I read a statistic recently that startled me. The average pay for federal government employees is nearly $78,500 per year ($78,467).

The number of workers in the pool that determines average wage is 1,850,311 (one worker for every 167 Americans). Of this group, 4,744 more workers are making over $140,000 than at the same time last year.

And these government workers also have rather attractive benefits packages including such things as excellent health insurance coverage; a solid, defined benefit retirement plan, and liberal paid holiday and vacation packages.

None of these numbers includes the workers who are contracted by the government annually, but who are also paid from public tax dollars.