Unsoliscited Punditry #4

Uncle Sam’s Courtiers


For a while now, I’ve become more aware of a disturbingly dangerous trend. Really I’d been aware of it since college back in the early 1990’s, but never quite pinged the radar as to what was really going on. That is the training of a political class of people. Poli Sci programs in university churn out people who want to spend the rest of their life on the public dole in a public role. Now this doesn’t sound bad till you start considering the ramifications of it all.


I suspect it’s perfectly involuntary at first. Kids and adults are desiring to make the world a better place by their own participation in it. Some intoxicated by the potential power they may wield someday and go for that express purpose into public service. As to what proportion of these people they are, I’ve no idea, but I doubt it’s more than a significant minority. Others fall into the life and just never seem to find their way out. But far too many become permanently ensconced in the bureaucracy and elected offices.


The danger starts creeping in under the guise of voter apathy and government manipulation. Administrative politicking with cabinets and the agencies often leaving large swaths of the bureaucrats and government services untouched and unchanged for sometimes many decades. The People were supposed to watch and be vigilant of these kinds of entrenchments. There was never to be a permanent class of people devoted to the service of government, only temporary services that were to be considered sacrifices by those who partook of them.


Of course, when you look at it more thoroughly, you see many of these jobs are little more than chefs and servers, and cashiers and janitorial staff, maintenance staff, accounting staff, human resource staff and many of the day to day operations of the government. So what would the big deal be anyway? It is good to have people who are good at their jobs providing the best service possible for government. The answer is that the question itself is deceptive.


There are two major threats to the American People through this current arrangement. Over time, these public servants develop a sense of entitlement and idea of class “otherness” from the rest of America. They do not have to worry about the standard stresses of business. Their pay is protected by both taxation and unions. They are safe from consequences of poor performance and incompetence except for the most egregious mistakes. There is no profit motive to protect, no real ability for the public to threaten the safety of the operation as is often the result of poor business practice and policy. The People cannot simply find another vendor for government assistance; there is no where else for them to go. A de facto monopoly by the nature of national structure. Plus, when this is compounded by federal, state, county and municipal levels of government bureaucracy, it is amplified all the more. At least elected officials have, to some degree or another, prove their worth on the campaign trail and prove their effectiveness to their electorate.


The second threat comes from unionization and organization of these services. Not only do the officials and bureaucrats have a monopoly that is not effectively beholden to the public by dint of force, it now is demanding more and more pieces of the monetary pie regardless of economic reality. Thanks to unionization of government work, it has become that public sector jobs are the best paying, best benefited jobs in the country for similar work at a private concern… but with no danger caused by poor performance. Furthermore, when the public sector unions lobby for pay hikes and more benefits, they have conflict of interest with the American People since they can use their close proximity with their fellow political classmates to gain raises and benefits despite the objections of those who actually pay them: the American Taxpayer. There is no real performance incentives or controls on when and why raises and cost increases happen. This rapidly spirals out of control, as we have seen since the creation of government unions and since 1980 when Reagan busted the Air Traffic Controller union. This was probably the last time any government union was effectively fought.


These two factors have created in essence “Uncle Sam’s Court”, the same way any king would create a group of “courtiers” to serve his needs. As long as the king is satisfied, they can do anything they want. Except with no king only related politicians who decide their own worth, there are few bulwarks against corruption, graft and other horrid aspects of human behavior and abuses of power. Ultimately the majority of the political class feels that they are separate from the rest of America as special and better than those they “serve” or “rule”.


Don’t get me wrong, the American public has been extremely delinquent in dealing with this problem and should not be excused much as well. This is partially due to ignorance, willing stupidity and the unwillingness to believe the evidence before them. Currently, the bureaucracy often pays better than other similar private sector jobs, with benefits that are the best in the nation. Low retirement ages with massive pensions that are known to be unsustainable. Benefits that extend to spouse and family at large, and this is just the highlights. The political class has created an environment that doomed to collapse, and they are doing their best to “get theirs” and get out before it tumbles down and they are held accountable.


So what are we to do? If we cannot get the apathetic public to do it’s duty towards liberty and be vigilant consistently, we must offer an alternative. Currently the best one out there is term limits. Take the choice out of the hands of people being pandered too, or benefiting from corruption. We are, after all, a nation of laws, and sometimes laws are needed to force us to do the hard things that need to happen. This is especially true when the people are being seduced by promises of personal gain to sway their better judgment.


But even if we slap term limits on elected officials that solves only half of the problem. Bureaucrats who have been in the ranks of “government service” also are problematic. This means there needs to be a maximum total time in government for all contractors, civil servants and employees. I personally like the figure of 25 years in government service at any level or elected office as a lifetime total allowed, including military service. You should be forced to live under the laws you’ve helped create, enforce or facilitate. Not only that, there should be a 10 year bar on all elected officials from any career associated with lobbying government from the private as it often leads to corruption as well. There must be time spent where inside connections need to wither and die off as to help prevent nefarious corruption from without.


Next, we should de-incentivise government service over private sector. Currently, because the private sector is not as secure as the public, it can never compete with wage and benefits offered by a monopoly like government. Although government workers should not be penalized, they should get equal benefits and wages to the mean private sector in similar jobs at about the 25%-50% percentile in the wage range for that job. If there are no private sector jobs similar, then you need to look at value and need of the job among other factors to determine salary and benefits.


Lastly, public sector unions need to be banned. Workers DO have the need to unionize, and private sectors show good reason why. But when you have a monopoly and the ability to demand nearly by fiat of taxation more money from the public, it is a direct conflict of interest and needs to be ended.


Another solution in this vein would be to privatize as many government services as possible, and put them out for bids, effectively making the government unions private with no ability to demand by fiat anymore. Allow for the creation of competing services that are non-union and see who can and will perform the duties better as to break an industry wide monopoly as well on all shops that had become privatized.


Of course, the major struggle in doing such things is the people affected themselves will band together and fight tooth and nail against any trimming of the way their life has gone regardless of sustainability. A parasite will not give up it’s growth till the host is dead, and that is too late. With the economy is going south and the private sector is getting pummeled, the public sector jobs are snug as a bug in a rug…and apparently laid eggs if you look at the current Administration’s proposed deficits. This will have to be a grass roots effort, and possibly a very long and hard struggle to pass these limitations on an out of control government.


On the other hand, we should never let a good crisis go to waste in justifying the trimming of government at all levels. Now is the best time possible to start pushing for thrift and reorganization from those who serve us. If not through this administration, the next. If not at the federal level, then try the states. If not there, try local. Work upwards, if starting at the top fails.


It worked for the radical left in the 1960’s, why not for the patriotic right in the 2000’s?