Government is a necessary evil that is capable of doing many good things. But we should never confuse the desire to do something good with actually doing something good.
Government is very limited in its ability to get things done. It has an inherent tendency to do things inefficiently and at a far higher cost than the private sector for a very simple reason - its motivation is not to make a profit. There is very little - perhaps nothing - that anyone can do to change this. It's Adam Smith 101.
Not everyone agrees with this analysis. No matter how passionate or well intentioned such people may be, they are, of course, just wrong. It's one of those issues we like to debate, but unfortunately there isn't anything to debate. It's a waste of oxygen, much like Joe Biden. The whole of human history proves that this is the way of the world, wholly inseparable from the human nature.
You cannot change human nature, as LOST teaches us.
Every so I often you come across an article like this one in the Wall Street Journal. (From Instapundit.)
It turns out there really is growing inequality in America. It’s the 45% premium in pay and benefits that government workers receive over the poor saps who create wealth in the private economy. And the gap is growing. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), from 1998 to 2008 public employee compensation grew by 28.6%, compared with 19.3% for private workers. In the recession year of 2009, with almost no inflation and record budget deficits, more than half the states awarded pay raises to their employees. Even as deficits in state capitals widen and are forcing cuts in services, few politicians are willing to eliminate these pay inequities.
What if government workers earned the average of what private workers earn? States and localities would save $339 billion a year from their more than $2.1 trillion budgets. These savings are larger than the combined estimated deficits for 2010 and 2011 of every state in America. In a separate survey, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis compares the compensation of public versus private workers in each of the 50 states. Perhaps not coincidentally, the pay gap is widest in states that have the biggest budget deficits, such as New Jersey, Nevada and Hawaii. Of the 40 states that have a budget deficit so far this year, 28 would have a balanced budget were it not for the windfall to government workers.”
Every non-government employee - and there are far more of us than there are government employees - should be seething when they read this. The solution is very simple. Painfully simple.
REDUCE THE SALARY AND BENEFITS OF EVERY SINGLE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE BY 45%. Cut by 10% a year every year for four years.
Then one day in the very near future every single citizen in every single state would wake up and say "Deficit? What deficit?"
Can it really be that simple?
Why yes, it is.
This is why no one in government could ever possibly figure it out.
Glad to get that off my chest.
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