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Faulking Opinions - Jul 11, 2010 - Printable Version
- Who Let Conan Write His Own Script?
by Robin Buckallew
When faced with complex problems, simple minds seek to devise simple solutions. Often they will come up with a solution so simple, so obvious, so seemingly common sense that they will marvel at the fact that no one else thought of it. For days on end, they will regale their friends with the story of how they came up with this perfect solution that the great intellects were unable to see. In this orgy of self-congratulation, they will be totally unable to see one plain, simple reason no one else thought of it - because it won’t work. Such is the story of Arnold Schwarzenegger. California is a complex and peculiar state. A state legendary for its activism and liberal politics, it nevertheless managed to give the nation Ronald Reagan. A state famous for tolerating all sorts of alternative lifestyles, it nevertheless passed Prop 8. Now a state which elected a flamboyant, hyper-macho actor as governor in an election that resembled a 3-ring circus, California is faced with a budget crisis that calls for experience and finesse. Instead, they get show business.
In the mother of all simple ideas, Conan the governor has come up with a sure- fire solution: simply reduce all state employee salaries to minimum wage. Everyone on the state payroll will make $7.25 per hour. See? Done. Easy as pie to balance the budget. Of course, it's sure to be popular with the Tea Partiers…at least those who don't work for the State of California…and it’s sure to get a lot of press.
When I worked for the State Of Oklahoma, there was always some politician trying to make points with the public by complaining about state employee salaries. One election year at least one candidate was proposing that no state employee should make more than the average income of all state taxpayers. Again, simple, self-evident, and -- stupid. The average income is a poor measure at best, since it encompasses a vast spread from the lowest to the highest, and says nothing about job duties, skills, experiences or education requirements. You might end up comparing the job of a physician to that of a janitor, and while both jobs are certainly important, no one in private business proposes to hire a doctor at a janitors salary, or with no more than a high school education. A more proper way of comparing salaries is to look at salaries for comparable jobs in private industry. By this measure, state employees usually come out on the low end of the pay scale. Most people are unaware of this, because complex information is presented in such a simple form.
What would be the overall effect of reducing state employee salaries to minimum wage? Well, to begin with, how many engineers do you think they’ll be able to hire at $7.25 an hour ? And who wants to drive over the Golden Gate bridge once it's in their care? How many of us want to go to the doctor you can get for that? Or, for that matter, the hospital run by the administrators that they can get to work for minimum wage? Will the best teachers stay in the public schools, or will they seek better employment elsewhere? I realize unemployment is high and jobs are scarce, but that's no excuse for mistreating your employees.
Then, there's simple economics. When you reduce the salary of 200,000 people that drastically, the already devastated economy will quickly get worse. As houses go into foreclosure, property tax collections go down. As families struggle to keep the bills paid, they will purchase fewer material goods, cutting out even many necessary items, such as food. The burden on the economy will get heavier, because money is tighter. Sales tax revenues will decrease. Whole neighborhoods will begin to suffer from urban decay, as people become less able to pay for ordinary household maintenance. The food stamp rolls will swell with new families dropped below poverty level. The crime rates will increase as desperation settles in, and despair follows. Divorce rates will increase, since many marriages end over money. High school drop out rates will likely increase as more and more teens find the family relying on their income to help get by. In short, California will run the risk of becoming a failed State, all because they elected glitz where they needed experience.
I'm sure Arnold anticipates reducing his own salary, as well, and will get a great warm glow out of biting the bullet with everyone else. Such a sacrifice seems less than noble, and even perhaps a little sour, when one considers he is independently wealthy (and married to a Kennedy, to boot). It won’t be his home in foreclosure, his kids going to work instead of school, or his name on a food Stamp file . All the real sacrifices will come from somewhere else, all the photo ops will go to him.
Oh, I realize this is just meant to be a temporary measure, until the state passes their budget, after which the employees would all get their back pay returned. It’s a grandstand, designed to force the legislature into submission, a legislature that hasn’t been exactly towing the Schwarzenegger line, and is stubbornly resistant to seeing the world the way Arnold does. Playing political games with the lives of so many other people, most of them with little or no power, is singularly callous. It is demonstrated as a show piece to indicate that he is ruthless enough to do anything to get his way. If he succeeds, there could come a day in the future where such an action becomes a permanent solution to a budget crisis, and California will find itself increasingly resembling a Third World country. Even if it doesn’t, wielding such a nasty tool is unethical, even though it has been declared legal by the California court system. Once California successfully plays this card, other legislatures are sure to follow, and then state employees, most of whom are just trying to do a job and keep the state running, will become even more political pawns than they are now.
Simple answers to complex problems usually wind up causing even bigger problems than the one they are supposed to address. Before the Terminator manages to lay waste to the state in his care, perhaps he should take a few basic lessons in economics. Perhaps he should also be reminded of some thing very important: many politicians find themselves on the losing end of an election when they threaten state employees- because state employees tend to vote.
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