promising future taxpayer money will automatically stop.
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
  Honest question: how does removing pensions and retirement healthcare eliminate overpaid salaries? I don’t see the connection.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    The real cost of those benefits decades into the future aren’t properly reflected in government budgets. It allows politicians to promise lavish benefits who need the votes from the government employee unions, and then the costs get understated, or just straight up ignored since who is going to force the government to set aside money for the future? End result is people today paying for labor performed decades ago, and not allowing for proper pricing of government labor compared to private sector. For proof, check your local and state government pension plans reports. And note that those numbers are optimistic by at least 30% (compared to how the government forces private employers to value defined benefit pension liabilities).