"Bad Mood"

My letter to the editor of the Columbus Dispatch concerning the May 7 editorial "Bad Mood":

The May 7 Dispatch editorial "Bad Mood," concerning the results of a Reason Foundation-Rupe poll regarding concerns of Americans did indicate, as the editorial noted, that "Americans have not lost their common sense, but seem to have lost patience with politics as usual."

The article piqued my interest in the poll, so I decided to check the Foundation's website for more detailed information on the poll. And there I discovered one poll result which, not surprisingly, was omitted from the Dispatch editorial: "Half of all respondents say that public sector workers receive better benefits that (sic) those with similar jobs in the private sector, but only 37 percent support cutting those public employee benefits to help balance state budgets."

Perhaps the respondents realize something that the Dispatch editors refuse to admit: that while public employees generally receive better benefits than their private sector peers, these higher benefits are usually offset by lower pay rates, a fact that has been substantiated in numerous studies comparing total compensation of public and private sector workers.