Civil Servants making over 100k a year?!?!

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest...

It's 72 degrees in Milwaukie, and whilst I was working yesterday, I found out that cops in Happy Valley, OR are getting paid over $150k a year...what?!?! How is this possible? How can a cop in the Metro Portland, OR area make over $100k a year, and a Cisco CCIE can't make over $80k? A cop up here doesn't face the same level of danger as a cop in CA, but yet, they're making over $100k. This is proof positive that the unions have too much power here, and the public sector unions have the most power!!! There is no way a cop in OR should be making that kinda money. I wonder if they're familiar with Bell, CA? Recently, Bell, CA city managers were making over $600k. That caused a firestorm in CA. CA is in economic dire straights, and here they are paying exorbitant amounts of money for someone that doesn't deserve it. Did they go to college, earn a degree, and put it into practice? In government? I doubt it...

Oregon is willing to pay out exorbitant amounts of money for it's Law Enforcement, but yet, they're not willing to pay IT professionals chump change. An IT professional (such as myself...), has gone to college, gotten a degree, gotten advanced training and schooling, and as a result, deserves to make the big bucks. But, whenever there's a shortage of IT professionals, companies scream bloody murder about there not being enough qualified American IT professionals. The problem is that there are enough qualified professionals, but rather, the real problem is that there are too many companies out there that aren't willing to pay us what we're really worth. They'd rather pay for an H-1B import worker, and pay that worker what the same wages they get paid in the home country. I've had enough of those firms outsourcing our IT jobs. There's nothing worse than an a qualified American IT professional being sold out so a company can save a buck.

I have issues with my fiance's soon to be Ex husband, Bob. But, like me, he's an IT professional. The difference between him and I is that he doesn't have an IT degree, and he doesn't have industry certs. What he does have is experience, and a certificate of completion of a training program. He, originally, worked for Nike's IT department in-house. Unfortunately for him, Nike outsourced the IT department, and he lost his job. Luckily for him, the outsource firm hired the whole department. Later on, the outsourcing firm decided to sell that contract to another firm, and they lost their jobs. Another firm said they'd be rehired, but it didn't happen. Finally, he got picked up by the firm he's working with now. But he's been out of work for over 2 years. He's worked off and on during that 2 year period, but it wasn't enough for Toni. She insisted that he find work somewhere else; they had bills that needed to be paid, and unemployment didn't cover it... He simply refused to find work elsewhere. Me? I've worked all over Northern CA, and I'm not afraid to commute to work. Anyway, Toni got tired of being tired, and she had enough of him. Bob, should have gotten certified, but he didn't. At least, he would have kept working continuously.

Maybe, after the divorce, he'll understand where he screwed up, and try to make up for those shortcomings, but I highly doubt it...