In our work on public sector compensation, Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute and I have routinely counted enhanced job security as a benefit for public workers, and we have tried to quantify just how valuable it can be. Some critics have argued that public workers actually have no extra job security, but this is demonstrably untrue. A more interesting criticism comes from a recent letter to the editor in the Columbus Dispatch: While job security usually is considered a benefit for public-sector employees, it should be included in …
Congress’ job approval ratings have sunk to around 20 percent, while their disapproval is up to an average of 73.4 percent. Yet for all of America’s dissatisfaction—and Congress’ failure to combat the nation’s fiscal crisis—Members of Congress are earning salaries and fringe benefits that far exceed those of the average American, according to a new report by Our Generation and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. The report details how Members of Congress earn a salary of $174,000—that’s 3.4 times higher than the average full-time American worker, who earns $50,875 per year. Even if …
George Mason University economics professor Don Boudreaux writes a letter to The Washington Post correcting columnist E.J. Dionne’s mistaken defense of Barack Obama’s health care plan: According to E.J. Dionne, “Few investments would help businesses more than offloading a share of their health-care costs to the government. It’s social justice with an economic kick” (“Hoover vs. Roosevelt?” October 10). Overlooking the questionable “justice” of forcing Peter to pay Paul’s insurance premiums, Mr. Dionne’s economics is wrong. Government provision of universal health insurance won’t reduce employers’ costs of employing workers. Worker …
The costs of Congress’ ethanol mandate have been well documented. It is diverting more and more corn away from food and into fuel (25% this year and 35% next year) causing the price of both go to up. Consumers here in the U.S. are paying for Congressional shortsightedness at the pump and in the grocery store, and world wide the mandates are contributing to deadly food riots. So what are Americans getting for all this pain here at home and abroad. National Review‘s David Freddoso investigates: What exactly do we …
