Get a Goverment Job

As John Derbyshire has been pointing out, government is the new growth industry and if you don't have or get a government job you're a sucker.

Here is a summary of some of the perks of being on the government dole, er, payroll. A small sample:

Pay Excesses

• On average, federal civilian wages in 2008 was $79,197, more than 50% greater than that of the average private sector employee’s wages of $49,935, according to the Cato Institute’s analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
• Pay growth in the public sector has been much higher than growth in the private sector over the years, too. Between 2000 and 2008, wages for federal civilian workers climbed 53.7%, while wages in the private sector went up 28.5% over the same time period, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
• The U.S. government issued employee bonuses of some $370 million in the fiscal year ending September 2008. The largest bonus went to a Department of Energy administrator who received a $62,925 bonus in 2008 on top of his $172,200 base pay.
• The average state and local government employee earns 29% more than the average private sector employee, according to The Tax Foundation’s analysis of 2007 data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The differences are greatest in Rhode Island (where state/local employees earn 63% more than private sector employees), Hawaii (62% more), Montana (62%), Nevada (55%), Vermont (55%), Alaska (53%) and Florida (51%).

Follow the link for the entire list.