Tuesday, February 1, 2011

How Many McDonald's Does the State Operate?

Rick Snyder's comparison of public sector and private sector pay is music to the ears of those who hate public employees -- the people who plow our roads, keep us safe, teach us children, staff our prisons and so on.

But while it sounds good, it's not an honest comparison.

By looking at the entire private sector, the report includes all the minimum-wage workers at fast-food restaurants and other low-skilled operations. The last time I checked, state and local governments didn't operate many of those establishments. I've never been in a state-owned McDonald's, for example.

Public employment is far more likely to require a college education or other post-high school education than many of the jobs in the private sector. Yet that wasn't taken into account.

That would have ruined the results, of course. A great example of deciding on the conclusion you want and working backwards from there. That sort of intellectual dishonesty isn't worthy of a governor.

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