"I Want One of Them Good Guvvamint Jobs"

John Derbyshire at National Review Online (Gasp! Did he mention a right-wing-facist-hate-speech organ?) bemoaned the fact that he had not taken an old uncle's advice from years ago to get a government job ... you know, one you can rarely be fired from and is most certain to carry a good pension and post-retirement medical care those of us in the private-sector will only be able to dream about as we toil on into our 70's. He got the following from a reader:

Derb — Allow me to comment. I am one of those government employees you talk about. I was not always a government employee. For 25 years, I made a handsome living as a computer programmer until the DOTCOMBOMB and outsourcing took their savage toll. My wife was always a government employee and urged me to become likewise. I resisted her blandishments. I was making big money and putting it away. I was a sucker. She is now retired and I am still working!

After losing my job and pension six years ago, I became a government employee. My reaction was how could I have been so blind for so long?! The private sector has become a vast lie, a minefield where one must carefully consider every step and purse one's lips. You can be banished with a snap of the fingers. I used to work my a** off, 80 hours a week. I now work a precise 40. I used to worry about layoffs and downsizing. No more. I used to worry about my pension. No more. Indeed, I can plan with computer precision the day of my exit from the work force. I shall be 63, my birthday, and retire with Social Security and a very secure pension along with a medical care supplement. Let us be blunt, there shall be two classes of people going forward. Those who can retire and those who can't.

You know, the US Treasury is going to need financial analysts like me in the coming years to figure out what to do with all the crap they are buying from the Banks, and I need a real pension ... so what am I doing toiling away in German industry?

If you can't beat the Socialists, you join the Party ... right?