Reply to Government Shutdown - September, 2025 Editiion

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why does the GOP hate government workers so much? They’re paid less than private industry and no raise this year but an increase in healthcare premiums. I don’t understand where the deep loathing comes from? [/quote]

I live in northern Virginia near Herndon.  my gov workers call it middle class welfare.   one works at commerce.   he is middle manager and does so little work.  he says it is like 20% of private industry, mainly herding the cats of incompetent workers that have been hired to work there.   the deep state is there because these people are incapable of working anywhere else .

my own personal experience working as a contractor at GSA was similar.  6 to 2:30 shifts.   no one did anything before 9:00.  then of course a couple meetings and lunch.  then not too long to fight the long commute south.   you could fire 50% and the office would be better off.

then there is the secret agencies.   never worked there but had 2 friends.  one from CIA and retired with huge pension and health care covered.   he always had his weekends free during his work years,. never worked late, and now he is a multi millionaire after working for the government.

another one was LT colonel when retired , got huge pension with cola, and then worked as contractor , now he has huge sound side property and condo and lives like a king.

that is where the deep loathing comes from.[/quote]

Your anecdotes are exaggerated.  Nobody comes out of government with a huge pension -- it's based on salary, and those are below-market.  (And people under the old plans got bigger pensions, but those people are pretty old now.)  You are probably ignoring things like your friend being highly educated in a specialized area, worked for a single employer for decades, was a good saver and investor, was a prudent spender, etc.

Anyway, the claims you make about gvt workers are not what I see.[/quote]

They also seem very off.  All the CIA/State people I know worked weekends and late on weekdays.  They've generally jad good retirements but that's because they barely spent when they were working because they were so busy.[/quote]

I worked 25 years in the private sector and almost 20 as a fed and I worked my ass off in both.  There's a lot more regulatory burden and paperwork in government than in private sector, which comes from layers of oversight and accountability and reporting which uninformed conservatives don't think exists, and which certainly doesn't exist in the private sector anywhere to the extent it does in government.  Wages were definitely higher in private sector, benefits like healthcare slightly better in public sector.  Federal retirement (FERS) isn't all that great, it's far more about what I socked away in the TSP and in my outside brokerage account, Roth and IRA than what the government does on that front. [/quote]

Healthcare has significantly eroded and you get a better deal (lower premiums etc) in equivalent private sector jobs. [/quote]

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