On the average for an equivalent job, public service workers make 60% more than we do in the private sector.  They receive job security and lavish benefits that we can only dream about. They retire as early as age 50 with pensions and benefits worth millions of dollars.  Their salaries and benefits consume 80% of our annual state budget.  That doesn't leave much for everything else. The unfunded liability for their future pensions and benefits is estimated to exceed $500 Billion!  This represents a monstrous claim on the future earnings of our children and grand children while delivering no benefit whatsoever.

The Public Service Union's virtual monopoly in politics hurts California in another way. Their influence is directly responsible for the environmental and regulatory extremism that is steadily chasing good jobs from the private sector and preventing economic recovery. Why? Because having won the support of the powerful public service unions by promising to grant their every desire, politicians need not be accountable to the rest of us in any way. As a result, they create all manner of intrusive programs that grow government at the expense of the private sector with impunity and without fear of losing their offices.

The last chapter of Steven Greenhut’s excellent book Plunder!  is titled “It’s Time For More Than Outrage”.  He is so right. It is time for action. We who depend on a vibrant and prosperous private sector for our living outnumber public sector union members by almost four to one, and yet our influence is barely felt.  We can change that. Learn more about UCAPS, a union for the rest of us!