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Snowden: But I didn't come forward to be safe. If I wanted to be safe, I'd still be sitting in Hawaii, making a hell of a lot money, to spy on you.

Does the NSA actually pay well?

He said that he'd make ~2x at the NSA as what he'd make in an equivalent private sector job, so it seems that way.

At around 52:45 he mentioned top secret security clearance will get you paid ridiculous amounts of money.