Re: that's NOT totalitarianism

State and Federal employees generally make much better salaries than private sector workers. Once upon a time they got generous benefits to make up for missing out on private sector opportunities, but now they generally make more than private sector employees doing similar jobs plus fantastic benefits. Overall compensation for federal employees is frequently twice what private sector employees get.

So why not work to improve private sector pay rather than begrudging government employees the salaries and benefits they've fought hard for? Yes, after decades of encouraging outsourcing and undermining organized labor in this country, salaries for private sector workers have remained stagnant (especially compared to executive pay). But that's no reason to drag government workers down as well.

The fact that state and federal governments continue to offer decent pay and benefits actually helps everyone, as it gives private sector employers reason to offer similar incentives in order to attract the same potential employees (at one time, a much larger portion of the private sector was unionized like government employees are and this effect was much stronger).

Thanks to all our government spending, many private sector employees have lost their jobs and all their income

Not sure how that follows..

so learning that some government employees are now taking a pay cut will not impress those who have suffered twice from government profligacy (first by being taxed

If this tax burden were as heavy as you suggest, California likely wouldn't be experiencing a financial crisis right now.

From what I understand, California's state legislature requires a two-thirds vote on budgetary matters, which actually allows the republicans in the state to prevent any raises in taxes. If this weren't the case, rather than slashing government employees' salaries the state might be able to help solve its crisis by increasing tax revenue (not from working people, but from the executives who've shipped their jobs overseas and found ways to increase their own pay while their workers' salaries, again, remain stagnant).

If the employees in question think that they are not being paid enough, they are always welcome to find another job that pays better.

And all these working class folk are just as welcome to apply for these government jobs that offer the salaries and benefits they envy.