...In 2009, the federal government had at least 2,748,978 employees – and 97.6% of civilian federal employees were in the executive branch (and do you think that tally has ticked up a bit during the Barack Obama Administration?) These are the departments, agencies, commissions and boards populated by people who do very little but promulgate and impose regulations – and enforce them.
But government doesn’t even enforce their own rules well. Because in addition to being boorish and overbearing, unilateral and tyrannical – government is unavoidably, inherently incompetent. Because of (at least) two immutable rules of human nature – the Wallet Rule and the Yellow Pages Rule.
The Wallet Rule: “You go out on a Friday night with your wallet. You go out the following Friday night with my wallet. On which Friday night are you going to have more fun?” Obviously you will have more fun with my wallet than yours – because at the end of the revelry you care what your wallet looks like. My wallet? You don’t care quite so much. Government is always using other peoples’ wallets – and the Friday night party never, ever ends.
The Wallet Rule is a key component of the Yellow Pages Rule: “If you can find it in the Yellow Pages (or on YellowPages.com) – the government shouldn’t be doing it.” Private businesses are operating on their own wallets – so they will do everything better, more wisely and more prudentially than government. Including monitoring their own adherence to governments’ ridiculous regulations.
To wit: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In early August, the EPA begrudgingly admitted they spilled three million gallons of toxic bright orange mess into Colorado’s Animas River. Why was there such a huge accumulated reserve of such nastiness for the EPA to spill? Because the EPA mandates it be collected – and the mining company was in successful compliance. If the mining company had committed the spill, they would be fined – by the EPA. Likely to the tune of millions and millions of dollars. Is the EPA subject to similar fines? Of course not.
But that was a one time assault on the environment – an accidental one-off. The EPA is usually much more careful, right? Of course not.
I like that Yellow Pages rule. We might just employ it here from time to time.
No comments:
Post a Comment