hawkeye said:
Austacker said:
What I see is a LOT of people saying things, but no one really prepared to do anything. Most people will not stand for a position in Government. Local, State or Federal. While I don't agree with everything they are the only choices we have. If you don't want to run or do something about it then that is all we have.
Haven't you noticed the kind of people who inhabit these positions? They are the scum of society. How can you work with them? Surely, you've noticed good, well-meaning people getting churned up and spit out by the political system?
It's fine to say, why don't you get involved, but the reality is you can't change the nature of the system. It is what it is. And if all it took was good people standing up, getting elected and doing what is necessary then someone would have done it by now. Maybe we should examine the structure of the system itself and see why it is failing us consistently rather than pretending we just need to get some good people in.
+1 and worth repeating.
The Seven Rules of Bureaucracy:
Rule #1: Maintain the problem at all costs! The problem is the basis of power, perks, privileges, and security.
c.f. The War on Poverty; The War on Drugs
Rule #2: Use crisis and perceived crisis to increase your power and control.
Rule 2a. Force 11th-hour decisions, threaten the loss of options and opportunities, and limit the opposition's opportunity to review and critique.
Rule #3: If there are not enough crises, manufacture them, even from nature, where none exist.
Rule #4: Control the flow and release of information while feigning openness.
Rule 4a: Deny, delay, obfuscate, spin, and lie.
Rule #5: Maximize public-relations exposure by creating a cover story that appeals to the universal need to help people.
Rule #6: Create vested support groups by distributing concentrated benefits and/or entitlements to these special interests, while distributing the costs broadly to one's political opponents.
Rule #7: Demonize the truth tellers who have the temerity to say, "The emperor has no clothes."
Rule 7a: Accuse the truth teller of one's own defects, deficiencies, crimes, and misdemeanors.
The Road Less Traveled from Here
We offer a series of antidotes to the scourge of bureaucracy.
1. "Bureaucrat" should not be thought of as a career path. History has proven that "career bureaucrats" do much more harm than good and we must characterize such people as pariahs and scallywags, not saviors of this country.
2. If the Government comes up with a new "war against," we should fight it, no matter what the war is against. The federal government's track record is abysmal and the equivalent of a taxpayer boat a hole in the water that you sink your money in.
3. Send all newly elected officials to the state or national capital with the specific goal to reduce legislation. The nation's bureaucracies have forgotten that resources are scarce, and most legislation builds bigger government and demands more tax dollars.
4. Sowell (1999) has long advocated that we use an economic analysis to examine our legislative initiatives before they become law. To stem the tide of fiscal irresponsibility leading to unsustainable government size and debt, no bill should pass from committee to a full chamber vote without first being carefully analyzed by the Government Accountability Office using a four-step rubric, the results of which must be presented to the people before the vote.
First, an analysis of what we can do about a problem, including its importance to the economic competitiveness of our country, and how much it will cost.
Second, an analysis of what we should do collectively as a nation and what should be left up to individual initiative. Personal health and education are splendid examples.
Third, a careful analysis must be undertaken of who will be helped and who will be hurt by any new legislation. As Bastiat warned us more that 150 years ago, political bureaucrats ignore who will be hurt by a new law.
Fourth, a careful, econometric analysis must be made of the possible long-term unintended consequences of proposed legislation. Had our legislators done this, instead of trying to seize the political moment and the headlines, much of the federal legislation of the last two decades would never have been passed.
You are of course in my opinion perfectly correct in that the reality of projects are ill conceived and overpriced. I can dream of some visionary infrastructure though. To get there we will need an alternative to the Liberal and Labor parties. Neither of them are viable for our future as an evolving society.
