"It is SICKENING to see the plans the gubment offers.....TALK about a golden ticket."

ya, think of all the golden tickets feds get:

a. Some see periodic deployments to foreign countries....most of which are now glad to see you.
b. Like working 24X7 for a couple months or years when a national crisis or disaster occurs.
c. Like knowing you are spending all that time working for your country and fellow citizens when you could be looking out for #1, or the family, or fishing.
d. Like losing a job when the budget gets cut, even though that person maybe an excellent productive performer. Less bucks, less people. And I know that happens "downtown" too. Just don't dillute yourself with the thought that "gubment = security". And oh by the way, since the guy whose job went away spent 30 years managing the maintenance of Abrams tanks......go find a similar job down town.
e. Like getting to make some really cool career decisions, like do I move from KY where my house is paid off, wife's family resides, and wife's career is located, to Washington DC like my boss wants me to be and where I can buy a house that costs 5 times more than it should, depreciates like a rock, and oh......by the way, I get to wreck the wife's career if I move to save my job. Same scenario, but changed the city to Detroit and see what ya think.

Geo, you're a great guy and all. Tell ya what..........walk in the shoes of one that does serve the country for 30 some years, then tell me if ya feel "over-compensated". Especially if about 75% of the darn medical issues you have are related directly to the stresses faced, hours worked, sleep lost, meals missed, and lovely locations where you "enjoyed" employment.

"golden parachutes".......that's one you took with you when you voluntarily went to some dangerous place well above the ground level, and hope what you are doing never requires you to use it. Its not the fall that hurts, its that sudden stop, and that's what parachutes are supposed to do. A "golden parachute" is one that worked when it was called on.

Beers getting warm.....gotta go.