Big Gov’t Takes Over
The share of U.S. income made up by the private sector hit a historical low earlier this year. The only real growth is in the public sector, which doesn’t create wealth. This bad trend must be reversed.
Government Creep: The share of U.S. income made up by the private sector hit a historical low earlier this year. The only real growth is in the public sector, which doesn’t create wealth. This bad trend must be reversed.
An analysis of government data by USA Today found that “paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year.”
That’s only part of this sad story: “At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.”
If the share of private-sector pay is shrinking, income from government must necessarily be growing. Sure enough, during the first quarter, the federal government added 81,000 jobs while the private sector lost 4.71 million.
President Obama wants more. He’s asked federal agencies to accelerate and streamline hiring of federal workers at a time when laying off bureaucrats would be the far better course.
Even before Obama began to push federal hiring, working for Washington was a lucrative career choice. In 2008, the typical federal worker took home on average $67,691 in salary compared with $60,046 for the private sector.
During the first 18 months of the recession, USA Today reported in December, “Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.”
Government workers have also avoided the job losses we’ve seen in the private sector. Their unemployment rate from 2007 to 2010 has been 3%; the rate across private industry has been 7.9%.
Federal workers aren’t the only public employees who enjoy generous compensation. In 2009, the employer cost per hour for private sector businesses was $27.49 while the employer cost per hour in state and local government was $39.83 per hour, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. From 2006 to 2009, those costs grew 6.9% in the private sector, 9.8% in state and local government.
Shifting employment and pay toward the public sector from private enterprise can’t last. A shrinking and underpaid private work force can’t indefinitely support a growing host of bureaucrats.
Nor should it. Government is not a jobs program. Its duty is to protect constitutional rights — nothing more. Bureaucracy can’t create wealth; it can’t enlarge an economy.
The state threatens the economy and our individual freedoms when it begins meddling in voluntary, peaceful activities.
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