Listening to the 947 declared Democratic contenders for the POTUS position, you will pick up vibes that they all believe that the public sector is inherently more virtuous than the private sector.
Peel a little deeper and you are likely to pick up that they believe that public sector employees, as a group, are more virtuous than mammon-grubbing private sector employees. What other justification can there be for moving more of the economy under the control of the public sector?
A few simple questions: If public sector employees are so virtuous, then why is it necessary for them to have Unions?
Why do progressives treat Law Enforcement people differently (less virtuous) than a clerk at the Secretary of State?
My hypothesis is not that public sector employees are more, or less virtuous than the general population. I contend that they are the same population as the general public and the same as public sector employees. Same-same-same.
Further, I will speculate that the difference between the cop and the clerk is that the cop's output is visible and he is held accountable while the clerk can be a total screw-up for thirty years and still retire.
Let me point to the Catholic Church scandals as one example of an organization that thought it was employing extremely virtuous people and put them in positions where crimes could be hidden and there was no outside accountability.
What basis can any thinking person have for believing that giving public sector employees access to private health information, financial records, consumer habits, etc will result in behaviors that are any more virtuous than were seen with the Catholic Church?
Nope, public sector employees are not more virtuous than private sector - I spent 20+ years working in the private sector and the past 23 years working in various public sector organizations. I've seen both fantastic and terrible examples in both. You hit the nail on the head. I recently interviewed someone who works in the private sector that assured me that HIPAA accountability was based on "making your best effort" with regard to privacy. MOST screw-ups aren't driven by nefarious desires, but rather degrees of ignorance and stupidity - and neither the public nor private sector have a lock and employing the best and brightest. We're all subjects of the human condition. For better or for worse.
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