3 ms·

I'm sure it's not true of all public employees, but many of those I am familiar with richly deserve vilifying. There is no shortage of people who did very litt

by jqm 11y ago

I'm sure it's not true of all public employees, but many of those I am familiar with richly deserve vilifying. There is no shortage of people who did very little during their working career and expect to retire after 20-25 years with full health benefits and a livable pension paid for the rest of their lives. In my opinion, this is a form of freeloading and it certainly isn't sustainable. I don't know what the solution is. I'd like to see better pension schemes for private sector workers.. particularly those who don't stay at a company for 20 years. I suppose maybe a national scheme similar to Social Security. I don't know...

derefr 11y ago
Whatever else it is, it was an option that was clearly on the table 20 years ago when these people were deciding on a career, and is probably in large part why they went into the public sector in the first place (as part of a larger package of "job security.") It's not freeloading, I think, to accept the "gift" of a nice career freely given; any more than it is freeloading to accept a scholarship, or an inheritance.
- jqm 11y ago
  You are right. Freeloading probably isn't the right term. But it is an abusive scheme.. particularly given that performance expectations usually aren't reasonable, and once someone has "gotten on", they are usually very hard to get rid of. In the meantime, someone in the private sector is being increasingly squeezed for performance, can be gotten rid of almost on a whim and is very unlikely to have lifetime pension benefits.. particularly ridiculously unsustainable ones like public employees. True, they do have the potential of a larger salary and probably more job satisfaction. I just wish a balance could be found allowing people to actually enter productive jobs and make an effort towards improving the world while enjoying (a more reasonable version) of the pension benefits public "workers" (I use the term loosely) enjoy.
gaius 11y ago
If you want to see how this plays out - look at Greece. There a civil servant retires at 50 or 95% of their final salary. Or did...

by jqm 11y ago

derefr 11y ago

Whatever else it is, it was an option that was clearly on the table 20 years ago when these people were deciding on a career, and is probably in large part why they went into the public sector in the first place (as part of a larger package of "job security.") It's not freeloading, I think, to accept the "gift" of a nice career freely given; any more than it is freeloading to accept a scholarship, or an inheritance.

jqm 11y ago
You are right. Freeloading probably isn't the right term. But it is an abusive scheme.. particularly given that performance expectations usually aren't reasonable, and once someone has "gotten on", they are usually very hard to get rid of. In the meantime, someone in the private sector is being increasingly squeezed for performance, can be gotten rid of almost on a whim and is very unlikely to have lifetime pension benefits.. particularly ridiculously unsustainable ones like public employees. True, they do have the potential of a larger salary and probably more job satisfaction. I just wish a balance could be found allowing people to actually enter productive jobs and make an effort towards improving the world while enjoying (a more reasonable version) of the pension benefits public "workers" (I use the term loosely) enjoy.

gaius 11y ago

If you want to see how this plays out - look at Greece. There a civil servant retires at 50 or 95% of their final salary. Or did...