Thursday, February 17, 2005

On bureaucracy

I got to spend some time today listening to an incredibly overpaid manager fulminate against bureaucracy in the schools. Apparently, despite making his living off of bureaucracy, he hates the idea of anyonelse making their living off the bureaucracy.

I've worked in both the private and public sectors and I don't see one whit of difference on how people spend their time. My current theory is that the actual amount of work that needs to be done in this country (aside from manual labor) is not much. But without work, we have no reason for being. So, several hundred million people will spend their adult life pushing paper and grumbling about how people somewherelse never do anything.

1 comment:

soju said...

Not True. Government organizations don't get praised for being innovative, because that's not what we ask of government organizations. And yes, there is variety in the private sector. And I'm willing to believe that some companies doe a better job of curbing ossification than others. But that doesn't mean they do a better job at things than the government does. Especially things where the profit motive doesn't lead to the most desirable behavior. Big example: health care.

And I have personally worked for some very efficient and cost-effective government organizations. Imagine how much more irritating GW would be if he were pulling in a proper CEO salary....