Posted on 08/10/2021 6:42:52 AM PDT by edwinland
The DC metro area also has a ridiculous number of law firms (lobbyists), federal contractors of every imaginable kind, and of course all the service industries needed for the huge population.
There is at least one federal contractor for every federal employee. In DC they are called the “shadow government”.
Even folks who have nothing to do with the government depend on people who do work for the government or federal contractors to be their customers.
“renters don’t need mortgages.”
Landlords still verify income.
That’s correct. About 10 years ago when sequestration was happening there was a lot of doom and gloom about how it was going to negatively impact Virginia’s economy.
Nothing has really changed since then, Virginia remains as dependent upon Federal government spending as ever.
You don’t need high income to have good credit. Just good decision making and an understanding of how to get good credit.
I have never ever had a landlord check my income. They use credit checks in place of that, assuming from good credit scores that you know enough not to get yourself in over your head.
The only way your arguments work is if there were suddenly 200k jobs that came out of no where and landed in the middle of no where and caused a city to spring up around the employer. That doesn’t really happen here much - maybe a couple times a decade when someone like Amazon or Apple decide to build a new HQ somewhere new. Outside of that, my assertion that supply and demand cause both cost of living to increase and wages to increase is simple economics and is going to be correct in 99% of the cases you would think of.
VA needs to be an insurance card for healthcare.
You’ve never had a landlord check your income?
When I owned a rental property, my management company checked the income of every single tenant that applied as well as their credit.
I’m glad they did.
And Transunion has something called SmartMove designed to make it easy for landlords to verify income.
So even if they didn’t ask for your paystubs, they may still have been able to figure out your income from data contained within the credit reporting systems.
That they SAY it means nothing. Where is the evidence that they have actually DONE IT? Federal retirement benefits are completely guaranteed once vested, so a civil service can easily leave AND, should it not pan out, probably have a re-hiring preference!
An interesting find on the subject is here, "Stay or Leave: Pros and Cons of Federal vs. Private Sector Employment". While pre-COVID (2017) the list of FED worker benefits vs. Private is impressive! (FYI: To the best of my knowledge, NO Federal Worker lost any pay, seniority or vacation while furloughed during COVID!)
FEDERAL Benefits:
Job Security, Retirement Benefits, Thrift Savings Plan, Federal Employee Health Benefits Program & Leave Programs.
Private Sector:
Pay (potentially higher than GS Schedule), Different Jobs/Duties (Not the 9-5 drudgery) and Benefits (Negotiable, Executive level perks, but uncertain) {Not in article but real: Stock Warrants & Options & ESOP Plans].
=====
So, yeah, I can see a large migration into Private Sector ... /sarcasm!
The purpose of government is to grow government. They are a leach on society.
But it brings up the question why are most of these employees in DC? Almost none actually help the people the agency is supposed to help. Only a small amount are need in DC to administer. The rest should be moved out around the country.
Federal employees will always tell you that they could make more money in the private sector.
That they SAY it means nothing. Where is the evidence that they have actually DONE IT?
I know several Information Technology (IT) specialists who have done it. Even with a higher special rate schedule, the government cannot match the salaries that are paid to IT specialists in the private sector. Having said that, I also know several IT specialists who left the private sector to take a government job because of the Federal benefits that you mentioned, especially the job security.
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