Saturday, June 18, 2011

We have met the enemy, and he is us.


The system is broken, but it can be repaired. I feel that the most important problem to fix is the tendency of all government toward bureaucracy. This is prevalent in both the Republican and Democratic parties. If the civil servants were required to limit the term of their function, then I believe it would slow the tendency toward the selfish and lazy interest of growing their program with the least amount of change. Eventually the people being served by the program have changed significantly, but the program has not kept up with that change. Like a cancer in government services the very need the program set out to accomplish is confounded by people for whom the program was created.

Civil servants used to be low wage employees with excellent benefit programs and outstanding job security. Civil servants are no longer low wage employees. They are high wage competent people capable of multi-tasking and differing job responsibilities.

Many corporations upset the apple cart from time to time to bring fresh ideas into the market place. Corporations are forced to do this because they must compete with smaller businesses who find blind spots to exploit in niches of profitability. This conflict keeps our corporations less bureaucratic, but they also struggle with this infection. This can happen when small business attempts are stifled by the government or monopolistic forces.

Perhaps there is another way to keep the spirit of innovation and change alive in our government institutions. I am currently an educator, and former employee of this organization. It has been my experience that real change occurs when there is a change in the system. A pendulum shift toward individual liberties away from equality will not accomplish this goal. Only when a Trojan horse of change can be placed into the status quo will the fires of innovation and ingenuity overtake the laziness of a system that refuses to change as the world changes around it. This is not a message that is easy to communicate to voters. I have hope that someone like Jon Huntsman will find a systemic application to build change into our government services delivery system, and more importantly find a way to communicate it.