Voters like police unions and teachers unions, but what they don't like is paying more in taxes. As a public employee, I make $74k a year while living in the Ba

Voters like police unions and teachers unions, but what they don't like is paying more in taxes. As a public employee, I make $74k a year while living in the Bay Area. I'm at the top of my salary band. Sure, I've got pretty good health insurance, but no better than I would get in tech. I've got a pension, but it will not be enough to live on, and CalPERS has huge liabilities because the voters are unwilling to actually fully fund it. I get three weeks of vacation. I guess that's pretty OK. The one thing I have (besides a job I absolutely enjoy doing), is job security and stability, and that is thanks to my union. It sure would be nice to have a higher salary, but someone has to be willing to pay for it, and nobody wants to do that. Instead, public employees get things that only indirectly cost money, or that don't have to be paid off until sometime in the distant future when the politicians and union bigwigs who agreed to all this stuff are no longer around.