The setting: The government is an enterprise of millions of employees, led by politicians, who really don’t know how to do anything. Below them are political appointees, sometimes skilled at something different and at a vastly smaller scale. Below them are civil servants, who function as highest level operational administrators. They are normally paid substantially less that commercial counterparts. Thus, not the highest quality folks are retained. Below them are the midlevel administrators whose abilities range from very good to terrible, biased toward the lower end. Since they have total job security, there is little incentive to perform well, even if they could. This higher level structure diffuses to the entire government enterprise. Making it bigger will simply require hiring more lower-quality administrators entrusted with higher-level functions. Will not work. Government service summary: At the higher levels: fish out of water At the lower
Random thoughts and used ideas