Learning our ABC's

America has changed. The country has redefined itself and has redefined its fundamentals.

Today, America’s ABC’s are: Apparatchiks, Bureaucrats and Congress. Americans are now beholden to their representative democracy in ways never anticipated by the Founders. It is most interesting to read and reread the Declaration of Independence, written and adopted in 1776, a mere 233 years ago. The Declaration is a series of complaints and observations and anecdotal views of life as experienced by independent thinking citizen colonists. These folk worked hard to gain control over their lives. They wanted economic and personal freedoms, unencumbered by the kings men and those favored by the kings apparatchiks. They wanted to be able to engage in commerce without the interference and burdens imposed by the crowns bureaucrats. They wanted to be able to enjoy the privacy and security of their homes. They did not wish to be subject to the demands and vagaries of the armed kings men. Simply stated they sought life, liberty and property. These were the fundamentals that all men have sought. These are the fundamentals that fulfill men in their roles as fathers, husbands and providers and relieve the burdens of women in their roles as mothers, wives and providers. These are the necessities for all men and women who are independent in their thought and word and action. These are the rewards of hard work, discipline, frugality and sacrifice. These are the opportunities that are due educated, law abiding, God fearing citizens. This was the ABC’s of life for decades in the US of A.

Today, 22 million people are employed at various tasks at various levels of government across the US. 22 million people depend on the other Americans to earn enough money to provide for their compensation. Just think of that simple fact. The entire workforce in America, when working, is about 150 million people. Today it is quite a bit lower; approximately 135 million people. If you subtract the 22 million people who depend on others for their compensation, that means that 113 million people are working to provide food, shelter, clothing, health care, education and multiple levels of taxation for themselves and their families on their earnings. These very same people also pay for the food, shelter, clothing, health care, education and savings/pensions of the 22 million people who are employed at all levels of government. One in five feed at the public trough. Look around you. Do you know five people who do not work for any government? If yes, those five are supporting one government employee. In the old Soviet Union, many of these government types were called “apparatchiks.” They were engaged in the tasks of politics or bureaucracies or both. In the US we tend to call them presidential appointees, special interest personnel or bureaucrats. They are not known for their work ethic, their efficiency or their productivity. How can you identify them? They get more vacation, more days off, more paid holidays, more compensation, better health care and benefits and much more generous pension plans than the people who pay their compensation. That is an important point; let’s repeat it. They are better paid, better benefitted and better pensioned than the people who pay their compensation. Ponder that simple fact for a few minutes today.

Who figured out such a program? Well, the Founders did. They call it “representative democracy.” We call it Congress. Congress; the 50 mini congresses in the states and the many micro/mini political entities within the states pass the laws that create the jobs and the wages and the benefits and the pensions for 22 million.

So, that is today’s history lesson. The evolution of America’s ABC’s. A = apparatchik. B = bureaucrat. C = congress. The Congress just passed a bill funding America’s apparatchiks and bureaucrats in ten cabinet departments at a record high $1.1 trillion for one year. It is called HR 3288. Details and comments from Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation are available at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm2728.cfm  Per USA Today, 19% of the federal employees will earn more than $100,000.00 per year. A record! The average federal employee makes $71,000.00 per year. The average private sector employee - $40,000.00 per year. These new ABC’s have an interesting reality. Every five earners get to support one government employee. And you and your fellow earners are, on average, paying that government employee more than you are making. A lot of people were attracted to the rhetoric of the organizer and his growing, costly government. TheFundamentals wonders how attractive these very same folk find this reality. Hopefully some will keep these facts in mind on November 2, 2010.