Comments on: Vote For Me Because I Care

By: Bearster

Bearster — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 21:59:29 +0000

Payroll is not a sunk cost!

If those people aren't needed, lay them off and move on. If they are needed, then don't squander their time on charities.

By: M. Hodak

M. Hodak — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:23:56 +0000

I think Kyle is right, and this analysis smells of the sunk cost fallacy. The taxpayers bore the expense of these workers the day they got hired on a salary. The idea that they are "volunteering" is, of course, a sham.

The economically sound way of reporting this would be, "The state has decided to reallocate some its workers time from meeting the needs of the authorities under which they nominally work to matters of largely self-directed, personal interest."

By the way, Warren, if it makes you feel any better, I don't really give a damn about you. (But I do respect and admire your work.)

By: Dale

Dale — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:10:14 +0000

Kyle, I would say your argument has more merit if you are talking about the Massachussetts legislature taking a permanent break. LOL.

By: Kyle Bennett

Kyle Bennett — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:42:52 +0000

How is this a cost? The way I see it, their annual salary is a cost to the people of Massachusetts. The actual work they do imposes further costs, even if they didn’t get paid a penny. This time off doesn’t make their annual salaries go up (unless they hire more workers to take up the slack), and it reduces the amount of work they do – thus, hopefully, the amount of damage they do. Sounds like a good deal to me.

In fact, why not give them the whole year off – pay them to stay at home? Everyone would benefit. I always cringe when I hear libertarians demanding that government get more efficient.

By: Anon E. Mouse

Anon E. Mouse — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:34:42 +0000

let's see...50,000 workers times 12 days divided by 250 workdays/year = 2,400 man-years.

Or should I divide by (250-12) = 238? That'd be 2,521 man-years.

I'll bet a conservative aggregate man-year cost (loaded with all the overhead, insurance, pension, etc. expected in a Taxachusetts govvie job) is $150k/man-year.

Cost = $378M.

nice.

I think the Herald analysis for the cost of the 80 people is out to lunch, low.
80 folks * 12 days/238days/year = ~4 man-years. No way are man-years only costing $50k + change.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:48:43 +0000

Adding insult to injury, don’t forget to add the cost of so-called “flex schedules,” used by many government employees (taking every other Friday off after “working” an extra hour each shift). Does anyone truly believe these extra hours are being worked? How about the “work-at-home” days government workers often take? They don’t give out their home telephone numbers, nor do they take their computers or files home with them. Now there’s some productive time spent…spent by you that is.

By: la petite chou chou

la petite chou chou — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:41:41 +0000

Excellent point. The entire premise of volunteering is that you are giving away your time to what you consider a good cause. It is no surprise to me that politicians don’t get that.