Government Salaries Are Insane!

Chris tackles the inefficiencies and excessive costs of state and local government employment. With wages and benefits costing 83% more than their private sector counterparts, Markowski questions the logic behind such bloated spending. Sharing examples from infrastructure projects like Florida's streamlined road expansions to the drawn-out Big Dig in Boston, Markowski argues for outsourcing and efficiency to put America on a better financial path. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Oh, I get flack from time to time from some
listeners out there with my attacks on government workers. Right listen,
it's it's just not government work. I go after unions too,
I go after union mandates. And an old friend of

(00:36):
mine open a restaurant in a mall, and the rule
was you had to hire a union tile people to
come in and put the tile in, unless you did
it yourself. Anyway, he had his people come in in
the middle of the night. Weren't union had the work done. Oh,
they had a collective freak out on the entire thing.
But anyway, let's let's go to the numbers, shall we.

(00:58):
You try to we try to explain this to me
with logic and reason. State and local government employees cost
forty one point seven percent more than their private sector
counterparts twenty four point four percent higher, and benefits. Basically,

(01:24):
you're talking a whole the whole thing all together eighty
three percent higher. It costs eighty three percent more to
for state and government and local employees than than someone
from the private sector. Yeah, maybe I get it. Again,

(01:45):
I grew up in Albany, New York. I mean I
kind of, you know, missed the boat. Maybe they were
onto something, just trying to go out there and get
themselves a government job. No no, no, no, okay, start
out source and things, start making things more efficient. Again,
we do this. We're going to put the nation on
the right path. This largest this nonsense when it comes

(02:09):
to the government workforce, whether they be contractors who make
any difference, needs to be done away with. Again. I
can watch it right here in the state of Florida
where they put out to bid contracts for various different
infrastructure products. Roads. Again, the amount of people that have
moved down here. They're adding lanes, they do these double
diamond interchanges and whatnot. And these contracts basically say, hey, listen,

(02:34):
you better get it done by a certain period of time.
Not only that, we'll give you bonuses if you get
it done right and done under a certain period of time.
You think that's how the Big dig was done in Boston.
You think that's how they did the West Side Highway,
the Second Avenue subway, no way, no how. Those are
projects that took decades. Watchdog on Wall street dot com