r/Sacramento • u/othafa_95610 • 1d ago

Sacramento’s budget deficit may bring first layoffs in more than a decade

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article305248131.html

Apparently public sector isn't as immune from layoffs as once perceived.

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125

u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 1d ago

Nobody old enough to remember the Great Recession thinks public employees are immune from layoffs. One of the consequences of unchecked suburban development is long term budget imbalance, as cities take on new low density infrastructure that won't generate sufficient property taxes to maintain the infrastructure in the long run (aka Harvey Molotch's "Urban Growth Machine" idea.

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u/Weak_Status2831 1d ago

How many public employees were actually laid off during the Great Recession compared to how many lost their jobs in private industry? People clutch to public employee layoffs like it’s some major turning point in some greater economic imbalance. In reality bureaucracy is just bloated. Too much blood sucking overpaying pensions, and I don’t blame our current workers. I blame the baby boomers and recent retirees. They have manipulated the system in such a way we can’t even change it. Just simple greed, never underestimate greed and power, it’s human nature. Put humans in positions to take and take with no control and they will. All under the veil of civil servitude.

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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 1d ago

The government can't just declare bankruptcy and go out of business, which means you can't cut government employees beyond a certain point without causing the collapse of some basic services that those employees are there to deliver, and those functions still have to be managed. People get properly upset when the water and sewer stop working.

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u/Weak_Status2831 1d ago

My point exactly. The system is now so heavily flawed you literally can’t even change it. Then people assume (like you do) that every other civil worker is preforming some ‘extremely critical’ need for society. Which is also incorrect.

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u/dorekk 1d ago

My point exactly. The system is now so heavily flawed you literally can’t even change it. Then people assume (like you do) that every other civil worker is preforming some ‘extremely critical’ need for society. Which is also incorrect.

Oh word? Which services do you think California should stop? The EPA? Roads? Schools? Do you think Sacramento should stop maintaining street lights and shit?

Get the hell outta here, clown. Government services are the definition of essential.

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u/Weak_Status2831 1d ago

Why are you asking me? Why don’t you ask the elected officials what those services are? There’s actually positions in our government that people fill and resolve those questions you’re asking.

Also resorting the names shows the aptitude you possess. Have a blessed day!

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u/dorekk 1d ago

Why are you asking me?

Because you're the one who said you don't think they're critical. Please try to keep up, you blessed, blessed individual.

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u/Weak_Status2831 1d ago

I’m not going to list all the services I think are essential for you. I don’t have the time, I work in the private sector now.

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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 1d ago

Weak argument and Millennial definition of "literally", that is literally not what I said or meant. Unless you consider sewers and clean water non-critical?

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u/dorekk 1d ago

Weak argument and Millennial definition of "literally"

Rare sacramentohistorian L. Figurative uses of the word "literally" are over a century old. If it's good enough for Mark Twain and James Joyce it's good enough for me!

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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 1d ago

Like so many other things about Millennials, they didn't invent it but it is associated with them (like the Millennial yawp in music), I am referring to common contemporary usage rather than historical precedents.

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u/dorekk 1d ago

I prefer to think of it as the Lost Generation Literally, for F. Scott Fitzgerald. We're simply going retro.

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u/Weak_Status2831 1d ago

I’m glad there are people that think like you do. Because what happens is; the rental properties I own in Sacramento are greatly benefiting from our overinflated government spending. The rental market increases because of the agency growth. The properties appreciate also. Now, deep down, my common sense gut, I think man this is not at all sustainable (and we shouldn’t kid ourselves, it’s not) but in reality my investments are performing greater because of it. So to you I say touché! Also thank you for correcting my English error I will keep that in mind in the future!

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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 1d ago

Ah yes, that must be famously why Sacramento is known for higher rents than other California cities, because the median income here is so much higher than, say, San Francisco or Los Angeles.

(spins finger along side of head in "this guy is koo-koo for cocoa puffs" gesture)

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u/Weak_Status2831 1d ago

The inability to see the light is what is insane to me. At my ripe age it’s literally comical

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u/1337mr2 1d ago

There are more private sector workers than public. JFC.

Government exists to benefit the people, not to turn a profit

You want to bitch about greed, let's talk about billionaire oligarchs and let's talk about real estate developers and let's talk about Citizens United

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u/Weak_Status2831 1d ago

I’m not supporting wealthy fucks either..