In most countries the ratio between annual gross average earnings in the public sector and the private sector shows civil and public servants earning more. American political tradition was always reluctant to approve high taxes for public purposes, except defence and policing and, since Roosevelt, income in old age. The Reagan legacy The largest American bureaucracies were and remain those associated with the military, prisons and social security. This was Reinventing Government by Osborne and Gaebler, which argued that the public sector no longer had itself to provide housing, schooling even roads. Private contractors could be employed to do the services more cheaply and more efficiently.
Government has constantly to measure itself against competitive providers of services.
Public managers had to take risks, become more like entrepreneurs. Of course it did not work out like this in practice, despite the enthusiasm for the agenda shown by Vice-President Al Gore when Bill Clinton replaced George Bush as president in 1992. Many American towns and cities do use private contractors for street services but public service employment has shown no dramatic fall. The reason is in part recent American economic prosperity which has seen tax revenues rise along with public spending. As recession bites, tax revenues will fall and pressure on spending and public sector jobs may grow.