They will stop at nothing and demand everyone else pay their six-figure retirement.
Oh, absolutely. Every one of them thinks he or she "sacrificed for the public good" while they were raking in above-market compensation, layoff-proof, unfireable, for twenty or thirty years.
In Romania, the head Government Worker was willing to fire machine guns into a crowd of tens of thousands of his citizens rather than give up power.
Any one of them will do exactly the same.
Oh man: If they’re red states what do the feds owe them?
“Every one of them thinks he or she “sacrificed for the public good” while they were raking in above-market compensation, layoff-proof, unfireable, for twenty or thirty years.”
Exactly. Given the state of the country, actual punishment should be doled out to these “public servants”.
Not all of them by any means, but enough to make for some interesting conversations. There is no one quite so blind, deaf, and dumb as a GS-15 married to another GS-15, both getting DC locality pay, with a household income somewhere north of $200,000, who thinks she is being screwed by an unfair compensation system. Not a hypothetical case ....
What happens, of course, is that these folks buy comfortable upper-middle class homes in comfortable upper-middle class suburbs. (Since DC is a very expensive market, these houses are not grand; you could get a comparable house at a third of the price in Omaha.) They are segregated by mortgage payment and completely surrounded by people at about their level, so they think they are average. And since their pay is capped by a GS system that is highly compressed -- paying very well at lower and mid-level worker bee grades, but underpaying for many senior jobs -- they resent their lack of upward mobility (though not enough to leave the security of federal service). Lifestyles expand to consume the available paycheck. After enough years of being plateaued as a 13, 14, or 15, but realizing there is nowhere to go, they begin to resent the people in the slightly larger McMansions they pass on their commutes. It's irrational, but understandable.
Yes, the fedgov does underpay many top executives. I'm pretty sure you will not find many people in the private sector running $5 billion operations for $125,000 a year. It's common in government. And while there is some deadwood, it is largely sidelined and quarantined at mid-levels. People who rise to branch chief and director positions have been competitively selected and are generally pretty good at what they do. There is indeed some movement out to the private sector at this level, but the unparalleled security and generous retirement keep the majority on board. And in fairness. most of the federales at senior levels don't complain about their situation. The important thing is not really their level of pay; it's whether they perceive themselves as having the option to leave for more pay. Most of them are smart enough to own their choice, and if they choose security over higher pay, they do it with their eyes open and without too much complaint.