Double Dippers, A Bipartisan Outrage

One of OffHisMeds favorite anecdotes regarding Double Dippers involves an out of state work assignment he had last year. Double Dipping is, of course, the practice of acquiring multiple salaries and/or pensions through government employment. Double Dippers are the people who methodically - and one might even say pathologically - pursue government employment for the sole purpose of acquiring paychecks, pensions and other undeserved taxpayer-subsidized Goodies as early as possible so as to live the life of Riley at somebody else's expense.

OffHisMeds encountered this phenomenon relatively early in life. In the late 60s, a family acquaintance was retiring on two pensions after a hitch in the military, followed by twenty years working for the city. I recall my mother explaining this to me, and at a very tender age, me asking her why he needed more than one? I also expressed concern that if this guy had two pensions, was he taking one away from some other person? Finally I asked what he was going to do with himself? My mother offered no explanation, but only smiled.

And thus, in my extreme youth did I show a particular sharpness of mind.

Fast forward 48 or so years, and I'm in Arkansas, working as a Project Manager for an IT services company. I end up sharing a house with another guy who was the senior Project Manager in the company. I'll call him George. George was a staunch conservative, and watched Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and even Greta Van Susteren religiously, for cripes sake. He also worked 70-80 hours per week, as did I, so we rarely saw each other except in the hallways at work and for about an hour around 7:00 pm.

During one of the rare occasions we were both home at the same time, we went out to dinner and talked politics. George shared the same concern about the direction of the country as I, distressed that the Democrats under Barack Obama were determined to turn the USA into a Socialist paradise, and with barely a peep out of a complacent electorate. We couldn't have agreed more. George went on to explain that things had gotten so bad that he was considering retiring and moving out of the country; that he wouldn't be part of a nation that had so departed from American values, and couldn't stand to watch as everything he believed in was dismantled before his very eyes.

He then went on to describe that his brother had already taken this step, having moved to Costa Rica, and was living a life of luxury in that low-cost country. "Really", I replied. "What did he do for a living"? George explained that his brother had done a twenty year combined stint in the military and reserve, and then did twenty years as a teacher, with his reserve tenure overlapping with his teaching job. "I'm proud of him", George said. "He finally got his bellyful, took his two pensions and moved out".

"Two pensions", I said. "Yep", says George proudly. "So let me see if I've got this right", I says; "your brother worked exclusively in government for around 30 years, got two pensions funded by American taxpayers, retired in his 50s in good health, and then when he didn't like the direction the country was going, he high-tailed it to Costa Rica"? George looked stunned, as if the conversation had taken a turn he had not expected. "So people like yourself who continue to work in the private sector are paying his pensions, right"? George changed the subject, and was grumpy for the rest of the meal.

Suffice to say, I never got anymore work with that company.

My point here is that even many conservatives not only think that Double Dipping is OK, but that government retirement after as little as twenty years is OK. It's not. In fact, it's shameful. Just as it is shameful to purposely work a job that you know has no purpose, that requires little effort and pays you vastly more than what the work is worth, it is shameful to blithely end your useful work life twenty years sooner than everybody else, even when you're the brother of a so-called Conservative.

The fact that virtually every government employee and the tens of millions of government retirees are also clueless to the fact that they are riding on the backs of their fellow citizens tells you Barack Obama - or Enablers like him - are going to have a constituency for a very long time.

I wonder if George's brother is still engaged enough in his former country's goings-on to submit an absentee ballot? Talk about heaping insult on top of injury.