I wish somebody had told me....

much earlier in life.  If they had, I'd have worked hard to get one of those clerical jobs at the Port of Los Angeles. 

Now that the strike has been settled, I've learned some of the details of how these clerks are compensated.  My sources indicate that the average annual salary of these clerks is around $87,000.  Their pension and benefits are worth another $80,000 or so when you add them all up.  They include:

Comprehensive medical, dental and other coverages.

Both a pension and a 401(k) plan, with their employers putting $2,000 annually into the 401(k) without the employee making any contribution.  Clerks are pension eligible after only ten years of service.

11 weeks of vacation per year.

13 sick days per year.

21 holidays per year.

Unlimited unexcused time off for medical appointments in two hour blocks.

Let's do some math.  (11*5) + 13 + 21 = 90 work days off each year, with pay.  If you work five days per week, 52 weeks per year, that's 260 work days in a year.  260 - 90 = 170.  170/5 = 3.4 days per week of actual work.  I bet you want to sign up for this too.  But the contract allows vacant positions to go unfilled.  That's a darn shame.

Then we have what our wonderful, California state legislators are doing.  At least here's one example of it.  Vehicles.  Until December of last year, all State Assembly and Senate elected members were given an official vehicle with no limit on when/where they could drive it.  No requirement it be used for only official business.  The group that oversees the compensation of these people finally put an end to this $5 million per year expense.

But, a number of these people managed to stick the taxpayers with more bills just prior to the end of the program.  Just before they were forced to turn their cars in, these pigs who feed at the public trough took the cars to the repair shop and stuck the state with the bill.  Then they bought the cars for their personal use with the value of those repairs not included in the valuation of the vehicle.  One state senator had almost $6,000 in repairs done to his 2005 SUV before it was sold to a dealer for $11,000.  He then was able to buy it for just over $12,000.  There were roughly three dozen members of the Assembly and Senate who did this, although only four or five of them had repair bills of more than $1,000.  But the point is, the value of these cars was improved at taxpayer expense before they were converted to personal use.  Sounds like fraud to me.

So I must conclude that the best way to "get over" is either getting a job as a clerical worker at the port, or running for elected office and robbing the taxpayers.  Or you could work at the port as a clerical worker and when you retire, then run for public office.  Or vice versa.

One thing is for certain. We are getting stuck with the bills.