I work for the United States Forest Service and have done for the last 7 years. My department works on a specific mission created by the United States government in the last decade. I get paid a salary and benefits, I work 8 hours a day. Before the policies were created for this mission, my job did not exist. In this job, nothing is produced for sale or profit. How is this not a real job? There are literally tens of thousands of people across the country who spend their entire career in a ‘fake’ job similar to mine, many put their very lives at risk in the execution of this ‘fake’ job. And yet, with no understanding of the purpose of many government organizations, you undermine our ability to execute our mission by demeaning the job, slashing our pay, reducing our workforce, and then complaining when we can’t accomplish our mission.

And no, a for-profit company could not do the same job for reasons I won’t mention here other than to say:
if you want to put the life of your family in the hands of someone willing to sacrifice safety for profit, you deserve what you get.