Putting in my two cents (before New Jersey takes it!)

Enlighten New Jersey has been doing quite the thorough job in dissembling the recent union contracts gifted out by Governor Jon Corzine. Of course, Corzine has been touting the 1.5% contribution that union employees will now make towards their generous medical benefits as a “concession”, without noting that they will receive virtually a 35% salary increase over the length of their new contract to help them offset their tremendous new financial “burden”...

Anyway, Enlighten has all the gruesome details; it’s worth the read. I just want to make a point here – is this country, with New Jersey in the lead, really becoming the “two Americas” that Democratic hopeful John Edwards is always fretting about?

But it is not rich vs. poor where the schism is arising; it is government employees vs. private sector employees. One gets paid overtime, is almost impossible to fire, gets a guaranteed generous pension as well as the opportunity to participate in a 401(k) plan, and has bumper-to-bumper family health coverage that lasts a lifetime. Meanwhile, the private sector employees can be released into unemployment at a whim, has only what he saves out of his salary in a 401 (k) to use as a guard against poverty in old age, and pays a tremendous portion of his salary for less than stellar health care plans, limited by employer offerings.

And with the gap between the public sector salary and private sector earnings narrowing, one cannot cry about all the additional monies being made over the lifetime of a private sector employee. With the average New Jersey state employee currently (as in before Corzine’s French-kiss of a contract) earning close to $60,000/year, they are soon to be reaching levels that will make the private sector envious.

And the real crime in all of this is that in New Jersey, taxes and fees and fines are constantly being raised in order to fund these luscious public employee perks. So the very people who need to keep more of their disposable income to pay for the basic necessities of life – such as health care and retirement planning – are actually losing more of this desperately needed money in order to fluff the pillows of those whom already have the best pension and health plans in the state.

It’s not even close to being fair; it is nothing more than a forced government redistribution of income in order to protect the benefits of a powerful voting block. But both Enlighten and I have said it many times before: In another twenty years, there will be no one left in New Jersey but state employees, and they can fight a steel cage match to the death over the few remaining financial resources.

I’ll be popping corn and enjoying the show from Pennsylvania….