Because of the nature of my work, I worked for many companies in my professional life (at least 12, depending on how you count them). In virtually all cases, when there was a downturn - either for the company itself, for the industry, or generally in the economy - those companies downsized their expenses and their staff to meet the new realities. Departments were reorganized or eliminated, people worked harder and smarter, every function was looked at to see if it was still necessary, or could be done without, and ultimately, the company got by pretty well with 90% of the previous staffing level, or 80%, or whatever.
And the customers and clients never really saw any difference, because there is "fat" in every organization, and the fat can be trimmed without impacting effectiveness.
But when there is a revenue (tax) reduction in the public sector, it seems like those organizations are NEVER able to shrink-to-fit. First they demand more money from the State or the Feds, then they try to raise taxes, then they start borrowing to meet current operating costs (a fiscal abomination, and usually unconstitutional in each state), but the idea that you can rationally and effectively cut staff without cutting services is simply absent in the public sector.
And having worked a bit in government (8 years with DoD, military and civilian), I know that there is more fat in government than in any private corporation. There is featherbedding, useless work, duplication of effort, and pitiful productivity all over the place.
Why do we put up with it? Every government should do what the U.S. did with Trump on occasion. Hire or elect a successful entrepreneur to run things for a while, just to show what is possible. It just irritates the shit out of me when I read these constant articles about how local tax revenues are going down, so the municipalities "need" a bailout from Washington, or a tax increase, or some kind of extraordinary help from God, when the remedies are not only well-known, but ARE GOING ON AROUND THEM ALL THE TIME IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR.
And the customers and clients never really saw any difference, because there is "fat" in every organization, and the fat can be trimmed without impacting effectiveness.
But when there is a revenue (tax) reduction in the public sector, it seems like those organizations are NEVER able to shrink-to-fit. First they demand more money from the State or the Feds, then they try to raise taxes, then they start borrowing to meet current operating costs (a fiscal abomination, and usually unconstitutional in each state), but the idea that you can rationally and effectively cut staff without cutting services is simply absent in the public sector.
And having worked a bit in government (8 years with DoD, military and civilian), I know that there is more fat in government than in any private corporation. There is featherbedding, useless work, duplication of effort, and pitiful productivity all over the place.
Why do we put up with it? Every government should do what the U.S. did with Trump on occasion. Hire or elect a successful entrepreneur to run things for a while, just to show what is possible. It just irritates the shit out of me when I read these constant articles about how local tax revenues are going down, so the municipalities "need" a bailout from Washington, or a tax increase, or some kind of extraordinary help from God, when the remedies are not only well-known, but ARE GOING ON AROUND THEM ALL THE TIME IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR.
