The cost of a bureaucrat

The US population is approximately 312 million divided into approximately 114 million households. Each household earns an average of $51,914.

There are over 2.65 million federal government employees in the executive branch -- most of whom do things specifically prohibited to the central government by the US Constitution. That is over 2.3 federal bureaucrats per 100 American households!

The average federal employee compensation is $75,000 -- 45% higher than average per-household private-sector compensation (figures don't include benefits and retirement)! Some 20% of federal civil "servants" make more than $100k per year! The privilege of supporting 2.3 bureaucrats per 100 households costs each american household $1,725 per year! Then, there are over 5.6 additional federal contract and grant jobs per federal civilian employee!

Add to that the estimated cost of $1.75 trillion a year in regulatory burden imposed by and through those bureaucrats -- $15,351 per household or $660,377 per bureaucrat! The typical employer in the private sector shoulders over $10,000 in regulatory-compliance costs per employee -- a very real cause of our current high unemployment rate!

There is no doubt that federal employees think they're essential. But are they really worth that much money and is their economic impact worth it?

Then, there is the cost of all the bureaucrats and contract employees working for the local and state governments and schools. On average, state and local employees are paid about 45% more than workers in the productive sector. Many of those state and local civil "servants" exist only to ensure their agencies comply with federal bureaucratic mandates.

We no longer have, as Abraham Lincoln described it, a "government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people." Our form of government isn't a republic, a democracy, a monarchy, or a dictatorship. It is an aristocratic bureaucracy -- government of the bureaucrats, by the bureaucrats, [and] for the bureaucrats.

Ya got enough government yet?