Buckdog

I agree completely, but having an aunt who works for a union and ended up staying in a "Ritz-like" luxury suite, on the union members dime, for a union conference. I find that crap like that takes place everywhere not just government, it's a decades old "We deserve better because we made it farther up the ladder than you" attitude that usually sticks to CEO's like Galen Westen and his son of Lablaws (Superstore), who have dozens of lawsuits on their hands everyday because of not-so-legal business practices, like grinding up expired meat into hamburger and repackaging it and treating their employees like garbage.

Of course I don't want to lump all unions in with that the one my aunt happens to be a part of, many still have a purpose other than parading their exec's around to conferences like that.

Unfortunately, government (in this case) isn't an exception to the usual rule but an example of it.