“The total cost for salaries and benefits for every civilian employee or soldier is less than 10% of total federal costs.
So, tell me, what are you people doing with the other 90%?”
Gotta start somewhere. Most of the people are a useless and costly waste; both when they work and when retired, too.
Military excepted.
Govt. is overhead. When you start cutting overhead, you are doing good. Very good.
And the ones being cut always come up with excuses like you did. Question—did you or do you work for government, honestly?
Fact is it's fairly difficult to get a federal government job, and the average age of entry is 35 ~ not 18 like at McDonalds.
Once you get the job it's very likely you won't get your choice of where you will be employed. That makes hanging onto those jobs somewhat difficult particularly if you wanted your kids in a certain school, or you liked to keep palling around with your own ethnic group in a certain part of the country.
Regarding the military, I was in the Infantry. That's nothing at all like working in an office. Actually, working in an office is not at all like working in the post office ~ and I didn't do that either. In a bad year i'd travel close to 1/4 million miles, and in a good year I'd avoid travel completely. Bet you think of travel as a way to have a good time. I think of it as a way to get bleeding sinuses and a sore bottom. Then there are the hours. Post offices operate 24 hours a day. It was possible to have a project under way that would require your attendance all of them ~ and for in-determinant periods. In an older time they had what management called POMSIP. Guys from headquarters would come out and reorganize a major post office to work the way it was supposed to do. They'd be on travel anywhere from 3 months to 6 months.
Up until the 1980s you got one 5 minute phone call per day.
Most of the survey work was done standing up. So was the field observation work. Even discussion with floor supervisors was done standing up.
Most of my friends and associates who'd ever worked as floor supervisors and then done field survey work or audits in later years have artificial knees, hips or ankles.
And most of them were military veterans.
Now, about "useless people" ~ that'd be the guy who wants to be a top boss and he's a high-school graduate and he dropped out of his one semester in college. I'd encourage him or her to try county government. Get a job as a cop. Eat dough-nuts.