OK so everyone works in the private sector and then there is a substandard education, health etc etc service as no one of any decent standard works public - which in turn no doubt everyone would in a heart beat complain about.
I spent a year in the civil service years ago and have seen gross wastage of people and money, in the same way I saw it in private also. But, when you look at careers like teaching, policing, health, actually it is something people want to do as a career which you cant really get in private sector - I am thinking of switching from private to public sector because in all honesty, I find my career in the private sector quite soulless and unfulfilling - the salary drop is going to be enormous and I will NEVER earn in public sector what I have earn't in the private sector.
The only way to solve the whole debate is that public sector pay comes into line with private sector pay for peoples experience, education and skill sets and then equalise pensions then there is no argument.
Personally, I still struggle with the whole pension thing, on the one hand you have to accept market conditions and its unaffordable but on the other it doesn't bode well for the country that we make careers like teaching are made less attractive, therefore less talented teachers, therefore poorer people coming through the system - the dangers of over reliance on simply talking numbers all the time is that you miss out the more subtle things.