Public Sector Employment is Doing More than Just Fine

The other day President Obama made the suggestion that while private sector employment has been growing, state and local government employment has been falling. The truth of that statement depends, of course, on what you choose as a beginning and ending date. Let's take a long-term perspective -- say, 20 years. It's pretty clear that state/local employment has not been shrinking. It's been mushrooming. Stein's Law (If something cannot go on forever, it will stop) would seem to apply here.