Public service is very different from the “private-sector.” It is about serving the public. (The clue is in the name.) People who go into public service do so with an expectation they will receive less pay but have a more secure position helping other people.

We have all been subject to decades of propaganda devoted to breaking down these understandings. Government is bad – all government. Government is inefficient and in the way of progress. People who work for the government are lazy and greedy and only out for themselves. Etc.

It really got going when the government tried to protect people from harm by tobacco companies. The companies developed ways to convince the public to let them keep doing what they were doing. They were convincing people to kill themselves – but also to pay these companies for the privilege of bringing them a slow, agonizing death. Other industries picked up these techniques.

Personal responsibility. Liberty to do what we want. Nanny state. Government interference.

The propaganda wasn’t enough; they also organized a political attack. Not a coincidence that a tobacco lawyer wrote the “Powell Memo,” launching the “Conservative Movement” and later, on the Supreme Court, “legalizing” bribery. (PLEASE please listen to the “Master Plan” podcast explaining how bribery became the way of business under the cover story “free speech.”)

Now we are living with the consequences of doing nothing about this “free speech.”