The Road to Serfdom: Public Servants Our Masters?
By John Stossel on Labor
Guess which city employee in Madison Wisconsin earned the most money last year? Not the mayor… not the police chief. The highest earner was bus driver John E. Nelson. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that he earned $159,258 last year - $109,892 of it was overtime pay.
I once thought city employees were "public servants" who traded low pay for job security. That was once true. But not anymore. Today government workers earn more money than other Americans. They also have vastly superior benefits.
At a time when cities and states face budget crises, the fat compensation and benefit packages that politicians have negotiated with public employee unions – often big political donors to those same politicians – drain public treasuries. The city of Vallejo, California declared bankruptcy after police and fire department labor costs ate up 80% of the city's budget. I report on this and more on Thursday's "Stossel" which airs Thursdays at 8pm and 11pm EST.
I will talk to author Steven Greenhut about his book "Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling our Lives, and Bankrupting the Nation." He says that the average private-sector worker will have to work longer, retire later, and pay more so that his public-employee neighbors can enjoy the lifestyle to which they've become accustomed.
The "Con" of American Hospitals
By John Stossel on Regulation
Pet Food RecallHolly Springs, NC hoped to get a new hospital. The mayor was on board. Investors were ready to build. But the project was halted because of a law, appropriately called a CON law. CON actually stands for "certificate of need." In other words, to build a hospital, you have to convince state regulators that the hospital is needed.
It's one more example of how America does not have a free market in health care. Established hospitals basically can say no to competition. The established hospitals are the folks with the best government connections, so when they say "This hospital isn't needed! It will duplicate services and raise costs!", regulators go along.
President Nixon signed the CON law because he thought America had too many hospitals. He thought decreasing the number would lower health care costs. But that was ridiculous economics. Limiting the number of suppliers raises costs.
Fourteen states have repealed their CON laws, but 36 states still have them. And the public rarely complains, because the public seldom even knows about this. The public seldom pays much attention to any health care costs, because we usually don't pay our own bills. When third parties like the government or insurance companies pay, higher costs generally follow.
Says Nick Gillespie of reason.tv: "There's something sick in a system where we are quicker to change vets than we are to change general practitioners or surgeons but it's partly because when you pay for Fido's care, when you pay for Kitty's care, you're paying directly out of your pocket and as a result you really watch your dollars."
Good point. Pet owners shop around, look for better prices, or convenience. That forces vets to cater to them. As a result, many animal hospitals are open 24/7 and vets even give their cell phone numbers to clients. Vets embrace competition because there are no CON laws for animal hospitals. Vets know a competitor can open right across the street. That leads vets to work hard at pleasing their clients. Animal owners told us they just wished they could get the choices in medical care that their pets get.
We found a similar vet/MD service disparity when we looked at health care in Canada.
With this record, it's surprising that many Americans want more government control of our health care. |
