A v–e–r–y interesting email from a dot-mil address. Somewhat edited
(square brackets) to protect the sender’s anonymity.
“Derb—In regards to your Corner post: ‘Work till you drop’:
“I’m due to retire next year. My officer friends/peers are all retiring
now. I’ve had a lot of discussions with my best friend (also a
conservative with a good understanding of macroeconomics) about the
issues you’ve raised.
“A few things you should know: The actuarial value of my retirement
package next year is estimated to be about 2.5 million dollars. That is
for a [name of senior-level service rank] with 22 years of service. Its
more, a lot more, for a [name of higher service rank] or [name of yet
higher rank]. Less of course, but still generous, for enlisted
personnel. The value of my medical benefits is currently incalculable.
That’s because the benefits are virtually unlimited. Two years ago,
Congress passed legislation granting all military retirees ‘Tricare for
Life,’ meaning the military medical/insurance system pays for all our
health care until the day we die. It doesn’t take much imagination to
see how much I will cost the taxpayers when I start falling apart in my
80’s (if by the grace of God I should live that long).
“These retirement benefits are busting the entire Defense budget and no
one knows what to do about it. Massive changes in how we recruit new
personnel and pay them are in the works, but we are stuck with the
current system for at least another 20 years.
“Similar problems afflict the Federal civilian pension system. But what
is most interesting to me about your post was the macroeconomic effect
these pensions/salaries are having on a given local areas. Are you
aware that two of the top ten U.S. counties with the highest median
incomes are suburban areas of Washington D.C.? This might not strike
you as anything special, until you realize that there are few truly
wealthy people living in these counties and that the statistical
deviation is extremely small. I.e. the median incomes are all high but
everyone is earning about the same salary because most of the people
living in these counties (Howard in MD and Fairfax in VA) are government
workers. Property prices in the DC area have gone through the roof
because there is simply so much money in salaries being pumped into this
area. Your tax dollars at work.
“I do not think the average American living far from DC really knows how
big the salary/pension disparity between private sector and government
sector has gotten. My wife is keenly aware, because she works hard as
an accounting clerk, at the highest pay scale in her industry, and
hardly gets paid what a GS-5 makes around here (considered entry level
for government worker in DC area).
“I recently had to advertise for one GS-6 position in my office and got
over 250 applications within a month. These were from people who
were FULLY AWARE of how valuable it was to get started on the government
payroll. When I ran my own business (I was a civilian for two years,
interrupting my [name of service branch] career), I could only get 160
people to come in for interviews in a nine month period and had to close
my business because I could not find enough qualified employees. I
refused to hire illegals from south of the border.
“I am massively overmanned in my area for [name of service specialty]
officers because so many people keep moving to Washington DC to work in
the Defense Industry. The only reason I can keep them in my program is
because we shift billets that we can’t fill elsewhere in the country (no
jobs for [service specialty] related work for civilians elsewhere) to
this area. At the current rate of Federal growth I expect that everyone
in the country will move to the DC area eventually!
“I could keep on writing but I think you get the point. Books could be
written about this subject.”