The Myth of Public Service
Recently, a college classmate of mine posted something on our class’s Facebook page. It was a ranking of U.S. colleges by the percentage of grads going into public service. She was very proud as our school was in the top 10.
Here are the top schools by this metric:
1. William and Mary 32%
2. George Washington 31
3. Univ. of Chicago 30
4. Brandeis 28
5. Brown 27
6. Univ. of Rochester 26
7. Yale 26
8. Emory 25
9. Washington Univ. St. Louis 25
10. Georgetown 24
I couldn’t let this pass. Against my better judgement, I posted a comment to the effect that I’d like to see our school at the bottom of this list, pointing out that “public service” means “government.”
My views were not well received.
But, seriously, whose going to make our country great, people in the private sector, people who take risks, create new products and companies and jobs, or someone going to work for the Department of Education or the IRS?
What also sticks in my craw is the implicit message that those choosing public service are somehow making a sacrifice and should be admired for it. What baloney. According to the government’s own figures (the CBO), college grads in the federal government earn 5% more than their private sector counterparts. But that’s only the beginning. If you include benefits, annual comp for federal employees is a staggering 52% higher.
52%!
It doesn’t end there. Government workers have near bullet proof job security, immune to economic cycles and structural shifts in the economy. How many government employees did you hear about losing their jobs during COVID?They also have staggeringly generous defined-benefit retirement packages into which they have to contribute little. On the other hand, most people in the private sector have to save for their own retirements.
When thinking through any course of reasoning, a useful exercise is to take an argument to its extreme. In this case, what if 100% of college grads went to work for the government. Who, exactly, would pay their salaries?
So, college grads, go feed at the public teat if you must, but don’t expect my admiration.
