[mikec3010]

> you don't know what you're talking about.

Personal attacks aren't welcome here.

The government has the money. As evidenced by their defense budget.

The government does not pay the money to their employees. As evidenced by NSA employees making less than high-grade truck drivers.

The government does pay billions to corporations such as Lockheed or Booz, etc.

SO let's recap: they have the money, they just choose not to pay it to their employees. But instead it inexplicably gets rerouted to rent-seeking gatekeepers.

[pc86]

Saying you don't know what you're talking about is not a personal attack when you seem to be going out of your way to prove me right.

"The government" is not a gigantic neolithic behemoth doing whatever it wants whenever it wants. You might be surprised to learn that there are in fact three branches of government in the United States. Congress has passed more than one law detailing the manner in which federal employees can be paid, and limiting how much each given position may be paid.[0] Similarly, Congress sets the budget for the Executive agencies. Because the Pentagon get billions of dollars does not mean that it's trivial to raise the salary of everyone at the Food & Drug Administration.

USG employees make significantly less than their private sector counterparts (usually) because they get quite a few benefits unavailable to the private sector:

* Generous paid leave in the form of sick time, vacation time, comp time, and scheduled holidays

* Accrued paid leave is paid out when you leave government employment

* Government pension Ignoring the completely nonsensical "rent-seeking gatekeepers" comment, Lockheed and BAH receive government contracts through open bid procurement processes. You'll get no argument from me that often times these bids are written so only 1-3 firms in the world even qualify, but that's sort of the nature of the beast when the bid is to develop a new missile or something.

[0] https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries...

[mikec3010]

> Saying you don't know what you're talking about is not a personal attack

It's attacking the person, not the central point. Thus making it ad-hominem.

> You might be surprised to learn that there are in fact three branches of government in the United States

See above comment.

[qaq]

let's recap who are they? The Congress passed the pay caps if you show me any evidence that there is a broad voter support for removing those caps the "they" claim might have some merit otherwise "they"="we"