Re: Sean O'Keefe Departs

From: Eric Chomko (echomko_at__at_polaris.umuc.edu)
Date: 12/23/04 

Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 19:32:35 +0000 (UTC)

Tkalbfus1 (tkalbfus1@aol.com) wrote:
: >Okay, then how do you propose the government pay its employees to make
: >their salaries comparable to that of the private sector?

: See what the going rate is in the Private sector and have the government match
: that. If you want a talented Administrator and you want to keep him, you should
: pay him more than the average Joe. Alot of privat companies find it economical
: to pay their CEOs millions of dollars, and they find that the performance of
: these CEOs justifies that salary. One salary for the head guy, even if its
: millions of dollars is a smal amount when compared with the overall budget. If
: a CEO is able to make a company profitable, giving the CEO the extra money
: turns out to be worth while. If you are making a profit on your investments, do
: you really care how much the CEO makes so long as he keeps the company in the
: black.

Okay, should the government offer O'Keefe $500K to keep him? What if he
didn't take that? Should the next candidate require $500K because that is
what O'Keefe was offered to stay?

: If an NASA administrator can run the agency smoothly and efficiently, don't you
: think its worth paying him half a million dollars in order to keep him? Half a
: million is not even enough to pay for a single space mission, but if he keeps
: NASA from wasting money, its well worth the tiny expense. I wouldn't want to be
: cheap in hiring executive talent, if that means paying him $150,000 and getting
: a wasteful, slothful, inefficient agency that plows money into questionable
: projects and then abandons them. For NASA $500,000 is not alot of money.

Again, are you willing to raise the whole DOD salary base? I mean the
sodiers are doing a good job and are risking their lives. A NASA
adminsistrator doesn't risk his life. Why not pay the soldiers more?
 I
: don't care in the Administrator owns a luxury boat, has maids in the kitchen
: and spoils his daughter on all the latest fashions. If he associates with
: Donald Trump and flies around in executive jets, and holds wild parties
: inviting all sorts of celebrities from Hollywood, who really cares?

Not sure where lifestyle came into to this...

: Look I don't care about his personal lifestyle or whether its sufficently
: Proletarian, so long as he does his job properly. Paying high salaries is
: justifiable so long as we get the talent and the performance we need. I don't
: care about fairness or jealous government workers who complain about how high
: their boss's salary is compared to their own. A person's salary should be
: proportional to his talent. So long as all the other workers get paid a decent
: salary they can live off of, I don't see where their jealousy of someone else
: getting paid more really matters.

The private sector works that way, but not government. Why do you want to
force the private sector payscale onto the public sector?

: Does it matter more to you that you have a decent home to live in and feed and
: take care of your family, or is it more important, that others don't have
: incomes that are too much higher than your own?

The former of course. But you make it seem like GSers don't have a choice.
Do you think that we have too few government employees and that they make
too little? I suspect that you are focusing too closely to O'Keefe's
situation and missing the big picture here. You can't pay a single gvmt
employee like a CEO and expect others not to want the same.

Eric

: Tom

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