George Will in WaPo. Interesting Question

This is a paragraph from George Will’s regular column in the Washington Post:

Considerable employment churning is a constant and generally wholesome consequence of economic dynamism. On average, more than 1.5 million private sector workers are laid off per month. Few Americans are sad that eternal job security is not an ironclad entitlement for 3 million federal civilian employees.

No I don’t know what the “laid off per month” number in Australia is, but there are (according to ABS) 365,400 Commonwealth government employees.

According to my friend Chat GPT

As of June 30, 2024, Australia's population was 27,204,809 people. This means that Australia has one Federal public servant per 74.5 people. An amazing statistic.

As of January 1, 2025, the United States Census Bureau estimated the U.S. population to be approximately 341,145,670. This means that the US has one Federal public servant per 113.7 people.

Using the magic of mathematics, this suggests that the US Federal Government is 52% more efficient that the Australian Commonwealth Government.

And as evidenced by DOGE, the US Federal Government is not efficient at all.

Of course it is a complete conflict of interest to have the Senator from ACT (Gallagher) being the Minister for the Public service. The more public servants she hires the more votes she get.

But again … complete contempt for the Australian taxpayer and complete apathy from the Australian taxpayer.