>>>I don't think that it has anything to with ethics.
>>>Private industry pays a lot more and, like it or not, money is a key motivator.
>
>I perceive a vicious circle: why does private industry pay more when it claims to be more efficient?

The answer is pretty simple, John. Private industry pays more because it HAS more.
Politicians will do anything to avoid telling their constituents that taxes are being raised.
It goes back to the beginning of the republic when the soldiers who defeated Cornwallis at Yorktown were never paid the salaries they had been promised because Washington simply had no money.
The colonies refused to levy the taxes that would have been required to pay the soldiers.