Seeing Through the Propaganda

I don't see the validity of comparing government worker jobs (service) with manufacturing jobs -- as their fair equivalents, because far and away, the majority of government jobs are clerical and "professional"(service) -- and then comparing that "average" to another location -- with much higher cost of living, and even other parts of the country.

Movie stars in Salem usually don't make a living off of it -- but a few do quite well in Los Angeles -- but they have to move there first and take hardscrabble jobs if they make it out of that, which many don't. But then they are averaged in with the barristas and waitresses rather than the movie stars. A lot of those participants just get zeroed out of the equation.

The most meaningful referrent therefore, is the MEDIAN income of that community -- and what all jobs are paying, and not just the few at select employers -- which is invariably the top 5%, which the unions then insist is their natural peers rather than the much more accurate total population sample -- of which even the lowest paying food service worker making $23,000 -- is already close to the median, of which benefits and pensions (never mentioned) is probably close to another $20,000. Food service workers elsewhere (in Salem), are likely to be getting close to the minimum wage -- or about $17,000, and so the lowest paid government worker is already receiving more than the median income -- which is not the poor they claim to be so they can also qualify for government assistance when the eligibility is raised to 200% of the "poverty level" -- which is about $14,000, or half the median.

Yet frequently, or invariably, the union negotiators claim they are making "poverty wages," because they are only making twice the median income -- and not the top 5% (1%) they feel is their entitlement -- if they didn't sacrifice themselves and take the "low paying" government lifetime job and pensions.

Not surprisingly -- with the aid of the confusion of the reporters -- it is no wonder, the representatives think there is unlimited money to maintain a post office wherever one wants to, and build government facilities at whatever costs can be imagined.