Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Public employment roundup

  • Some wages rise accordingly: “Scott Walker’s Act 10 leads to a ‘teacher marketplace’ in Wisconsin.” [Ann Althouse]
  • Police/fire psychiatric claims: “Retired NYC cop takes plea in $27M disability-fraud case; ex-prosecutor is a claimed ringleader” [Martha Neil, ABA Journal]
  • “Every Day Turns Out To Be Labor Day For Hapless Taxpayers” [Ira Stoll]
  • In Harris case, high court revolted at notion of government inserting itself into family relations to siphon off money for union’s benefit [Budget and Tax News, PDF, p. 9, and thanks for quote]
  • “Overprotecting public-employee pensions, from the Reason Foundation” [Sasha Volokh] “California Embraces Pension-Spiking Bonanza” [Steven Greenhut]
  • “Sure We Hassled Boy Scouts at the Border, But You Can’t Prove We Pulled a Gun, Says DHS” [J.D. Tuccille]
  • “The results show very little difference at age 60 in the life expectancy of police and fire as compared with other public employees.” [Alicia Munnell via Steven Greenhut] “Los Angeles Police Average Total Compensation $157,151 Per Year” [Ed Ring, Flash Report] More: Soaring public safety costs rack California towns [OC Register]

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4 Comments

  • Too bad to prove it the boy scout didn’t have a picture of the drawn gun.

    • By captnhal

  • Since the purpose of a union is to protect its members from the predation of management, the decline of private sector unions and the rise of public sector unions indicates that that government is oppressing its employees more and private sector management less.

    Bob

  • Bob,

    Nice point. I wonder whether you are declaring the unions the victors and saying that their victories made them obsolete.

    • By Allan

  • Re: disability fraud in NYC:

    “Prosecutors say the four coached participants to fake symptoms of mental conditions such as depression and anxiety, then sent them to psychiatrists to establish a diagnosis and record of treatment.”

    Is it just me, or would it be very easy to fake “depression and anxiety”? This is what blows my mind about disability benefits in America — I would love to see some statistics on how much goes out and for what.