How large is our Government

[Mosin]

Wow. Days off with pay. Isn’t that called vacation days Tom? The government has no such thing called personal days. You either take annual leave or sick leave. There are no “baby days” off either. Women have to use their vacation time. Comp time is hours you accrue in lieu of overtime. You get to make a choice; if you work over 40 hours a week, your extra time can be either overtime or comp time. As far as raises go, if you have any type of decent job and you perform well, don’t you periodically get raises??

At my work, I get two weeks off per year. That's it, unless I convince my employer to let me fudge a couple of days here and there to pursue audio. I tend to balance it out with overtime, however. I get a salary, so I don't get paid extra for that. I am a typical private business employee.

My brother-in-law is a TVA worker. He gets six figures to surf the net and sell on eBay. He takes off hunting season and every Friday, too. In fact, he takes off from work a lot. Then, he gets holidays that I never even heard of.

I have an ex out there in the world someplace who also worked for the government. Whenever we moved to another city, it was no problem for the US Government to find her a position in some agency. Usually, there was a pay increase involved, too. Whenever she didn't want to work, she called in sick. By the way, she retired in her early fifties with enough money coming in to satisfy her needs. We should all be so lucky!

Win

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

Crooked private contractor being paid with tax money. Not a good example. How about a private company that serves private customers and has to compete with other companies, not having a garanteed contract with the government? Private contractors, working for the government, KNOW they can charge ripoff prices and still get paid. Remember the $600 toilet seat? Not how business is done in the private sector. In the private sector, you work for below minimum wage, that you might at least have SOME work that pays, rather than spending ALL your time telemarketing and hunting for clients. You don't charge ripoff prices when you're in the private sector, working for private sector clients.
I have a colleague who is also a video producer. Last year, he paid $15K in property taxes on his cameras and editing equipment. If that were me, I'd be in tax court, because I didn't make that much money last year.
Then there's the employee regulations.. health care, EEO rules, unemployment insurance, and all the laws the make it hard to fire a bad employee, not to mention various insurances for liability. There's environmental compliance, labor laws, local business ordinances.. the list goes on. It's very expensive to run a 'legitimate' registered business in the US. The minute you apply for a business license or a tax permit, the town comes after you for property tax on your capital equipment. It's really incredible.

 

[danielk141]

Let me try to put this another way..

For anyone who believes private contractors can do a better job, simply because they're not "Government Workers".
Please download the PDF at the bottom of this link. It is a long document. I would suggest printing page 5, 6, & 13.
Please tell me what you think, after reading this.

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/reports/money-down-the-drain/

 

[rblnr]

It's news to me. I would like to know the businesses the US government seems to be in .. I have a small business pay my taxes and seem to find transparent non-underground or off the book to do OK ... I never saw the government as competition as a matter of fact I am looking forward to do some business with them or their local counterparts.

Agree with question and am in the same boat re: a small business. Did some work for the gov't (Air Force) a few years ago and the bidding process was highly competitive, though I know the history of military contracts ain't great.

It's very expensive to run a 'legitimate' registered business in the US.

I think it's more so most other developed places.

 

[FrantzM]

I think it's more so most other developed places.

You are a polite person.

I can tell you it is a piece of cake compared to most other developed countries (ask people in France and please let's not talk about underdeveloped countries . I have first hand experiences, having run a business in one and about to do the same again (albeit in a remote fashion this time)

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

The only thing I can think of that is more cumbersome, less efficient and sucks more from the public teat than big government is big business. I worked in corporate marketing at one of the world's largest banks throughout the 2000s. I'm not guessing. There are exceptions, of course. There are exceptions in government agencies as well. It's just easier to get blindly pissed at government. They tax us. And they're not in our retirement portfolios.

Tim