Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Jim Gourdie Talks About California's Pension Woes

Jim Gourdie at Conservatives on Fire had a post the other day about the career outlook of California prisonguards. In the write-up, Gourdie cites an article in the Wall Street Journal about how getting a good education and bettering yourself is not the path to go. Instead, you would be better off to get into a good public sector union and live off of the government for the rest of your life. As he says, it may not be a glamorous job, but it pays well and you get a lot of vacation time.

Gourdie laments this by talking about the way it should be in a free economy. Salary would be dictated by supply and demand so as to direct people to the jobs that the consumer needs done most. Public sector jobs distort that and leads to the situation we have now where a long line of people wait to get a job that is overvalued. The unions only serve to exacerbate the situation and increase the economic problems of the state. Is it a surprise, then, that California is on the verge of bankruptcy?

Read the original post here.

I happen to agree with Gourdie. I would go further and say that private prisons are the way to go. It is better to contract out our prison service to private companies who will be more efficient and pay market-dictated wages. It would help California's budget and get people to train for the jobs that the marketplace does demand. Of course, it is a pipedream in California, the progressive paradise, but a libertarian can dream, can't he?

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