When I visit family and friends in the old country, I always find people's attitude depressing. There is a universal sense of dependence on the state, stemming largely from the fact that over 20% of the population is employed directly by the government, but also from a widespread sense of entitlement to welfare and other support.
The state is the source of and solution to all of their problems, and this interferes with their willingness to depend on each-other for support. People will much more readily look to the state for the answers to their problems than to themselves or their peers.
I can only take such an attitude in small doses before I have to leave and breathe some fresh air of freedom and self-determination back stateside. I appreciate the sense of community and interdependence that comes from the state taking a back seat in people's lives. If we have a problem, then the answer is often to address it ourselves rather than petition the state for a solution. Chances are we're not the only ones to feel that way, and help from our peers will materialize from the bottom up.
I don't have numbers on full/part-time work of government employees so I'm using the basis that $53K average salary[1] implies that nearly most are full-time, given that the average income overall is about that amount (edit: wow, it's totally not[4]).
Some more information. The average hourly wage for full-time employees is $24.72 across the entire population [2]. The same data shows that the average hourly wage for both part-time (25 and older) and full time is $24.89. This is not apples to apples, just giving you some expectation on what you can expect for a professional workforce that works both part-time and full-time.
Assuming, then, that full time is 2000 hours (40hrs/week*50weeks), the average hourly wage for part-time and full-time government employees works out to $26.55 [3].
So based on that information, I am comfortable saying that an insignificant number of government employees are part-time or they are excessively overpaid.
Further, I am then comfortable saying that 27% of the Canadian full-time workforce works directly for the government.
The state is the source of and solution to all of their problems, and this interferes with their willingness to depend on each-other for support. People will much more readily look to the state for the answers to their problems than to themselves or their peers.
I can only take such an attitude in small doses before I have to leave and breathe some fresh air of freedom and self-determination back stateside. I appreciate the sense of community and interdependence that comes from the state taking a back seat in people's lives. If we have a problem, then the answer is often to address it ourselves rather than petition the state for a solution. Chances are we're not the only ones to feel that way, and help from our peers will materialize from the bottom up.