[HiTech RedNeck]

And this moralizing has what to do with the price of tea in China?

Is there some reason you are evading the real point, which is that government workers generally have it a lot cushier than Joe Blow, that the salary numbers they talk about as meager are actually only a small portion of their picture?

[Kirkwood]

You seem to have some liberal ideas as well about personal responsibility and job compensation. Govt worker salaries and benefits are payband restricted, while workers in the private sector get whatever salary and benefits they can negotiate. If someone doesn't like the compensation at one company they can go elsewhere or start their own business. If you work in govt, you are close to the bottom in terms of a salary, but the benefits accrue over time to compensate you if you stick with it. Didn't you ever wonder why it is that people often leave govt jobs for the private sector after a length of time? It is because they know they are worth much more than the govt will pay them.

I've worked in federal and state govt and had my own businesses and worked for other private businesses. The highest salaries I earned were always when I worked in the private sector either for a company or for myself, and the lowest salaries were when I worked in govt. If you lost your job and have nothing to live on, you have my sympathy, but you pretty much have no one to blame but yourself for not planning ahead.