Saw a few minutes of CBS News last night. The wife watches it and I sat down to talk to her a minute. Anyway they were talking about how many more government employees make over a $100 thousand a year now than 5 years ago....something like 5 times as many....and a bunch now make over $150 thou a year.
There featured a young women lawyer that was making over $150 a year as a government lawyer in Washington. The DUmmie said she could be making more in the private sector blah-blah-blah. She wasn't thinking if you ask me. Does she have ANY idea how much she'd have to make in the private sector to equal all the government benefits/retirement and a $150 thou salary?
My theory is that if you're going to quit a good job and go into business for yourself, you had better be planning on at least doubling what you are now making to reach the same economic level and insurance/retirement/security you are now enjoying in your present job.
Bad sentence structure I know but stupid gets me angry sometimes.
I mostly agree, I've known plenty of attorneys in and out of government. Really the big benefit in the government is just the security of the pay, your progression and upside potential is strictly limited, you trade all that away for the security and benefits package when you sign on. That's part of the compensation bargain you make in taking the job - fairly high starting pay, regular check, good benefits, but glacially-predictable modest progression and a Congressionally-limited top end salary you will never exceed no matter how good you are.
You do have to bill quite a bit more in private practice to make the same income, but much more so if you are in small firm or sole practice though (Where that 'double' is close to accurate). Of course in private practice, you may also have the chance of getting 30% of a ten- or twenty-million dollar judgment, while working for the government means your pay will slowly and steadily go up over the years, and only up to a very-known point.
However I was really pissed off by the Fox Business coverage I saw on this topc. Gerri Willis was bitching aobut how it was the end of the world that 4% of the Federal employees got over 170K for a good five minutes...but then the next story was how Google was giving out across-the-board $1,000 raises and 10% pay increases, which was just wonderful, because it meant they were more competitive in recruiting talent!
W. T. F., over? 
More pay is good at Google because it recruits talent, but bad for the government because we have to pay people at all to work for it? You get what you pay for either in or out of Governemnt, dammit. Can the blowhard hypocrisy, Gerri. The tunnel vision of the FBN hosts and commentators is truly appalling sometimes...like last night.
I also wonder what the percentage of Fox News/Gox Business (Or CNN, or the alphabet networks) people earning over 170K is. For that matter, how about the percentage in the financial industry her program covers? I would hazard a guess that 4% of civil service making over 170K - with all its lawyers, VA/NIH/DOD doctors, engineers, and other senior professionals - is probably not far out of line with most other large white-collar service industries. Including hers. Somehow their search for truth never got out of the Government's knickers to compare the Government numbers to the wider world. Yellow journalism at its yellowest.
