Every study shows that government is inept and inefficient at delivering services. Government funds itself by the threat of force–don’t pay your taxes or fees and your property will be taken away, you might be jailed. So there is no incentive to perform well or you will lose your job or your business, like there is in the private industry world. What is even worse is that government employees have become the new elite–they are compensated far better than those in the private sector, they get better pension benefits, they get better health care benefits. And they basically can’t be fired. This is a disgraceful insult to the workers in the private sector who actually fund government. And it is contributing hugely to government budget deficits and stress. It must stop. We need a law that says no government worker can get paid more in any form of compensation than the average for similar occupations in the private sector.
I graduated with an accounting degree in the mid 1970’s. At that time and at least through the early 2000’s there was a very defined and prominent “caste system” on entry level jobs in the accounting industry. Note this caste system was extremely well known and prominent. I suspect similar caste system existed with most every degree.
The top graduates went to work for the “Big Eight” accounting firms and received the top salaries
The mid tier graduates went to work for regional accounting or private industry and received the mid range salaries
The bottom tier graduates went to work for government agencies (IRS) and received the bottom range of salaries.
The only difference today is the bottom tier graduates are still going to work for government agencies, though getting mid to upper range salaries.
The second point is many advocates for higher government pay is the claim that two people, both with bachelors degrees get paid less in government (not true but still claimed). The point is that bachelors degree with a 2.0 is not even remotely the same as a bachelors degree with a 4.0 which makes the comparison bogus.