I think the same public/private comparisons for salary, stability, etc. apply in the U.S., at least for some job categories. It's just that, as you said, the private sector pays so well for comparable positions. Salary-wise, I think less skilled position do better with government, but the higher-skilled positions do better in the private sector. If you see a government engineer/scientist/mathematician working alongside a contractor in the same role, the government employee almost always makes less.