Federal Pay raises

I am getting so sick and tired of the knock that federal employees take from our private sector counterparts, that I decided it was time to sound off about it. Every year, USA today publishes a "survey" that says that the private sector is paid nearly 50% less than the federal workforce. Disregarding the flawed research for a minute, if the average salary of a private sector employee in a comparable federal occupation was really that much lower, Congress would have taken action long ago. Why? Because the federal government employs 2 million people, which is less than 1% of the population of the United States.

Of that 2 million, nearly y 70% posses a college degree, and the majority of those possess a masters or a law degree. There are also Medical Doctors and PhDs, as well as registered nurses. So it stands to reason that yes, those professionals would earn more money than a line worker or a convenience store clerk. And this is where the USA Today survey is flawed. If the USA Today had actually bothered to compare things like level of education, salaries for CEOs, CFOs, and other highly placed executives, Professors with tenure, lawyers, doctors, etc... the disparity disappears.

But hey, if they did that, they wouldn't sell papers. And we can't have that, can we?

Abolish the minimum wage?

Currently, two candidates for the U.S. Senate are advocating the abolition of the federally mandated minimum wage. Why? They argue that there is no need for the government to set a minimum wage for the unskilled workers of the country. They are both advancing flawed laogic to prove their resepective theories.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was passed by President Frankiln Delano Roosevelt because there was a need to get more workers into the work force. One of the most important components of The Act, was to ensure that non-exempt workers were paid time and a half for all hours worked over 40 in a given week. Thus, an employer would be less likely to have one person do 90 hours of work in a week, and subsequently hire an additional employee to get the job done. This produced two important benefits:

First, it put more people to work, which in turn reduces the amount of people seeking government assistance.

Second, and more important, it provides more people with disposable income to spend on products and services from small businesses, which in turn allow those businesses to expand and employ more workers with more disposable income. In short, it enhances consumer spending opportunities and the quality of life for many.

So my question then is what do Miler and Raese have against the working class? Are they truly of the notion that the minimum wage is an evil thing? Or are they just dead set against anyone earning money?

Battlestar Galactica

SPOILER ALERT

I just realized that I never posted any thoughts on what was my favorite show of the last decade. So, with apologies for being late, here is the low down on one of the best shows ever...

I want to start off by admitting I was a latecomer to the show. I was never a fan of the original, which was a late 70s cheesefest featuring military pilots with disco haircuts and Lorne Greene as sort of a futuristic Moses, attempting to lead his people to the promised land. Because of that, I shrugged when the mini-series was advertised in late 2003. Boy was I wrong. I caught the Battlestar bug in the summer of 2007. I was on summer break from my second year of law school, and it was one of those rainy summer days in New England, where the temperature was 15 degrees below normal. I was working overnights and weekends at the Post Office, and it was a Thursday, one of my days off. I stopped at the video store, looking for a way to kill a few hours.

Perusing the T.V. section, I saw the DVD for the mini-series. Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell were on the cover, so I figured I'd gamble the four bucks. By the end of the weekend, I had seen all of the available DVDs, and was waiting for the sesaon 2.5 release, so I would be caught up in time for season 3.

The show was a very direct reflection of our society after 9/11. Indeed, as Executive Producer David Eick surmised after the show concluded it's run in 2009, "If we had tried to do this in 1995, when the economy was good, and there was no 'War on Terror', this would have been a completely different show."

The story starts off with a look at the 12 colonies of man, shortly before a genocidal attack by the Cylons. Cylons, we are told, are artificial life forms that were created to make life easier on the 12 colonies. 52 years prior to the events of the show, the Cylons revolted and a 12 year war was fought between them and their human creators. After the war, the Cylons left the 12 colonies. They evolved. And they are coming home for revenge. After a massive nuclear strike against the colonies, most of humanity is wipeed out, and the last 50,000 humans are on a journey aboard 70 ships looking for the fabled colony of Earth.

Along the way there is political intrigue and espionage, sabotage, and a wholesale change in the values that once made the colonies great. And in Season 3, everything you thought you knew about the war on terror is turned inside out.

To tell more would be to give too much away, but thankfully, in the age of the DVD, you can see the entire series from beginning to end. I highly recommend it. It was tightly written and shot very well. The acting is unparalleled for episodic television, and the direction was superb.

All in all, the best T.V. show of the last 10 years.