Riots, Riots, Everywhere

The Middle East is exploding. Whether or not the uprisings over there will lead to more democratic forms of government, or whether or not the countries will fall to Islamic dictatorships has yet to be seen. It's hard to get a grasp on the situation, because there are too many conflicting viewpoints. We'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, here in the US I can sense that the "little people" are getting quite fed up with the status quo. The public sector unions are taking to the streets protesting a modest loss of some of their entitlements, while the private sector lags behind up to 50% of what these spoiled cretins make in salary and benefits. Yes, people are entitled to a fair wage, reasonable job security, and a reasonably comfortable retirement after dedicating a large portion of their lives to a job. I think that things have gotten too far out of hand, and from what I've been reading and hearing, the "Average Joe and Jane" have had enough. If the public sector unions don't back off, there is going to be hell to pay.

The problem is, public sector employees should never have been allowed to unionize in the first place. Even the icon of the Left, Franklin Roosevelt, was against public sector unions. Public servants were never supposed to make 40% to 50% more than the private sector. You took a government job, because even though it paid about 20% less than the same job in the private sector, you had virtually layoff free job security, great benefits, and a decent retirement pension plan. Government service was for those that really didn't want to deal with the dog eat dog climb up the corporate ladder of Corporate America or assume the risks of self-employment. This is the main reason that people make the military a career. For enlisted personnel in the military, the pay is considerably less than a similar job in the private sector. You don't start to make any kind of decent money until you reach the rank of E7 or E8. Then again, once you lose your housing allowances and subsistence allowances, E7 retirement after 20 years of service is just at the poverty line. I retired as an E8 after 26 years of service. My pension is barely enough to live on in the DC area, and I have to supplement it by playing musical jobs 4-5 nights per week and teaching 7 days per week, in order to have a standard of living that is about 30% less than I had when I was active duty, receiving full pay, housing, and subsistence. Believe me, I'm not complaining. I'm just stating facts.

What I'm saying to the civil servants and teachers that are out there throwing their temper tantrums is this: Grow up. You are making a hell of a lot more money than either the military or the private sector. We have an official unemployment rate of 9.6% and a REAL unemployment rate of about 18%, with most of that being confined to the non-degreed working class. If we want to make this country work for all, we have to work together, and that means that YOU have to be willing to make sacrifices, not just those that you look down upon and your lessers. If you don't, you look at a very good possibility that your unions are going to get busted, and then when there is a Republican president and Republican control of both houses of Congress, public sector unions will become illegal. You are being used as political tools by your union leadership, who's salaries by the way, equal the salaries of the CEOs that you love to demonize. Again, grow up and stop being "useful idiots."