Re: Public spending. While the world economy has recovered somewhat, public spending has become a huge millstone that is on the verge of taking the financial markets into another power dive.
Public spending in many countries is still rampant and politicians are reluctant to cut back.
The nature of public spending varies between countries but there are also some common denominators:
People working in the private sector have lost incomes and homes, while government employees continue to receive lavish salaries and benefits. The private sector is the main driver of the economies and contributor of tax revenues to governments, while the public sector is the net consumer of those hard-earned tax dollars. Reading daily about how governments continue to shovel more money at government employees is disturbing.
When government workers consistently receive 30 per cent more in salary and benefits than the workers in the private sector for similar work done, it becomes obvious the system is broke.
Paying a fireman $75,000 a year, let alone $110,000, when trades-qualified workers are challenged to make $55,000 is a clear signal that the (pay) scales are out of balance.
To resolve this inequity will require another process to determine how much people working in the public sector are paid.
Today, government employees represent a big enough percentage of the eligible voters that they can decide elections. That, unfortunately, is also why politicians willingly continue to overpay those employees, hoping to buy their loyalty and their vote.
The current rate of spending is not sustainable, and we cannot allow our politicians to bankrupt our country.
Balanced budgets by law and referendums are logical first steps in the process of tempering public spending.
Many U.S. municipal and state governments are already doing that.
Andy Thomsen, Summerland
