>>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.

Except that UPS and Fedex return dividends even after paying the bigger bucks. There's profit in post. There's no common sense or business reason why the government version couldn't have contributed rather than sucking from the public purse had the same managers who oversaw automation of shipping for UPS, worked for USPS on the same salaries and perks. But that would run directly into mean-spirited jealousy that civil servants are being paid huge amounts- from my taxes! Scandalous! Socialists are experts at spending others' money etc etc. So government salaries remain peanuts while UPS and Fedex cheerfully rake off profitable services that could have helped hold down taxes rather than lining affluent pockets.

IME this sort of knee-jerk jealousy directed at others is like holding a grudge: it hurts you more than it hurts them. In this case, the vicious circle that you have to pay peanuts in civil service, is a direct contributor to the high taxes needed in the USA. You've ended up with systematic privatization of profit and socialization of cost. You see it wherever you look.

Not that any of this matters much: the Medicare deficit (established by privatising premium surpluses when you're young and healthy and then socializing the growing expense after you turn 65, with no invested surplus or source for the expense except the Ponzi scheme taxpayer) has been neglected for so long and is so massive that everything else is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic AFAICS.