[Willie Green]

I am of the opinion that ANY federal worker who gets the opportunity to enrich themselves monetarily or in power base will do so. It is a matter of how far they are willing to go.

Well sure, it's a fundamental principle of human nature that EVERYBODY will act in their own self-interest. Nothing wrong with that, it's simply the way life is.

I'm stictly referring to the defective units who exist at the outer edges of the bell curve -- the ones with a short-circuit in the ol' gray matter which causes them to act in ways incomprehensible to 99.999% of the population.

[blackdog]

Self interest should be incompatable with civil service. Self interest gives us Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Marc Rich, Martha Stewart etc... I do agree with you on the human nature aspect. The only catch is that public employees are supposed to be doing what is in everyone elses best interest, not theirs.

[jammer]

Well sure, it's a fundamental principle of human nature that EVERYBODY will act in their own self-interest. Nothing wrong with that, it's simply the way life is.

No, there IS something wrong with that and that's not the way EVERYBODY acts. That's the way lower animals act, or others without ethics or morals. But many people eschew their own self-interest in the interest of ethics and/or morals.