This chart, from the Wikipedia, link, is presented for illustration, not information purposes.
There is a missing slice. The slice you don't see, "waste", is actually a slice of every slice. In every agency of government, some amount of our resources are "wasted".
The proportion of the waste slice varies from agency to agency, but I would bet there is no agency with no waste. I would hope there is no agency that is all waste, but if someone found one somewhere, would you be surprised?
I believe that 25% is a reasonably accurate estimate of the number of taxed and borrowed dollars lost to waste every year. If waste were eliminated, the cost of government would be cut by 25%. Never mind the benefits of increased efficiency from qualified public servants.
Budget deficits are cured by one of two methods; reducing spending or raising taxes. Reducing spending is complicated by the fact that, no matter which slice of the pie you want to trim, there are people (powerful enough to have a slice in the first place) who will vigorously defend their slice.
No one stands in defense of the waste slice. If a meeting were held, the purpose of which was to eliminate governmental waste, there would be no one who would stand up in favor of maintaining and enabling it. If a meeting were held, the waste slice would be eliminated.
Can waste really be eliminated, at once and for all?
Waste flows from two founts; incompetence and corruption.
If incompetence and corruption were eliminated, the waste
they generate would end as well.
Can incompetence and corruption be eliminated, at once and for all?
The are two factors that can enable or eliminate incompetence and corruption; standards, and accountability to those standards. Clearly high standards and honest accountability will tend to eliminate them, while lower standards and less accountability exacerbate both.
It is possible to write meaningful standards of conduct and competence for politicians and public servants within their public service. It is possible to hold pols and public servants honestly accountable to those standards; accountable under a system over which they have no undue influence, and powerful enough to hold even the most powerful, accountable, even against their will.
Meaningful standards and honest accountability are fatal
to public corruption and incompetence.
It is is possible, in the first few weeks of the legislature,
when we're paying them $50K a day to do nothing else,
to pass legislation creating transparent accountability
in politics and public service.
They won't of course. Not unless we the people, can make transparent accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence in politics and public service, an issue in the next election.
How do we do that exactly; how do we make political candidates talk about the things we want them to talk about?
2 comments:
There is someone standing in defense of the "waste slice" in virtually every department. Unions, public sector unions are responsible for at least half of waste. They mandate bureaucratic rules and fat contracts that require more people than we need... and inflated benefits. They even prevent automation / modernization of "services", just to protect union jobs. Then the other half is corruption, usually by special interest, this is equal on both sides of the isle...and the worst part... constitutionally, the federal government shouldn't even be doing most of this stuff. It's created to please constituencies and create dependencies that keep people in power. Our forefather are rolling in their graves...and my wallet is empty.
By the way, you were the best shop teacher I ever had, even if we disagree. I'll never forget the rocket motor cars we built and raced at Hoover...thanks Mr. MacQuigg.
Actually, you are the second person to argue that slices of waste will be defended. The difference I see, is that their defense has to be surreptitious; they can't come right out and argue to make public records harder to obtain, or open meetings easier to close.
Thank you for your kind remembrance.
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