As Steve Greenhut points out in this excellent City Journal essay, what is going on in California with public employees and their unions is a travesty:The old deal seemed fair: public employees would earn lower salaries than Americans working in the private sector, but would receive a somewhat better retirement and more days off. Now, public employees get higher average pay, far higher benefits, and many more days off and other fringe benefits. They have also obtained greatly reduced work schedules, thus limiting public services even as pay and benefits shoot ever higher.What has happened? The unions representing state and local government workers as well as firefighters, police, transit workers and others have become so powerful that politicians dare not cross them. They are organized and their members vote. That's a combination that has created  two tiered system with government workers on one elevated level and the rest of us below them:Government employees use various scams...(Read Full Post)