The Cost of Bureaucracy

Anyone unconcerned about the ever-increasing cost of government and the bureaucracies it spawns, should take a moment and check out the statistics the Free Enterprise Nation has compiled on the growth of government and the salaries of government workers. For example...

• When wages and benefits are combined, federal civilian workers averaged $119,982 in 2008, twice the average compensation of $59,909 for private sector workers.
• In New York, some city workers amass more than $100,000 in overtime during their last year before retirement to create a monthly pension higher than their salary.
• 420 of Illinois’s physical education teachers, 332 English teachers and 94 driver’s education teachers make more than $100,000 a year, with salaries for each position topping out at more than $160,000 a year.
• In Houston, Texas the number of police officers has remained the same for six years running, despite a 40 percent budget increase to cover higher salaries, pension and health-care benefits.
• In 2008, 40 percent of Vallejo’s 613 employees had salaries greater than $100,000 a year, the same year the California city filed for bankruptcy.
  

There will come a time when the cost of government will become unsustainable, when taxpayers and the private sector will simply be unable to pay for a government that continues to spend and expand at rates that far exceed the rate of expansion of the economy as a whole. One doesn't have to be an economist or a mathematician to figure that one out.

One of the long-term problems that will arise from this political and bureaucratic profligacy is that ultimately government will find itself in a position where it is unable to carry out its legitimate responsibilities such as providing for the common defense. Scary stuff.

The above represent only a sampling of the information the Free Enterprise Nation has put together. For details, see the CNBC article or even better go directly to the Free Enterprise Nation website.