Originally Posted by
USMCFLYR
Sorry - I'm not getting the point of the graph in the context of what we are talking about.
Your "people in my neighborhood and circle of friends" thinks that being told to come to work for free is complaining huh?
I wonder what you as a commercial airline pilot would do if your management told you the same?
Some people in my neighborhood and circle of friends think that airline pilots are overpaid and underworked. Does that make their view correct?
I'm not trying to draw any correlations between the past and current government furloughs and the many, many airline furloughs.
I'm not even a fan of this 'excepted'-vs-'non-excepted' division of gov't workers. If the people need to see what operating without a gov't is really like then truly shutdown the gov't. How long do you think it would last?
I'm sorry that you (and your friends) see angst by gov't workers as petty.
As far as the graph - maybe your friends and family should join the movement to vote every single sitting member of Congress and the President out of office and let another group try their hand at leading.
Vote out the entire Congress? You bet. - The Washington Post
Voting out everyone in Congress wouldn't solve the debt problem and would probably hurt us by putting rookies in charge. Don't get me wrong, I am all for term limits and I want severe penalties for government lobbyist/kickbacks to Congress.
During the last government shutdown (95/96), federal workers who were furloughed awarded back pay.
As with this shutdown, the House voted unanimously to support back pay, the President supports it, and now it is up to the Senate where they are expected to fall in line.
The point of the graph is this. There's a considerable amount of people who don't have jobs (42% by FDXLAG's post). And during the recession, government salaries increased and out paced inflation while many Americans lost jobs, lost their homes, saw their taxes rise, and/or took steep pay cuts. Currently, 5 of the top 10 richest counties in the USA surround Washington D.C..
Point: there's not a lot of love out there for the government worker whining about being furloughed or forced to work, especially considering they'll probably receive back pay.
I'm sorry you are caught up in this mess.