The New Class Divide

Recently there have been in Wisconsin and Ohio a certain amount of stress between the governors (and Republican legislators) and public employee unions. The elected leaders of the states have stated that the citizens of the states can no longer, through their taxes, support the benefits that the unionized state employees have come to expect.
There have been demonstrations and near riots by public employee unions protesting said benefit adjustments and proposals to de-certify the unions.
We saw this a few months ago with the protests and riots in Greece and Portugal. Last week there was a massive demonstration in London by members of the public employee unions against any sort of cutting of benefits. The expectation is that the average taxpayer should be more than happy to pay for the more than generous retirement benefits of a "civil servant."
The public employee has come to be the favored class. There was a time when the public employee was paid an equivalent salary as the private sector employee (perhaps a bit less) with a decent retirement package and an almost unloseable job. Now the pay exceeds that of the producing class (government employees produce nothing but paper) with retirement packages that are extravagant and such job security that it takes an act of Congress to fire, not an incompetent employee, but a criminal employee.
The numbers of public sector employees has grown dramatically while the number of wealth producing private sector employees has fallen. It has gotten to the point that close to 50% of college students are planning to go into government work instead of the private sector.
The taxpayer is being ever-more burdened with the demands of timeservers and is beginning to resent it. Those you produce are ever-more resenting those who take. The taxpayer sees the public employee as the undeservedly favored, and rightly so. Consider the fact that in the state of California there are about 25 million workers (at the best of times) and there are 2.5 million public sector employees. That means that every 9 point something working person in the state is paying the salary and benefits for one government employee. That type of nonsense is not only a builder of resentment, it is unsustainable.
And let us not forget our elected leaders. They want us to use CFL lights, use public transportation (or at least drive skateboards called cars), reduce our carbon footprint while they light the inside and outside of the Capitol and White House with energy gobbling incandescent bulbs, take limousines and private jets to their destinations instead of buses, trains or trolleys, and have at least two houses, both of which are probably better than the one you live in.
What has happened is a change from a battle between the wealthy and the working class to a battle between the government worker and the producer. A robber baron may make his living off your back, but at least you have a choice to quit your job. You have no choice in paying taxes to pay the retirement of a DMV drone.
This guy puts it better than your faithful correspondent:
Britain no longer split by social class but between public and private sectors | Mail Online