Oh, the tired little taxpayer argument. From the way you talk it's easy to tell that you're likely to be someone who doesn't even pay tax at all, or one who thinks that the pathetic amount of tax he pays, which probably makes up 0.000000001% of our government revenue entitles him to act all boss for once in his life. The fact that you specifically targeted top civil servants instead of ALL civil and public servants down to the teachers and janitor (before I called you out in front of everybody) shows that your concern is not so much how your tax money is used in general. Rather you are eyeing AO pay with green eyed envy and deluding yourself into thinking you are some sort of their paymaster. Your initial "argument" that we should look at their pay by virtue of their potential for politics broke down when I simply pointed out that many private sector people go into politics too. one thing is for sure: the Admin Service would never take in someone like you, so you can beat it and show yourself the door.