Anybody know exactly when did it all get so ugly - the hatred for government and public employees? [View all]

[Peregrine Took]

I recall when going to work for the government was considered a good thing to do - an honorable thing, in fact. The pay was modest and the benefits were comparable to the private sector. Teachers were respected - highly respected. As a child, I used to live next door to two single brothers who were postal employees and they were considered to be very upstanding members of the community.

Today, while listening to a local financial program on the radio, I heard the host all of a sudden take a sharp right turn in his rhetoric and begin lambasting of all people - librarians, then teachers, active and retired, for being over paid and "greedily sopping up huge dough in their salaries and retirement" while the state "goes bankrupt."

When did it all turn around and the actual hatred for librarians, teachers, even for police and firemen (due to THEIR "fatcat" benefits) begin?

Was it with Reagan ("the government is not your friend" attitude) in the '80's? The Bush's? I'm trying to pin it down - at least to the era.

My own opinion is that maybe if the state wasn't so busy giving big tax breaks to businesses there would now be adequate money in the state coffers, that in addition to the legislature contributing the proper amount, by law, to fund the retirement programs which it did not do.

Thanks