The question isn’t why public employees are over-paid, but why private employees are under-paid.

Word. Although, as the daughter of a public-sector employee, I would point out that, compared to people doing the same job, with the same level of education, public employees actually make a little less. My dad could’ve made more money at a private engineering firm, but the government offered better benefits and job security. It’s a tradeoff.

But that’s irrelevant to the point of your post, which I totally agree with. I have noticed sort of an attitude of, “things are shitty for us here in the private sector, so they ought to be shitty for you in the public sector, too!” rather than “let’s make things less shitty for everyone.”

When you don’t think “less shitty” is an option anymore, your democratic impulses might well lead you to want to spread the shittiness around some. So I don’t blame the people making this argument (unless, of course, they are politicians or business leaders) so much as I blame whoever it is who convinced them “less shitty” is not an option.