We The People of Mid-Michigan

FACTOID #26

From January 2000 to January 2010 – first under Pres. Bush after Sept 11 (mostly Homeland Security), then under Pres. Obama – the number of non-postal employees in the federal government grew 15 percent to 2.18 million. The increase would mean less if the private sector had grown as well. But over the same period, private sector employment decreased by 3 percent.

Jobs with Uncle Sam aren’t just more numerous than they used to be, they’re better. Wages and benefits for federal civilian workers were more than double the average total compensation in the private sector: $119,982 versus $59,909. In the treacherous period between December 2007 and mid-2009, the number of federal employees earning more than $100,000 doubled. Much of this was due to locked-in raises for workers who were rising through the ranks.

Then there’s the allure of the stability of a federal job. About one in five jobs at the federal level ends in firing or resignation. By contrast that rate is one in two in the private sector.

The same pattern of increase in government jobs for the just-closed decade shows up at the state and local level. Federal data show that the number of total government employees in the U.S. rose to 22.5 million from 20.6 million.

The new relative appeal of a government job sends a message that private-sector work, especially self-employment or a job at a start-up, may not be worthwhile.

Right now there are young people deciding whether they will be employers or employees. And they’re considering the whole jobscape.

Source: 2/17/10, Bloomberg.com by Amity Shlaes a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations.

FACTOID #25

There has been no global warming for 15 years, a key scientist admitted yesterday in a major U-turn.  Professor Phil Jones, who is at the centre of the “Climategate” affair, conceded that there has been no “statistically significant” rise in temperatures since 1995.

The admission comes as new research casts serious doubt on temperature records collected around the world and used to support the global warming theory.  Researchers said yesterday that warming recorded by weather stations was often caused by local factors rather than global change.

Last month the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was forced to admit its key claim that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 was “speculation” lifted from a 1999 magazine article.

Yesterday it emerged that Prof. Jones, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, had admitted he has trouble “keeping track” of the information.

Prof. Jones also conceded for the first time that the world may have been warmer in medieval times than now.  Skeptics have long argued the world was warmer between 800 and 1300AD.

Source:  Express.co.uk, the web site of the UK Daily Express newspaper, 2/15/10.

FACTOID #23

Among the astonishing things about the ObamaCare debate – or lack thereof – is that Washington is inundated with warnings about the destructiveness of this plan, and it doesn’t matter. The agency that runs Medicare rung the latest alarm bell on Friday (1/8/10), and good luck finding any media mention.

He says many providers will be forced to stop accepting (Medicare and Medicaid) patients who are insured by the government, as apposed to those who have private coverage “with relatively attractive payment rates.”