Today’s NYT headline reads, “U.S. Adds Jobs in May, but Private Hiring Disappoints“. This headline reflects a perverse and pervasive wisdom that infects the minds of people at all levels of American society — government work is wasteful work!
- People like to think that private industry hires people to do the jobs that really matter and makes people do their jobs in the most efficient manner, because the captains of industry are singularly driven by the profit motive. If a job does not contribute to the dollars-and-cents bottom line, the compensation paid to the person doing that job is “waste”. In other words, if there’s no profit to be made, there’s no job of true worth to be had.
- In the public sector, there’s no profit to be made. Police, emergency workers, teachers, civil servants, military personnel, and census takers, produce no profit, and the jobs they perform, when done fair and true, are inherently unprofitable. To bend the performance of these jobs toward profit, would be to corrupt them, as has been amply illustrated by private contractors who feed at the taxpayer trough for profit.
- Private industry happily skims the cream, cutting whatever corners it takes to make a buck, but the down and dirty business of maintaining and improving society does not go away because there’s no profit in it.
- We should sing the praises of public workers who, on the whole, perform their jobs quite well, not for profit, but in lieu of a fair wage for services rendered. They produce the wealth of a nation from which WE ALL PROFIT.
government jobs are still the best when it comes to job security “”
The job security that comes with government jobs is that the Government has a much more difficult time when it comes to double-crossing the people they hire. When everyone’s watching, a deal is a deal between employer and employee. Not so in private industry, where promises have way of going up in smoke whenever it suits the player that holds all the cards — the employer.
Beyond that though, a government job exists, at least in principle, to serve people rather than profits, and that principle is worth honoring despite the abusers of the public trust. There is no trust in the principle of serving profits, only the GOTCHA that comes with the CON. Wink, wink, nod, nod
I think that you are entirely missing the point of what is at the heart of the difference between a private sector job and a government job. It has nothing to do with how important or necessary the job is or whether or not it truly “matters”. And you may be surprised to know that the real difference between the two sectors has far less to do with that evil word “profit” (thick with sarcasm) than you might think.
What truly separates private sector jobs from government subsidized jobs is that none of us are directly involved with the decision regarding whether or not a good or service offered by or purchased by the government is worth what we are paying for it. We don’t get to decide how our money is being spent. It is all being decided for us by proxies… our elected officials. And we all know that these officials don’t always have our best interests at heart. We have little to no direct say when it comes to what we pay for or how much we pay for it. The government just sets it’s price and then takes it from us whether we think it is fair or not. This is the exact opposite of a free market.
Because of this dynamic, by default there is almost no competition in the government subsidized job sector. And trust me… that is how they want to keep it (Ever wonder why teacher’s unions are so opposed to school vouchers?) And because of this dynamic, there is not really any real incentive for the government worker to work harder, be creative, be innovative, be more efficient, or find solutions. This is why government jobs and government workers are generally far below par on so many levels and are regarded by many as “not real jobs”.
Now this generalization regarding government subsidized workers does not apply to all government workers. There are many exceptions who work hard and have a great deal of passion for what they do. I am primarily thinking of the wonderful men and women in our military and law enforcement. Clearly these men and women aren’t putting their lives on the line for the huge paychecks. These are truly special people. I am also thinking of our teachers. There are many others as well… but let’s be honest. Let’s push aside political correctness for a moment and admit that stereotypes exist for a reason… and this is all so true in the case of government jobs. Because there is no competition in this sector, people don’t have to compete or excel. Mediocrity abounds in the government sector. Innovation, effieciency and fiscal responsibility are rarely seen in the public sector because… they don’t have to. They can just raise taxes.
You stated that the private sector is where “corners” are “cut”, but I would argue that FAR more corners are cut in the government job sector. My wife is a public school middle school teacher, so I can speak to this topic with some knowledge and insight. Finding ways to be more efficient and cut costs in the private sector is not “cutting corners”. It is finding ways to get better results faster while reducing costs. This is what business is. The public sector rarely deals with these concepts because they don’t have to. This is why I consider public sector jobs to be virtually artificial when it comes to the job numbers. They actually do more harm than good on the economic front.
The word “profit” is not a bad word. It is only a bad word if you don’t believe in hard work and an honest dollar. Profit is what hard work produces.
If I work hard and produce a quality good or service, and then someone wants to purchase that good or service from me (the real key to an meaningful exchange in contrast to the nature of government goods and services), should I not make money for my time and effort? That’s what a profit is. How is this an evil concept? I simply can’t comprehend the widespread misguided prejudice toward words like “profit”. Or how about the word “corporate”. Do any of you even know what this word actually means? And what about this word is evil exactly? I’d love an explanation.
Stop villainizing words like “profit” and “corporate”. More words that anti-capitalists try so hard to villainize include “private industry”, “privatize”, and “bottom-line”. And we should ALL be wary when someone uses the word “fair” these days (e.g. “fair wage” and “Fairness Doctrine”). When used by anti-capitalists, it is code for bigger government, wealth redistribution, and socialism.
Josh,
Thanks for your very clear and well thought-out comment! You make many good points. I have nothing against private enterprise. You should read my blog entry on a hybrid economy. My post was about the knee-jerk reaction to “government workers”. As you note, many are courageous and hard working. Government’s responsibility is to provide essential services necessary for the common good. Many of these are not profitable by nature. Also, there are issues of fairness and national security, in which the customers ability to pay cannot be the dividing line between who can use those services and who cannot. We all have a stake in these matters of the common good, whether it be health, education, laws, or infrastructure. Sometimes government doesn’t do as good a job as possible, but we should not tear it down because of that. We should do our best to make our government do its jobs better.
Thanks again!