[quote=CA renter]Public employees tend to be the most qualified employees in their respective fields. Of course they expect to be compensated for it.
That being said, most public employees are exceptionally good workers, and are very dilligent when it comes to their jobs.
In the fields I’m familiar with, “highest qualified” would mean those with the highest/best/most-specific-to-the-job degrees, the most experience in that particular field, and those who score at the top of the aptitude and/or psychological and/or physical agility tests.
Unlike the public sector, getting “banker/CEO” jobs in the private sector depends much more on how well-connected you are rather than how capable you are. [/quote]
You bave really drank the government kool-aid or have low standards for what you deem to be “highest qualified” because your statements above are just not true of MANY government workers.
They are not the best educated- I know MANY government workers personally who do not have college degrees, who are in management and get paid very well. They have told me many stories about their lazy coworkers, those who are out sick a lot but really aren’t sick, those who really should have been fired or forced to retire, but are just sitting around on their arses waiting to get their max pensions. They have countdowns on their days left till they get their fat juicy pensions.
One friend will not leave the public sector because they cannot get a management job in a comparable private sector job without a college degree and they definitely cannot get paid what they make. AND because of the benefits, never ever would find those benefits in the private sector- straight from their mouth.
I have a friend who worked in government and went to the private sector and is going back to government. Guess why? Because he can get paid MORE by government, work less, and get better benefits.
As to your comment about getting jobs because you are connected, oh my, please don’t be so naive about how the world works… Life is about being connected, the rich are connected, the powerful are connected. Do you think top level government officials get their jobs because they are not well connected, because they don’t play politics, because they haven’t kissed someone’s ass, or done favors, or gone drinking with the right people? Please, wake up and realize that government employees are no better than private sector workers.
In some cases, they are the same, in others they are better, but in a lot of others, they are downright awful but don’t get fired. I think the issue most people have with government workers is not with the ones that are good, or even the same, but the ones that are lazy, stupid, and incompetent and do not get fired. OH and yeah, their ridiculous pensions.