Theft at the Public Till
opportunity, we waste money on unneeded programs, we invest away from the very items that might give us great benefits in the future. The bill for missed opportunities at the state and local level alone might be $5 billion per year. Add in unneeded expenses and the skimming of the public till by parasites, and you are talking about another $10 billion per year. For each of us this may amount to only $60 annually, but it is an amount that could be applied to solving homelessness, raising literacy rates, improving public health, ensuring a better future for our children. Americans want many things from their government, and efficiency and hard work are by no means the most important. Because we wish to prevent excessive concentrations of power, we have a system of divided government and checks and balances that subjects the bureaucracy to several masters who often issue contradictory commands. Because we want to avoid errors and abuses, we tolerate a complicated process of oversight, review, publicity and investigation. Because we desire a responsive government, we open the bureaucracy to a wide variety of pressures -- from citizen organizations, indi- vidual legislators, public hearings, inquiring reporters, even private lawsuits - that force public agencies to attend to the concerns of interested groups. These conflicting demands do much to bring about the characteristic be- haviors we have come to associate with bureaucracy- the timidity, lack of venturesomeness and imagination, rigid controls, cumbersome procedures, and reluctance to make exceptions even when circumstance require them. We often blame public officials for acting in this fashion even though our system of government and the demands we place upon it bear most of the responsibility. Our public sector system is so concerned with not making mistakes and with “who” will get the benefits of spoils, that the interests of the majority in improving the quality of life are but an afterthought. Much of our vaunted infrastructure is a giant real estate game played at public expense. Why are our airports located where they are, why do our cities lack public transpor- tation that appeals to users, why is there debate about subsidizing “the rich” with “entitlements?” Why? Why? Government programs rapidly become entrenched bureaucracies whose
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