An evolution of Government Waste - The transfer of public wealth into private hands

Looking at a graph of job growth since 2008, Allison said:     I wonder, though, how many of those new jobs during the Obama presidency were in the government sector? Not saying that that is what it is, just wondering.  
Lisa replied:     A job is a job is a job. Lots of folks would be very happy if they could get a government job.
Allison:     Yes, that is correct, Lisa. Problem is, with all the 'government' jobs, that just adds to more of our tax money being used up on payroll for those jobs. Please don't misunderstand me, I don't mean to make it sound like people don't deserve jobs, but we all know how much waste there is in our government. We all know how much 'overpayment' is gone through in giving jobs to 'special interests', paying back favors, etc. "A job is a job is a job" is an incorrect way of looking at it. Yes, I'd be happy to get a government job, too. Especially if I could get paid mucho bucks for doing essentially nothing worth the pay. [author note: government jobs = union jobs]  Again, I'm not saying that all, or even 'most' government jobs fall into that category, ok?
Bodhi commented:   There is waste and corruption in both private and public sector jobs. Our government has only very few means to raise revenues to pay for jobs, and levying taxes is one of those means. If we want police, firefighters, roads, infrastructure, public health, unemployment, public schools, social safety net, etc., then the government needs to raise taxes to pay for these services. Left to private companies, the CEOs would be making $M's while the workers may not be earning a living wage. Either way, the assumption of "government waste" measured against private greed, corruption and waste, which can be documented in spades either way, is a weak argument. As far as I understand, Obama only talks about "private sector" jobs. The graph in question doesn't specify public or private.
 
Allison:   Right, Bodhi, that's why I wasn't trying to 'blame' government jobs for waste. Nor was I trying to 'blame' private sector jobs. But, when there is an overload (or unneeded) abundance of 'supervisors' of 'supervisors' of 'supervisors', that doesn't help raise taxes, nor does it (in my opinion) help improve the country. As in 'private' sector jobs, waste is wanton...and unnecessary (well, unnecessary unless you're one of the 'supervisors of supervisors, Assistant-VP to the Sub-Associate-Jr VP, and so on). But, in government sector jobs, it steals money (as wages) from something that might actually be getting something done instead of cushy jobs created in return for favors or paybacks. Hell, what did I just say? That applies to private sector work, too!

Bodhi:
Right! You are assuming that your taxes pay for people in government jobs who do nothing. Let's take CPS, Child Protective Services, as a hypothetical example to explore the concept of do-nothing government jobs. Reagan began to shrink government by cutting taxes, and this became the Neo-Con dogma. In 1980, CPS had a staff of people serving the public need. When the Neo-Con revolution convinced the general public that private is always better than public, and the Constitution never said anything about protecting children, CPS became expendable as "waste."

Then, year after year, budget after budget, "waste" was cut out of the budget in order to "shrink" the government. The obvious long range plan was to cut funding for government agencies to disempower them, and then prove how useless they are, and get rid of them.  Now, 30+ years of budget cuts have left an underpaid, understaffed, overworked, workforce which appears to be doing nothing because their hands are tied with no funds. The next step in the Neo-Con plan is to have a massive sell-off of government assets. Government assets are OUR ASSETS. Because WE are the government. WE are the People! And all government assets belong to us! I heard they had to cut the budget and closed a lot of parks. Today, our government is auctioning off OUR ASSETS, closed parks, to private interests. I'm telling you, it is ANOTHER NEO-CON TRANSFER OF PUBLIC WEALTH INTO PRIVATE HANDS.  (Neo-Con = new con artist.)