It seems to me that a lot of taxpayer dollars find their way into the pockets of other than public workers. Sure we pay the salaries of teachers & cops & firefighters, of janitors & clerks & a myriad other working folk who facilitate our day to day lives. But our collective monies also go a lot of other places.
Here in Tucson, one of the biggest employers is the Raytheon Corp.. They make missiles & bombs & other such delights. I'm reasonably sure most of their dollars come from the United States Defense Department, which gets its money from us. The taxpayer.
I'm not the most sophisticated google researcher, but a search under "executive compensation raytheon corp" brought up this rather rudimentary & I'm sure approximate little set of numbers.
The Big Kahuna at Raytheon, (the C.E.O.) a Mr. William Swanson, made $12.05 million last year for his good work. Not too bad I think - I mean, the $.05 million is more than most folks made last year. I'm certain he worked very hard for it & it was all well deserved, but let's be clear - that money came from us. The taxpaying citizens.
So just a thought. While we're scrutinizing the retirement & health benefits of the people who work for the government, should we not scrutinize the compensation, perks, benefits, golden parachutes of those who also earn their livelihood from government money? Isn't there some fat to be trimmed there from the contracts with the Halliburtons & General Dynamics & other corporations that depend on the government, the taxpayer dollar, to exist? Aren't they deserving of a bit of scrutiny as well?
Like I said, just a thought.