The foundation of the economy is people having jobs and money in their pockets to buy stuff from the holy free market. Government employment, along with unemployment benefits, is one of the most important safety nets for an economy in free fall because of spiraling unemployment. Most state governments, however, can't borrow and have to have balanced budgets. Which means if state revenues decline sharply because imbecilic Repuglican free market dogmatists in D.C. resisted placing any constraints on the derivatives markets or unscrupulous and irrational home lending and enabled the worst economic decline since 1929, the states either have to raise taxes or cut the payroll or both. Neither of those is a good thing in a recession, especially given that states tend to use regressive forms of taxation such as property and sales taxes.

So either the feds give them money to stay afloat or they fire people--which they're doing anyway, increasing unemployment and further dragging down the economy.

Keeping people working is the most important thing to keeping your holy free market functioning. I know you guys think the free market is like some magical supernatural force that sprinkles magic prosperity pixie dust on us all if it is worshipped properly and the appropriate rituals are performed, but, really, it's all about people having jobs so they can buy stuff.

And here's another of those things that you guys tell yourself that just aren't true: most state employees in most states aren't "unionized." They belong to toothless employee associations that don't have the right of collective bargaining and don't have the power to strike. Some large municipalities have some unionized employees, but not state governments.

And ya know what else? Being unionized doesn't make your job less worthy or your work less important than a nonunionized job. Hard to believe, but true. Unionized employees work, just like you ununionized salt of the earth types and most of the time, they're doing something more important than whatever the hell it is you do.

Numbnuts. (Just wanted to throw in an ad hominium so you'd have an excuse to ignore all of this.)

If, as you write, the foundation of this economy isn't gov't employees, it is the marketplace, particularly the manufacturing base, then why did the so-called "free marketeers" do so much to destroy that base over the last decade or so??

I don't think you can blame that on government employees, like, say, firemen and teachers.

It's pretty obvious to most of us where the blame lies.