And on top of that for most government workers their paychecks have been remarkably stable. Assuming you'll always be employed plus easy credit and bad financial habits are a bad combination

Man, that's tragic. I was poor most of my early life, and when I finally started to make enough money to be comfortable, I knew that the thing I couldn't do was fall into the lifestyle trap. Living well below my means saved me so much hardship when things weren't going well. I know that many don't ever get to the point of comfortable, though, and there's a bit of luck and effort, to that.