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The Plush Life of a Bureaucrat

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Max Zimmerman in the WSJ cites a report from the Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards, in which Chris shows that “the average federal employee earned $84,153 in 2014—roughly 50% more than the average worker in the private economy. When you include benefits like health care and pensions, the average federal worker’s compensation rises to $119,934—nearly 80% higher than everyone else.”

Furthermore, it’s almost impossible to get fired from a government job. At the EPA or Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), employees are more likely to die on the job than lose it.

And remember the Department of Veterans Affairs scandals that brought to light the incompetency and neglect at VA hospitals? According to the New York Times, the VA punished a total of eight of its 280,000 employees for involvement in the scandal. One was fired, one retired in lieu of termination, one’s termination is pending, and five were reprimanded or suspended for up to two months. And by the way, employees at the VA received $142 million in bonuses last year.

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Debbie Young

Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving her Porsche Boxter S through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga.