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Letter to the editor
Public employees must face reality
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Forsyth County News
Regarding the letter to the editor from Chris Shelton last Sunday, and the paid advertisement from the FOP on page 3A in that same edition:
Folks, times are that hard. Read the Wednesday edition of Forsyth news, and marvel at the legal section. That section has become huge, because it lists tons of foreclosures in this county. The economic conditions are the worst we’ve seen at least since Carter was president. People are still losing their jobs in droves. People aren’t hiring.

The advertisement/cartoon on 3A asks that the county stop trying to balance the budget on the back of employees. It would’ve been more accurate if it showed a struggling tax base, with lots of laid off folks, below the man carrying the heavy load, and with those taxpayers carrying an even heavier burden.

People are trying to figure out how to keep their homes and feed their kids. The letter to the editor and the cartoon lack that perspective.

County employees have a pension, and are griping about changes to their 401(k) contribution?  For the most part, those of us in the private sector don’t have pensions.  We only have 401(k) plans, if we are lucky and still employed. And our employers stopped their contributions back in 2007.

Excuse us if we have zero sympathy for you not getting money kicked into your 401(k) by us. If we still have jobs, that is. Those of us who don’t still have jobs have sub-zero sympathy.

This economic crisis is hitting those of us in the private sector about 10 times harder than it is hitting the vast majority of public employees.

It isn’t that we don’t value what you do. It isn’t that we have a cruel streak. The stark fact is, times are bad, and bad enough that even the normally insulated public sector is seeing some impact.

You have my respect for all that you do, but no sympathy for going through a lot less pain that we are.

Kenneth Bell

Alpharetta