A few weeks ago I yet again forced myself to listen to Rush Limbaugh. One of his rants was about how allegedly useless and over-paid federal workers are. He stated:
"Productivity is a measurement that economists apply to the private sector to measure the efficiency of workers. However, the federal government does not produce anything to measure. They are merely paper-pushers. They don't produce anything that you actually use in your daily life." [Paraphrased]
Anybody who has gotten food poising will be mindful of the important role of federal food inspectors regardless if such "productivity" is measured or not. Perhaps he's upset because the feds keep oxycontin away from him?
The complaint about "paper pushing" and the idea of producing "real" products strikes me as hypocritical coming from proponents of outsourcing and lopsided trade. Our private sector has been making less and less actual product over time, and does more and more "paper pushing" and marketing and less tangible output and results. This is because manufacturing and even white-collar jobs such as software programming is being outsourced and offshored ever more by so-called "free" trade.
As far as his argument that the wages of federal workers are almost double the private sector, I've looked into them from the perspective of an information technology professional, and don't see any evidence that their pay is excessive.
As an intern for the feds once at a geology office, I did notice that the feds do hire a lot of degreed specialists, raising the average wage level. Rush was comparing the average wage of a federal worker to the average wage of the private sector. If you hire more specialists, then the average wages will indeed go up compared to say a private-sector subscription call center where most workers don't require a college degree.
As usual, Rush did NOT give a lot of detailed analysis to figure out what, where, and why. He just spots a lone figure that looks a little odd, and makes a big drama about it. His listeners witness a lot of heat but not a lot of light. For example, if the feds don't need as many specialists, then it would make sense to give some examples of what they can cut.
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