'Bureaucracy At Its Very Best' Explained

Since I do not have Internet access this Thursday, I have reprinted another article from our local paper, "The Eyes Newsletter" so that you can continue to be entertained while I am wandering around on the road. There was no author associated with this article either, but it can be found in the January 2010 edition of "The Eyes".

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, 'someone may steal from it at night.' So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, 'How does the watchman do his job without instruction?' So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, 'How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?' So they created Quality Control department and hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, 'How are these people going to get paid?' So they created the following positions, a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Congress said, 'Who will be accountable for all these people?' So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Asst. Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary, (as opposed to an illegal one I suppose?).

Then Congress said, 'We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $18,000 over budget, we must cut back overall costs.' So they laid off the night watchman.

Now, slowly; let that sink in. Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the Department of Energy? The one during the Carter Administration? Anybody? Anything? No? I didn't think so! Bottom line, we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of that agency, the reason for which very few who reads this remember.

Okay, let me help; ready? It was very simple, and at the time, everybody thought it was very appropriate. The Department of Energy was instituted on August 4, 1977, to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Hey, pretty spiffy, huh? (We haven't resolved that yet either...)

Okay, so now fast-forward; it's 2009 - 32 years later - and the budget for this departmental monstrosity is at $24.2 billion a year. It has 16,000 federal employees and roughly 100,000 contract employees; and wow, look at the job they've done. This is where you slap your forehead and say, 'what was I thinking?'

What's worse? Well, now we're wanting to turn the banking system, health care coverage and auto manufacturing over to the same folks over there around the Pennsylvania Ave area who so helped us out with the fuel deal? Why does the whole thing scare me to death?

Until tomorrow...