Monday, January 14, 2013

Lessons From Bell, CA: Never Go Full Looter

In the city of Bell, California, the looter class there got way too greedy for its own good.  The city council, the mayor, and many top-level bureaucrats acquired massive salaries, in come cases 20x the national average, in one of the poorest cities in California, possibly the United States.

All of the culprits are now facing trial now.  But is what they did really a criminal offense?

The government in Bell, CA only did what pretty much all government officials do nearly everyday.  For example, in most public schools, not even 65% of the allocated tax dollars for education go to the classroom, instead going to administration.  This is absurd, not because teachers deserve more money, but because there doesn’t have to be that much money going towards administration.

Another example is how Federal workers make, on average, twice the national average in salaries.  Now, many of these jobs are highly skilled jobs, so the comparison may be a bit broad, however, I can personally attest to government jobs paying much more than private market jobs in my own profession of software development.

In truth, government at all levels have been looting the producer class for decades while shirking many of their own responsibilities.  The problem with Bell, CA is not that they were looting, but that they were looting too much.

At the end of the day, however, it is still looting no matter how you look at it.