Good points there Rich.
We all know there are wasters in public service and that includes some of the highly overpaid managers that have come in from the private sector in recent years who have no idea about the service they enter and frankly end up making stupid cuts that most can see is simply about justifying their inflated salaries. And that Chesterfield is what is distorting the average pay in the public service nowadays.
We also know the ridiculous sums of money that can be made in the private sector. I never use the word "earn" because how you can ever say someone, like a trader, paid £1m a year is worth 40 times more than say someone, like a nurse, on £25k a year? How would a banker face life and death situations each working day - are we really saying his share dealing is 40 times more important in the pay scales -so he can buy the most expensive champagne and luxury/preformance cars?
Let's not forget, the root cause of the financial problems we have was caused by the private sector - the 'money houses', aided and abetted by weak politicians - the buggers you and I elect, not appoint.
That said, it has been a real eye opener since I changed from the public sector to the private sector - being your own boss and using the expertise gained working in the public sector was the best thing I ever did. But then when I have to deal with the public sector it can be like stone and blood as I have been seen as jumping ship - the us and them divide which I see coming through in this thread, because we have all been hit one way or another. I'm still smarting over an endowment that didn't get near to covering the mortgage sum insured, messed up by guess who...
Frankly I think the *ankers have got away with daylight robbery on massive scales and yet they are still awarding themselves lottery money bonus - they are the ones that have caused the financial crises that should be slammed, not your average private/public sector worker who end up being the victims in all of this.
The fact that 77% of the public sector did not vote for the strike action confirms to me a least that the vast majority are resigned to taking a hit on their pensions in just the same way the average private sector worker has seen their pension (savings) being taken away - no guesses by who