#971 "education is not a necessity beyond grade school levels"
Going to have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. We are no longer a farm-based economy and people without higher education are not going to be able to even stay afloat the way things are going. You need not only a high school diploma, but at least some college or trade school now in order to support a family and have a decent standard of living now. Even with two people working in the home, we have lost so many good paying union jobs and tech jobs that we are slowing devolving into a 3rd world socialist economy. We are being conditioned to expect lower and lower pay while everything goes up due to inflation. In the 3 years of pay freezes, my health insurance has gone up 30% and gas and food have risen by about 20%. As a FED IT worker I am underpaid by about 20-30% below my peers in private industry. The pay freeze has only broadened the gap and if I cannot even count on my annual salary becuase every fiscal year I am furloughed, I am going to go work for a contractor and make more money so I can have the standard of living my parents and grandparents once had. If my service is not valued anymore, if my paycheck is now nothing more than a debit card for Obama and the congress to take out funds to pay for thier haircuts, expense accounts and pork projects like protecting Monsanto Corp from litigation [slipped into last spending bill], then I will roll the dice on the outside and leave and I bet I will not be the only one.

How is anyone supposed to plan for the next few months with a cloud over our heads. I agreed to work for the DoD at a set amount of salary for a set amount of work and outstanding performance. I have done my part of the deal and now at the end of the fiscal year they shave off money from my paycheck and reduce my annual salary to below what I made as a GS 11 in 07. As a female civilian it was a hard fight to get my promotions and get to where I am now and I worked 2x harder then many of my male counterparts who seemed to get promoted automatically without effort. Contrary to what some think, women do not get easy promotions and are often marginalized at work and not given the credit they deserve. My concern is they will pull this same BS on us next year this time and reduce our salaries even more. I already suffer through 3 years of no cola and if they think they can use this as a backdoor way of reducing my salary I will leave and go to private sector and make 30k-40k more a year then I am making now. I really thought I was doing something good for my country by being a public servant but now I feel like I am being robbed by congress and the president and my morale is shot and now I feel like maybe the private sector will appreciate my skills and experience and pay me accordingly. The worse part of this is I can't work for some of the companies that would be the best fit because they are a contractor for us. Another fine perk of my job.

So I am NOT going to celebrate that I am only being robbed for 14 days of pay vice 22 days. They are making a huge mistake with thier workforce and will lose the very people they worked so hard to attract and retain-- thier best and brightest. I may not be one of them but I know I am in the top group as far as my abilities, education and experience and I am sick of this.