Corporate bureaucrats don’t actually stack up all that much better than their counterparts in the public sector.

Yes, we all think we know what civil service employees are like.  But how many of us have actually spent enough time in both government and corporate bureaucracies to have a reasonable basis for comparison?

Actually, I have.  I’ve worked for a pretty wide variety of organizations, public as well as private, including technology companies and a high-priced management consulting firm.  What's the most consistent difference I’ve observed? 

In private industry, people tend to dress and talk better.

As for how hard people work, I haven’t seen much difference.  People’s knowledgeability in their fields?  Again, pretty much the same.  Featherbedding and dead wood?   I’ve seen essentially the same thing, and in comparable amounts, in the private sector as in government. 

As a representative example, I could point to, say, the very marginally productive company oldtimer who, upon meeting the new Assistant Vice President, wasted no time in telling him about his annual fishing trips and deep personal friendship with the Senior Vice President who ran the place. (Translation: "You can’t touch me.")

Or I could describe my coworker in a small department where our mission was to critically analyze the emerging trends in electronic banking, and make forward-looking but practical business recommendations on how our company ought to deal with them.  This individual lacked a grasp of technology, could not write clearly, and did not have enough mastery of business math to compare costs to projected benefits.  He did, however, happen to be kind of a cool dude.   Consequently, the department head liked to hang out with him, and his job was secure.

Need I go on with other cases?   Just about anyone who has worked for a company of a certain size probably has similar examples of his or her own.