Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know feds who own second homes (New Jersey, South Carolina), boats (not yachts, boats). To be fair, they're married, so there're two incomes. But they also have children, elderly parents, and all other typical MC expenses. They live on income, not investments.

The feds I know in DC don't suffer. Some live far out, but only if a huge house with a backyard is important. Plenty of younger (both single and married) people in the city who can afford condos and apartments. They generally don't complain about life at the GS-13 level and above.

So, to paint all feds as living hand-to-mouth is not entirely correct. I'm sure people's circumstances differ, but those who know how to handle money (even a little bit of it) do fairly well. Generally better than their counterparts in the private sector, IMO.

Depends who you think of as their counterparts. Federal employees are older and more highly educated than th general population, we have a much higher percentage of employees with graduate degrees than the rest of the labor force. So if you're comparing them with the average American with no college completion they do make more $ but same occupation comparisons with the private sector show federal employees making less than their similarly situated private sector peers. For example, the federal government is the largest single employer of doctors in the country, mostly due to the high VA and DOD healthcare systems plus the medical research community at NIH. Comparing the salaries of VA doctors and those with similar specialties in the private sector show that VA doctors make considerably less, but their low 6 figure salaries are certainly higher than the average American.

I am speaking from personal experience. I am fully aware that the federal government is bottom heavy. I do observe somewhat older workers, but most of them have 4 years of college at most. Many only have high-school diplomas. The hiring mechanisms changed in the recent years. We do have opportunities to hire college grads for entry-level positions. However, the majority of hires are veterans with very limited education, usually high school plus any occupational training they got in the military. I do not compare them to average Americans, whatever that may mean. I compare them to the people with similar educational background and experience, myself included. I have friends with the exact (advanced) degree I have. I'm blessed to be a fed, I kid you not. (Obviously, I am not an MD. I agree that highly specialized professionals make more money in the private sector.)

Not sure what agency you work for but that's not the case in mine. My group is mainly IT and project management - only a handful of people just have a high school diploma, and they are support staff. We have a huge number of people with Masters' and several with a PhD. Many people have certifications, like PMP, COR, et cetera. We have just shy of 15% that are vets, it's not the majority of hires but they do get preference. Most of the vets we have working for us have degrees. One guy I work closely with is a combat vet who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has his Masters and is getting ready to go for his PhD. Many of us came in from the private sector where we were making more (I myself was a fed contractor for many years, I was making more outside but got tired of the constant proposal-writing cycle and wanted to just focus on the mission), we've also had people poached away from us by the private sector where they ended up making more than they did as govies. I've had several tempting offers from outside, but I'm not in it for the money. But if the Trump administration makes my work untenable I will likely start taking a closer look at those outside offers.

Anonymous wrote:Moving a few agencies and their lobbyists out of the Beltway would lower real estate values. It's a little much when this is a million dollars:

Lobbyists don't lobby agencies. They lobby Congress. Moving agencies out of DC won't do anything about the lobbyists.

Anonymous wrote:Moving a few agencies and their lobbyists out of the Beltway would lower real estate values. It's a little much when this is a million dollars:

Here's what I don't get - federal employees can't afford million dollar homes. I know I can't. So who is able to purchase these homes??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good lord. It's education that makes people wealthy, not federal jobs by definition. You need a masters' degree to get many, many federal jobs. You can't slot a miner into a program manager position, or even HR.

OK? Go do your job in Wisconsin.
Time to spread the wealth.
Too much concentrated in DC.

You sound like a simpleton. The wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few *people,* who are intent on making even more money on the backs of the poor. But if we talk about taxing them, you scream about "wealth redistribution" and socialism.

But sure, go after middle class taxpayers if you like. We're actually from Grand Rapids and have no desire to move back.

You won't need to -- you feds have skills that are REALLY in demand!
Private industry will be chomping at the bit to hire the folks who won't relocate.

Actually, I am in IT and my husband is emergency medicine, so we can relocate and find jobs almost anywhere. You should be brainstorming ways to make people more hireable, not trying to force the federal government to just hire them all.

Anonymous wrote:
This would be a sure-fire way to maximize government dysfunction and further reduce coordination and rapport among political officials.

Serious question for those who likely criticized Obama for wealth distribution and now think the federal government should engage in wealth distribution (though it already does): Who do we think wants to maximize government dysfunction in the U.S.? Why would they want to do that?

Anonymous wrote:
If people really care about "spreading the wealth" then shouldn't the tech and financial sectors move out of Silicon Valley and New York? If that would make it too hard for them to do business effectively, guess what, the same applies to government.

Tax dollars didn't create nor control Silicon Valley.

If people really care about "spreading the wealth" then shouldn't the tech and financial sectors move out of Silicon Valley and New York? If that would make it too hard for them to do business effectively, guess what, the same applies to government.

This would be a sure-fire way to maximize government dysfunction and further reduce coordination and rapport among political officials.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good lord. It's education that makes people wealthy, not federal jobs by definition. You need a masters' degree to get many, many federal jobs. You can't slot a miner into a program manager position, or even HR.

OK? Go do your job in Wisconsin.
Time to spread the wealth.
Too much concentrated in DC.

I know you're hoping to get more people clinging to the ignorance you're trying to spread, so they can send more people to Washington who brag that they don't know how Washington works. But it will not change the fact that the federal government already spreads the wealth. There are millions of federal workers outside of the Washington, DC area. Millions. Many of those workers are doing specialized work but way more are blue collar.

Randomly pull some of those and watch what happens to the economy here and in places all over the world.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good lord. It's education that makes people wealthy, not federal jobs by definition. You need a masters' degree to get many, many federal jobs. You can't slot a miner into a program manager position, or even HR.

OK? Go do your job in Wisconsin.
Time to spread the wealth.
Too much concentrated in DC.

You sound like a simpleton. The wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few *people,* who are intent on making even more money on the backs of the poor. But if we talk about taxing them, you scream about "wealth redistribution" and socialism.

But sure, go after middle class taxpayers if you like. We're actually from Grand Rapids and have no desire to move back.

You won't need to -- you feds have skills that are REALLY in demand!
Private industry will be chomping at the bit to hire the folks who won't relocate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good lord. It's education that makes people wealthy, not federal jobs by definition. You need a masters' degree to get many, many federal jobs. You can't slot a miner into a program manager position, or even HR.

OK? Go do your job in Wisconsin.
Time to spread the wealth.
Too much concentrated in DC.

You sound like a simpleton. The wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few *people,* who are intent on making even more money on the backs of the poor. But if we talk about taxing them, you scream about "wealth redistribution" and socialism.

But sure, go after middle class taxpayers if you like. We're actually from Grand Rapids and have no desire to move back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good lord. It's education that makes people wealthy, not federal jobs by definition. You need a masters' degree to get many, many federal jobs. You can't slot a miner into a program manager position, or even HR.

I agree with this in general, but there are many blue collar jobs employed within federal government, and they often do make more than their private sector counter parts. Maybe not salary, but benefits for sure. The only guy I know who works at NIH, for example, is an HVAC guy. My best friend's dad was an elevator mechanic at NSA. The loss of those jobs would hurt this area.

Heaven forbid there are good, blue collar jobs for people in the DMV! With good benefits! The Republicans will come for those jobs, for sure, because they only care about employing people in Red States.

Anonymous wrote:Good lord. It's education that makes people wealthy, not federal jobs by definition. You need a masters' degree to get many, many federal jobs. You can't slot a miner into a program manager position, or even HR.

OK? Go do your job in Wisconsin.
Time to spread the wealth.
Too much concentrated in DC.

Anonymous wrote:Good lord. It's education that makes people wealthy, not federal jobs by definition. You need a masters' degree to get many, many federal jobs. You can't slot a miner into a program manager position, or even HR.

I agree with this in general, but there are many blue collar jobs employed within federal government, and they often do make more than their private sector counter parts. Maybe not salary, but benefits for sure. The only guy I know who works at NIH, for example, is an HVAC guy. My best friend's dad was an elevator mechanic at NSA. The loss of those jobs would hurt this area.

Moving a few agencies and their lobbyists out of the Beltway would lower real estate values. It's a little much when this is a million dollars: