[arcticbull]

What makes you think EU government employees are underpaid, uninterested or unqualified? The "low pay" thing is largely a US phenomenon in the first world. Here's a write-up from Brussels claiming quite the opposite [1]. In many places working for the government is something to be proud of. 38% of Norway's entire labor force works for the government. Further you know the FAA and NTSB are both ... "lowly paid government auditors" right?

[1] http://www.brusselstimes.com/magazine2/5828/myths-and-truths...

[spectramax]

https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/eng/News/Data-news/Pub...

Here is some data that contradicts your arguments, but I would like to analyze it further and I do not know the reputation of the source.

Quoting the article:

> Comparison between countries is also possible when it comes to salaries. American and Belgian public employees come out better than their Swedish and British counterparts in this regard.

By the way, please refrain from using rhetorical questions when making arguments, it comes across as impolite and brash.

[arcticbull]

I could have phrased it differently so apologies if it rubbed you the wrong way, tone doesn't carry on the internet. My point, though, I don't think is unfair. Disparaging government employees by virtue of being government employees is pretty typical in the US where people expect little of their government, though elsewhere that's not always the case. It's not even fair in the US in all cases as you mention. I was pointing out that you disparaged EU government workers for being government workers while simultaneously putting your faith into similarly situated US government workers.

The fairest comparison of salaries would be, to your point, two-fold: ratio of salaries relative to private-sector workers in the same role in the same countries, and PPP-adjusted salaries between countries.

[addicted]

The quoted statement in no ways tells you anything about the relative salaries of Swedish vs “American” employees, because it’s comparing public salaries vs GDP/Capita. The “American” numbers could be twice as good, but if the “American” GDP per capita is 1/4th that would mean the Swedish public employees are still paid twice as much in absolute terms.

Anyways, my usage of the word “American” is in quotes for a good reason. American is almost certainly a typo there and was likely supposed to be Austrian, Austria being the country right below Belgium on that chart.

None of the charts reference the US, and nowhere else is the US mentioned. This is data about European countries.

[spectramax]

Now that I think of it, we should not be comparing US vs EU salaries. We should comparing salaries of public vs private sector. That’s the whole reason for the argument of under paid government employees. Underpaid in relation to the private job market in that specific country. The article I linked looks at this.