Yep it sure does. I lived there for years. Got to be more then half the people work for the fed, state or local government. I don’t know when it changed but, when I worked for the federal government it didn’t pay to well. Most people wanted a gov. job because of security and the benefits. Now it’s for the pay. I can’t believe what someone close to me makes. She’s been with the gov. for about 30 years. She’s works in travel, basically a travel agent, for one of the gov. agency’s. Her salary is over $90,000 a year.
Now, what happened to make some rather humdrum seeming jobs end up paying so well?
Well, there's this issue of security clearance ~ if not your own, your boss'. That's going to demand a "confidential" rating at a minimum, and that's pretty much the minimum. Without that you aren't going to have ANY job in that particular organizational element.
So what will keep you from getting cleared for "confidential" (this is not "secret" or "top secret", or "crypto" or "cosmic" or ......... just "confidential").
Well, you could be an immigrant ~ legal or otherwise. You could have speeding tickets. Maybe you have serious debts with the wrong people. Enough misdemeanor convictions will do you in, and certainly a felony is going to keep you out of that organization.
You can pick up all those violations that keep you out of a "confidential" clearance by DOING DOPE, and not even major dope, but just prescription abuse!
If we can believe NORMAL, half the people in this country ~ maybe more ~ have done drugs at some time in their life (and we are talking about "illegally done drugs"!
These federal headquarters organizations in DC are rather toney places and they have plenty of people around who recognize dopers.
Your chance of slipping into a federal job at an agency headquarters in the DC area where you can USE AT HOME is slim. Maybe you can get in. You can get fired even easier 'cause these guys KNOW.
True enough narcotics use has grown in the United States over the years but federal employment standards have grown stricter over the same period of time, and although your private company may have access to 180,000,000 workers (not counting children), the government has access to maybe less than half that ~ and counting in education requirements, age (to carry guns for example), and physical condition (FBI agents and USPS letter carriers have to be able to walk), the qualified pool of workers shrinks substantially.
For many federal jobs in the DC area there are so few qualified workers willing to come here that the salaries have ratcheted up.
You folks who think you can par-tay all the time have created this problem. I doubt you will be able to solve it without developing better morals, some self-discipline, and voting Republican on a consistent basis.