If what you say is true, then those stories of soldiers dying for their country are false? Please, enlighten me about the absence of motivators other than greed and fear. Yes, I know there are many folks who have no loyalty to their friends or neighbors but I don't think that list includes you, Hugh.

I still work to protect working men and women. And at the same time, I assist construction contractors in getting the work done. Prior to this gig, I was in retail. Retail has no redeeming value. The difference is colossal. You guys who have no motivation other than greed and fear, fine. And you guys who are good people but who choose to pretend that humans are motivated by greed and fear only (that's you, Len) are either misguided or lying. Or just pulling my chain. Len?

There are planty of positive motivators, fear and greed are only two of them:D

But seriously, the military is motivated by extreme honor, pride, brotherhood and most certainly fear. The clerk at the county is not in the same ballpark.

The soldier is at PT at 4:30 A.M. because he knows what will happen if he's not = fear. In actual war his motivations shift to brotherhood, honor etc.. (not that they are not always there to some degree).

Gag my with an old shoe before you start claiming brotherhood and honor among County administrators :D

Okay. It sounds like we've established a shared observation that motivators other than fear and greed do exist. Now, if we work hard, we may reach agreement that some public servants may, in some instances, be motivated by something. I figure it may only take 400 pages of posts, or so. And like the cook said to the Madam in The Cowboys (John Wayne's cutest film), "I have the inclination and the wherewithal but unfortunately......I haven't got the time."

The most entertaining thing about unions is that they are in the soul business of exploiting the workers (union dues).

Too bad you cannot unionize against the evil business of labor unions :P

Now that's a good idea.

Sure, they have the same basic internal motivations that all humans in all professions/walks-of-life have. The problem is that they lack any external motivations, their pay and or job security has very little to do with their performance.

Len, I'm going to disagree with you here and back Supe.

And yes, I will be seeing a shrink and hopefully getting meds tomorrow.

I think that once you get above civil service/grunt level in most federal departments, you get into the realm of "true believers". In the EPA, for example, I believe that most of them believe they are doing God's--I mean humanity's work by pushing ever restrictive and nonsensical restrictions down our throats. They believe they are saving the planet from people. I think the DOE, DEA, DOA, etc. are similarly staffed (though their cause du jour is different).

I can buy that, but really it's just a power trip and those are nothing unique.

OK, the more I think about it you have a point. I can picture some middle aged idiot pounding out new regulations, burning the midnight oil, pretending he's making his mark on the world.