Middle Class Anarchy

Sloth, what is it with you and your twisted perception?

Bureaucracy is the opposite of effectiveness.
Have you ever heard a clerk tell you: “it’s somewhere in the system, I guess you have to wait three more weeks” with an I-don’t-care shrug. Only in Bureaucrastan.

While a little less effectiveness can be a good thing, an army of desks organizing or overseeing society’s most important points of intersection is at best a necessary evil.
Bureaucracy’s biggest built-in features are that it grows and spreads like a cancer.
The only thing it works on effectively is making itself and it’s host society less effective.
It’s on par with soviet communism when it comes to personal responsibility and taking initiative.

Do you think Greece’s army (it’s literally an army!) of civil servants will now, as they brought the land to it’s knees, work harder, to make up for it? They will cling even more to bribes and follow the rules where it suits them, doing only work where it’s absolutely necessary as to put their already meager pension not into jeopardy.

Hacking of the dozens of department arms of that Scylla WILL NEVER, EVER be an internal decision.
It has to come via external force.

[quote]Chushin wrote:
One of your “sources” to learn about America?

Explains a lot.[/quote]

Dear Supreme T-Nation PWI Forum Genius,

This was an article that was reposted from an other “source” but you didn’t even read it because you already know all there is to know about the subject contained therein, huh?

It must be awesome to be you and have your supreme knowledge.

Next time Orion should just start a thread and ask your opinion (the all knowing oracle that you are) and that will be the end of the discussion. Think of all the time it will save us from discussing ideas you are already in command of.

Sincerly,

An intellectual peon

[quote]Schwarzfahrer wrote:
Sloth, what is it with you and your twisted perception?

Bureaucracy is the opposite of effectiveness.
Have you ever heard a clerk tell you: “it’s somewhere in the system, I guess you have to wait three more weeks” with an I-don’t-care shrug. Only in Bureaucrastan.

While a little less effectiveness can be a good thing, an army of desks organizing or overseeing society’s most important points of intersection is at best a necessary evil.
Bureaucracy’s biggest built-in features are that it grows and spreads like a cancer.
The only thing it works on effectively is making itself and it’s host society less effective.
It’s on par with soviet communism when it comes to personal responsibility and taking initiative.

Do you think Greece’s army (it’s literally an army!) of civil servants will now, as they brought the land to it’s knees, work harder, to make up for it? They will cling even more to bribes and follow the rules where it suits them, doing only work where it’s absolutely necessary as to put their already meager pension not into jeopardy.

Hacking of the dozens of department arms of that Scylla WILL NEVER, EVER be an internal decision.
It has to come via external force.
[/quote]

When all the accounting tricks have been used up, they’ve been used up. Eventually there is no more road to kick the can down. At which point, it doesn’t matter one bit how many civil servants there are, as there won’t be ANYTHING to pay their wages or pensions with.

What you and Orion are doing, is actually supporting the status quo. Your arguments imply we can do this indefinitely. If that isn’t your argument, than I’m correct.

Right, it’s black and white again.

So, about Greece - your prediction says the fat of bureaucracy will transform into muscle?
DO you honestly think that?
Care to give us a history lesson where such a wonder already took place?

Oz or Middle Earth don’t apply btw.

[quote]Schwarzfahrer wrote:
Right, it’s black and white again.

So, about Greece - your prediction says the fat of bureaucracy will transform into muscle?

[/quote]

Yep. When the paychecks can longer be cashed, and there’s nothing going into the pensions, even the biggest hard asses will get the message. If there’s no money, there’s no money.

On the otherhand, if there is no cliff, there isn’t a crises in the first place. Their wages and pensions are then not a problem. After all, they could maintain the status quo indefinitely.

It Can Happen Here
Government really can be cut: case studies from Canada, New Zealand, and the United States

Arnold Kling, David Henderson & Maurice McTigue from the November 2010 issue

In an era of frightful budgets and frightened politicians, cutting government may seem like a flatly impossible task. But a look around the worldâ??and at our own recent economic historyâ??turns up a few inspirational examples of knife work that not only trimmed back budget deficits but created the conditions for unprecedented prosperity.

New Zealand, Canada, and the postwar United States all managed to slash the state on a grand scale. Governments shed responsibility for forests, railways, radio spectrum, and more while relaxing labor markets, slimming the welfare state, and ending price controls. Far from damaging economies or increasing unemployment, these reductions in the size and scope of government boosted GDP, improved services, and created jobs.

Government cutters faced opposition along the way, from skeptical Keynesians to Kiwi bureaucrats. But they also found unlikely allies, with left-wing parties playing major roles in the Canadian and New Zealand examples. The stories below should encourage would-be cutters and reassure skeptics: It can be done.

I am really confused here.

How does refusing to pay your mortgage have anything to do with anarchy or smaller government? Isn’t it just stealing from the people you owe money?

The broader point is well taken but I’m not sure whether this is the right example.

[quote]AlisaV wrote:
I am really confused here.

Isn’t it just stealing from the people you owe money?.[/quote]

That all depends on who you ask. The efficient-breach crowd shoved morals out of contract law decades ago.

[quote]Schwarzfahrer wrote:
Sloth, what is it with you and your twisted perception?

Bureaucracy is the opposite of effectiveness.
Have you ever heard a clerk tell you: “it’s somewhere in the system, I guess you have to wait three more weeks” with an I-don’t-care shrug. Only in Bureaucrastan.

While a little less effectiveness can be a good thing, an army of desks organizing or overseeing society’s most important points of intersection is at best a necessary evil.
Bureaucracy’s biggest built-in features are that it grows and spreads like a cancer.
The only thing it works on effectively is making itself and it’s host society less effective.
It’s on par with soviet communism when it comes to personal responsibility and taking initiative.

Do you think Greece’s army (it’s literally an army!) of civil servants will now, as they brought the land to it’s knees, work harder, to make up for it? They will cling even more to bribes and follow the rules where it suits them, doing only work where it’s absolutely necessary as to put their already meager pension not into jeopardy.

Hacking of the dozens of department arms of that Scylla WILL NEVER, EVER be an internal decision.
It has to come via external force.
[/quote]

Totally agree. But then again, I live in Ireland. Where your point is at its most obvious.