Daily Archives: 22 June 2009
No wonder Cali has money troubles
The discussion that accompanied this photo in reddit’s business section was interesting. Some immediately recognized this as exploitative by the workers earning the money, evidence that government, unlike private enterprise is rife with inefficiency. Others rushed to the defense of labor – so what if workers are taking advantage of overtime pay to earn more money.
Even if the workers are merely “taking advantage of overtime pay,” this is still an indictment of government. There’s no reason a manager should allow so much time-and-a-half pay that workers get $100k for cleaning transit cars. It’d be more efficient to hire more people. Of course, government isn’t bound by market forces which demand efficiency. When a company is inefficient is loses profit or goes out of business. When a government is inefficient, taxes are increased and its budget goes up.