I would more likely say that the fraction of a a standard man-day of work that is filled by an employee today is smaller than it was before. Whether the actual number of heads in the office is the same or larger, the workload has expanded greater, so there are too few heads.


Also, that's a Houston paper, and we have our own...interesting...issues in the city concerning income, unemployment, distribution of wealth, and lots and lots of really lazy people who would rather ***** than work ;)

Chuckle.;)

Higher pay to keep cousin Cletus on the public tit? The line is out the door for public sector jobs and taxpayers know why.

College grads driving garbage trucks in NYC, graduate degreed guys becoming cops in the near-suburbs.. Something is not right.

I am friendly with a few young teachers (who make excellent money BTW), they think they are being sold out by the retirees and senior teachers who are living large now - they know the benefits are tilted to-wards the oldsters and the system will be broke by the time they retire..

$100,000 for medical school only to pay most of your check to pay that off and malpractice insurance, lawyers who can't get work because the sector is saturated, screenwriters working at Starbucks.

Is something really not right, or is this some sort of weird employment-to-product correction in our economy? I mean, we all need to have our trash picked up. We don't all need the next big Will Smith movie.

It's also reflective of the "the trades are for dumb losers" attitude that pervaded this country over the last 20 years or more. When kids are told to go to college, and go to grad school, and don't ever consider being a machinist because they're "lesser"...well, those fields find it very hard to staff themselves. Nursing, police, janitors, teachers, all sorts of government/public sector jobs are trades, and they're all seeing fewer and fewer people go into them.

The few kids these days that actually will become pipefitters/carpenters/nurses/etc will be RICH when they hit 30, because those markets will be pouring money at them.

You are right about all of this. Skilled work should be well compensated. All hard work should be.

But the public sector is way out of whack right now. No relation to any labor market of supply and demand. Just elected officials giving away tax money to their most influential constituency.

The ones I know aught to get a real job for a decade or two - then maybe they would have some insight to the human condition and something to say about something besides their own navel.:(

Also, why is the workload so heavy now that they cannot keep up? We're seeing a trend (well, it's always been there...) of more and more and more bloat in the government. More paperwork, more forms, more standing in lines, more sending stuff to 5 other people to get it stamped, more more more.

This whole "paperless office" thing was supposed to PREVENT that, but instead, it's irritated it. I find it absurd when it takes me 2 days in line to get plates for me car, but I can only imaging how many hoops that paperwork has to go through to get done as well.

When police are spending more time writing reports than they are enforcing the law, something is wrong. When a nurse spends more time dealing with insurance and lawsuit paperwork than helping that patient, something is wrong.

Navels can be interesting. :D

I have know a few young ladies innies to be awesome. My own just collects lint.:(

I don´t get it. You wanna do the mailman..???

Not that there is anything wrong with that..

Hey, he's post-op.

I'd like to see them start drug testing postal workers, but they can't. It's against their union rules.
If a supervisor wants to observe a postal carrier on his route he has to notify the postal carrier in writing before hand. no spying allowed. It's almost impossible to discipline a postal carrier.
Maybe that's why I get pissed at the snail-like incompetency whenever i have to go to the post office and stand in line.