The number of US government employees

[OptionsTrader]

I did a quick search to do an estimate of the % of voters that have a conflict of interest in changing the system - current government employees and contractors.

No offense to teachers and beaurocrats, this is just an attempt to do a back of the napkin estimate.

In the 2004 presidential election 105,017,000 people voted. In 2000 110,826, 000 people voted.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p20-556.pdf

According to the department of labor, in 2005 23,837,000 people were government employees (federal, state, and local). I cannot find a value for the number of military contractors and defense contractors and agencies that provide labor for the government but are not government employees per se. I will assume the number is 20% of 23,837,000 to just get a number that is probably in the ball park. That brings the total to approx 29 million government or government contractors.

Just for fun, let's assume these people really want to keep their jobs and they all vote.

29 million/111 million = 26.1%

[New York For Paul]

The number of govt. contractors might be too low. However, many govt. employees vote against their own interests. There are many defense employees who vote for people who want to cut the defense budget. They voted for the Clintons in the 90s.

There are some federal employees who like Ron Paul. Dr. Paul gets many military contributions.

There are all types working in the federal government and defense contractors.

Many of the defense contractors are democrats now and are good friends with John Murtha who provides earmarks for their pet defense projects.

The top guys will become millionaires from the earmarks. However the workers might go on strike for not being paid well enough.

Many of the workers are mad about what they see in government, others don't care. So you cannot lump all the govt. workers into one monolithic voting block.

[OptionsTrader]

. So you cannot lump all the govt. workers into one monolithic voting block.

Yeah, I know and I definitely agree with you. I wasn't really trying to be accurate.

I wonder what the founders would think if they knew that in 2008 more than 1 in every 4 voters is employed by the government in one fashion or the other.

[ChooseLiberty]

I seem to recall the gubmint was about 30% of GDP not long ago, but may be higher now. The US service sector GDP is about 80% of total so the gubmint is probably included in that which is one reason why it's so disproportionately high.

So a guesstimate would say that 30% of the voters are attached to the gubmint teat. Assuming the gubmint employees vote in the same percentages as the rest of the population.

They may not always vote straight Rep or Dem but they probably vote for the mainstream candidates.

Good point tho. The gubmint employees are probably an anchor for the status quo.

[Primbs]

It seems like the whole DC/Virginia/Maryland economy is really tied to the government sector. The hotels and restaurants do very well here. All the associations and interest groups come to DC every two years to lobby Congress.

I was told the local Neiman Marcus is the highest grossing store in the country. In fact there are two Neiman Marcus stores within about fifteen miles of each other.

Used cars are more expensive in the area. The DC metro area has at least four of the top ten highest income counties in America.

So the nation's capitol region is living well at the expense of the rest of the country.

There is one issue that every government employee and government contractor can agree on, they all want there guaranteed three or four percent pay raise every year.

[Mach]

Just by the way, if you want to look up facts here is a great site, not necessarily as up to date as I'd like it to be but the basics and more are still there.

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/us-united-states

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/gov_cor-government-corruption

[OptionsTrader]

I liked the corruption page as well.... 17 of 160. If it were a weighted scale based on effect to the world, me thinks we are #1.

[tod evans]

try adding in the folks who recieve a check from the government, welfare-ssi-disability-ect. i think if you where to tally up those who have a vested interest in the status-quo or even a bigger government you`d come in at 50% or so.

[OptionsTrader]

Yeah. Perhaps as many as a majority of voters are on the take one way or another from the socialist machine. The rest of us pay for it.

[tod evans]

by my hillbilly reconing less than 20% of americans actually produce tangabile goods anymore....these are the folks footing the bill for the rest of the country.
kinda scary when you look at it in that light eh?

[OptionsTrader]

And McCain, Obama or Clinton will keep bombing third world countries and exporting dollars as long as possible to prop up our superiority until it all comes crumbling down.

[Truth Warrior]

"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul." -- George Bernard Shaw