Tuesday September 7, 2010     Last Update: 7 hr ago

All the articles that relate to "bureaucracy"

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Laboring for the Lords

In feudal days of yore, the social and economic system was fantastically complex in the details but pretty straightforward in principle: Everybody swore allegiance to somebody, taking on certain obligations, and receiving certain benefits in return. T...		 Sep 6, 10 Petrarch 0 3

The Fundamental Problem with All Government Agencies

Two centuries of American governance has revealed one small idea on which both liberals and conservatives can agree: all government employees, regardless of their individual political views, seek to have their agencies' budgets increased. Regardless of ...		 Aug 3, 10 Will Offensicht 0 3

Why Shouldn't Public Employees Take A Pay Cut?

As a longstanding member of the private sector, I've taken many a pay cut when times were bad for my employer. I've even gone without pay when things were really bad. Sometimes I've received some of the back pay, sometimes not. Given the sacrifices ...		 Jul 8, 10 Will Offensicht 0 0

Our Government-Regulated Oil Spill

The oil business has become the latest industry that our government loves to hate. It's no surprise that the New York Times would publish "As Oil Industry Fights a Tax, It Reaps Billions From Subsidies." As we know from their past articles, the Times ...		 Jul 6, 10 Will Offensicht 0 4

The Would-Be Judge Who Would Not Read

Solicitor General Elena Kagan is spending this week under the Klieg lights of Senate hearings concerning her appointment to the Supreme Court. Thus far, like most modern Supreme nominees, she has artfully avoided saying anything at all while the Senator...		 Jul 1, 10 Petrarch 0 8

If We Can Get to the Moon, Why Can't We....

Ever since the Apollo moon landing in 1969, technical folk have been asked, "If we can get to the moon, why can't we ..." with the questioner filling in his or her favorite cause. I've heard this asked about fighting poverty, cleaning up the cities, bui...		 Jun 11, 10 Will Offensicht 0 0

Of Civil Wars Past and Future

Today we celebrate Memorial Day whose purpose is to remind us of the men who bravely fought and died defending our country. Its origins could hardly be more moving and honorable; as recorded in Wikipedia: ...The first memorial day was observed by for...		 May 31, 10 Petrarch 0 5

Public Watchdogs Ogle Privates

The New York Daily News tells us on what's really going on in government agencies who're supposed to guard our financial markets against fraud, deceit, and the next boom-and-bust cycle: The country's top financial watchdogs turned out to be horndogs w...		 Apr 29, 10 Will Offensicht 0 1

Angel Bureaucrats vs Business Devils?

It's hard to imagine amidst the pageantry of Toyota's executives being called on the carpet in front of pontificating Congressmen because of a supposed manufacturing defect that has yet to even be definitively found, but there was a time when this would ...		 Mar 22, 10 Petrarch 0 1

Health Care for Men Isn't Simple Enough for Rules

Deciding on the proper medical treatment for breast cancer and for giving birth is so complicated and so governed by individual differences that the government hasn't much chance of being able to specify reasonable rules no matter how much money it spend...		 Mar 19, 10 Will Offensicht 0 9

A Little Humility, Please, Maestro Obama!

People who participated in the Obamacare debate recognized that the bill would set up government panels to determine what illnesses had to be covered by every medical insurance plan in the land. Sarah Palin realized that the panels would also determine ...		 Mar 16, 10 Will Offensicht 0 8

Obama Goes Off The Deep End, Bans Fishing?

Appalling news from Washington is coming so thick and fast these days that it's impossible to keep track of it all. What's more, some reports are so outlandish that they seem like they must be from the Onion, yet are perfectly true. For instance, who w...		 Mar 11, 10 Hobbes 0 4

Why The Dots Won't Connect

 It's become painfully obvious that our multi-billion dollar intelligence agencies are not sharing information well. We had enough dots to know about the panty bomber in advance, but nobody could connect the dots because they weren't being shared. The ...		 Jan 22, 10 Will Offensicht 0 1

Obamacare Delenda Est

Long before the Pax Romana, centuries before Julius Caesar, long even before there were any Roman emperors, the republican nation of Rome was just another regional Mediterranean power threatened by enemies on all sides. With two millennia of hindsight, ...		 Jan 20, 10 Petrarch 0 1

Another Bone-Headed Blunder by Obama's Car Czar

In "In Risky Move, GM to Run Plants Around Clock," the Wall Street Journal reports: KANSAS CITY, Kan.—Starting Jan. 4, General Motors Co. plans to do something unprecedented in the U.S. car industry: It will run its assembly line here around the clock...		 Jan 13, 10 Will Offensicht 0 12

It's Your War Now, Mr. President!

Mr. Obama blames the Bush administration whenever he's criticized about the economy. The mainstream media go along with him, of course, despite British papers pointing out that Democratic fingerprints are all over the recession. The American people wil...		 Jan 8, 10 Will Offensicht 0 4

Obama's New Spoils System Will Benefit Conservatism

America's federal bureaucracy, alas, is the largest civilian employer in the country and, alas again, by far the fastest-growing one. Despite happy talk from the White House, our private-sector economy is not in any mood to take on more employees; so, i...		 Nov 20, 09 Petrarch 0 2

The Power To Regulate Healthcare is the Power to Destroy It

On Aug. 2, 2009, the New York Times reported that the government's "war on cancer" isn't going particularly well: Forty years after President Richard M. Nixon declared war on cancer, death rates have barely changed. Cancer researchers will tell you...		 Oct 30, 09 Will Offensicht 0 6

Federalism and National Peace

Hardly a day goes by without our being dumbstruck by another story of a government authority doing something so mind-bogglingly stupid as to call into question the entire theory of human evolution. Of course, the TSA is a perennial font of such tales; w...		 Oct 27, 09 Petrarch 0 2

Never Build Sewers To Last

Des Moines, Iowa, is about as far from either the Left Coast Elites or the East Coast Elites as it's possible to get. Unlike the crooked contractors of New York, Boston, and Chicago, who built sewers and other public works so shoddily that they've had t...		 Oct 21, 09 Will Offensicht 0 3

The Equality of True Justice

 Throughout all of Scragged's writings, there is one common thread that connects the majority of our opinions and views, and that is an aversion to statism. Statism, simply put, is the belief that the government knows better than you do about how to run...		 Oct 8, 09 Petrarch 0 0

Why Labor When You Can Take Rent?

There are almost as many jokes about economists as there are about lawyers. Economist jokes are not nearly so nasty because people don't feel nearly as threatened by economics. Confused, befuddled, and generally perplexed, but the dismal science is not...		 Sep 7, 09 Petrarch 0 1

We Must Ration Health Care, says the New York Times

 Back when the White House was but a gleam in Mr. Obama's eye, we pointed out that the real issue in giving health care to everyone is limiting how much money a sick person can ask the taxpayers to spend on his or her health. As with any limited resourc...		 Jul 22, 09 Will Offensicht 0 4

Why Conservatism Failed

The deed is done. The parades and balls are over, the oaths have been sworn after a few false starts, and the debris is rotting unswept in the gutters. Liberal Democrats hold total sway over all the levers of our federal government. With scant excepti...		 Jan 26, 09 Petrarch 0 1

Cut Obama Some Slack - Change Is Tough

 President Barack Hussein Obama ran on a platform of "change." He wasn't entirely specific about what he wanted to change, nor how, but it's pretty clear that just about everyone throughout the spectrum of American politics all across the fruited plain ...		 Jan 21, 09 Will Offensicht 0 2

Bureaucrats Try Herding Cats

 Our government employees famously insist on helping us whether we need it or not. Logically, sooner or later, there must come a time when all real problems are receiving government attention leaving only imaginary problems for bureaucrats to sink their...		 Jan 15, 09 Will Offensicht 0 4

I'm From the Government; I'm Here to Help

There are three legendary lies which are told so often that they've become jokes in a sick sort of way. Lie #1, which was going around back when I was in high school, is, "Of course I'll respect you in the morning." Comedian Johnny Carson put it, "I'...		 Dec 29, 08 Will Offensicht 0 3

The Chinese War on Drugs

Our war on drugs is generally recognized to be a pretty thorough failure. We have dumped countless billions of dollars and spent hundreds of lives on attempts to prevent illegal drug activity, and after all this time the price of drugs on the street has...		 Nov 28, 08 Will Offensicht 0 16

Heck of a Job, Galveston

 As we drive along roads which constrain the traffic to be slow enough to actually read signs, we've seen an occasional hamlet proclaim, "Welcome to Burgopolis, an All-America City." It turns out that the right to identify yourself as an "All-America Ci...		 Sep 16, 08 Will Offensicht 0 7

The TSA Outdoes Itself, Twice

 Every time we think that the TSA can't get any sillier or any less effective, they surprise us. In an article "Airlines may face fines over mistaken terrorist IDs," USA Today reports: The Transportation Security Administration is threatening to fine...		 Aug 22, 08 Hobbes 0 4

The Mystery of the Empty Stands

All round the world, every eye has been glued to the television for the world's greatest sports spectacle: the 2008 Olympic Games. Almost anything else can, and has, happened without distracting viewers; John Edwards took the opportunity to finally 'fes...		 Aug 20, 08 Will Offensicht 0 0

Bureaucracy Causes Evil?

 The question of good versus evil has been debated endlessly over the millennia. Up until the last hundred years or so, Western thought was based on a clear distinction between good and evil. The Chinese philosophy of Taoism, in contrast, popularized t...		 Aug 19, 08 Will Offensicht 0 15

Will Bureaucrats Let Detroit Save Itself?

We all know that the US operations of all our auto manufacturers are in deep trouble, but things aren't quite what they seem. Their troubles in the US market are all too real. The New York Times reports: In the latest sign of the deepening trouble...		 Aug 11, 08 Will Offensicht 0 3

What's A Driver's License For?

 In times past, everybody understood the purpose of a driver's license - it certified that the holder knew how to drive a vehicle of some sort. Over the years, driver's licenses evolved into something for which they were never really intended: a formal,...		 Jul 2, 08 Will Offensicht 0 2

Scragged's Endorsement for President

The home stretch of this never-ending presidential nominating process is fast upon us. Whether it's "official" now or later, the Democratic nominee is known, barring some miracle of political chicanery. Again barring a miracle, the Republican nominee h...		 Jun 10, 08 Petrarch 0 12

Tilting at Bureaucrats

We stand corrected. A friend who's spent a lifetime in the US Government bureaucracy and rose to a very senior position explained that it is possible to discipline an errant government employee. Back when he was an up-and-coming middle manager, one of ...		 Jun 5, 08 Will Offensicht 0 0

Cost? Not Our Problem!

Being as human as the rest of us, bureaucrats try to insulate themselves from the problems faced by rest of society. They don’t have to provide a product or service of any value because citizens are required to deal with them. The slower they work, the...		 Jun 3, 08 Will Offensicht 0 3

Death, Taxes, and Red Tape

To the old saying that the only certainties in life are death and taxes, we can add a new certainty - bureaucracy. In a story "City tightens its regulation and inspection of cranes," the International Herald Tribute reports: New York City ordered bro...		 Jun 2, 08 Will Offensicht 0 1

In Praise of Incompetent Bureaucrats

Hardly a day goes by without another news report of a bureaucrat doing something stupid. Whether it's removing a child from his home because a vendor gave the kid a bottle of alcoholic lemonade by mistake; or State Department diplomats refusing to go to...		 Jun 2, 08 Petrarch 0 4

Who Would Rob A Corpse?

In an article “Mother denied daughter's organs,” BBC News told of Rachel Leake’s problem with impending kidney failure. Mrs. Leake’s daughter wanted to donate a kidney to save her mother's life, but the daughter died of asthma before she could start the...		 May 28, 08 Will Offensicht 0 5

Spitzer was a Piker

 We pointed out some time ago that Gov. Spitzer won the fame which got him elected Governor of New York by getting publicity for abusing his prosecutorial powers. We pointed out that all citizens are at risk when the concept of justice is abandoned in f...		 May 19, 08 Will Offensicht 0 8

Bureaucracy on Autopilot

The media have recently exposed two cases of blatant injustice: An employee of Tim Horton's coffee shop was fired for giving a toddler a 16-cent donut hole; and a child was removed from his home when a refreshment counter employee accidentally gave the c...		 May 14, 08 Will Offensicht 0 4

Rats! to Socialized Healthcare

In a story "Dead rodent stops operation," Reuters reported: Andrew Cowper was due to have an operation at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Hertfordshire when staff "were made aware of a dead rodent in the single storey unit's roof space," the hospit...		 Mar 18, 08 Will Offensicht 0 9

American Culture Undermines America

In an article "Whizzing By", the New York Sun reports that a New York University study shows that new immigrants do the best in American schools, but the longer immigrants are in American schools, the worse they do: These conclusions come from a new s...		 Mar 13, 08 Will Offensicht 0 2

Stop Loving Your Tax Credits!

Someone once said that the only two constants in life are death and taxes, but taxes, in a sense, are far worse than death. Death only comes once and when it does, it's final. In the US, taxes keep attacking your wealth long after your children and gra...		 Feb 26, 08 Von Hayek 0 16

McCain Shoots Himself in the Wallet

Among the many, many reasons conservatives are leery of Senator McCain is his longstanding advocacy for government restrictions on free political speech, otherwise known as "campaign finance reform." He feels so strongly on this subject that his name is...		 Feb 25, 08 Petrarch 0 9

A Modest Proposal for the War on Drugs

 The "War on Drugs" simply isn't working. The street price of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and other illegal substances keeps going down as suppliers become more efficient in response to customer demand. Selling drugs is so profitable that the FARC and ...		 Feb 19, 08 Demosthenes 0 74

Labor Law Lunacy

The Wall Street Journal on February 1, 2008 had a page one article In a French Twist, Infamous Trader Gets Hero Treatment. The article continues the saga of a low-ranking bond trader named Jerome Kerviel who cost the bank $7.2 billion by making unauthor...		 Feb 11, 08 Will Offensicht 0 2

Japan in the Confucian Cycle

 In an article "For Japan, a Long, Slow Slide," the Washington Post tried to explain Japan's current economic difficulties. This country, which got rich quick in a postwar miracle of manufacturing and alarmed Americans by buying up baubles such as Roc...		 Feb 11, 08 Will Offensicht 0 3

Government Don't Know Jack: Regulation

This is a multi-part series examining inherent conflicts in government and the ultimate goal of avoiding the Confucian Cycle. This series started with an article pointing out that the government gets a piece of everybody's action through taxation. A ...		 Feb 7, 08 Will Offensicht 0 4

Government Don't Know Jack: Education

This is a multi-part series examining inherent conflicts in government and the ultimate goal of avoiding the Confucian Cycle. This series examines ways the government ought to be able to help the economy, assuming that politicians want the economy to ...		 Jan 31, 08 Will Offensicht 0 13

Government Don't Know Jack: Research

This is a multi-part series examining inherent conflicts in government with the ultimate goal of avoiding the Confucian Cycle. This series of articles addresses the intuitive belief that there ought to be something government could do to make the econ...		 Jan 29, 08 Will Offensicht 0 7

Government Don't Know Jack: Foreign Trade

This is a multi-part series examining inherent conflicts in government and the ultimate goal of avoiding the Confucian Cycle. The first article in this series listed a number of ways government can increase economic activity, and we discussed infrastr...		 Jan 25, 08 Will Offensicht 0 5

Government Don't Know Jack: Infrastructure

This is a multi-part series examining inherent conflicts in government and the ultimate goal of avoiding the Confucian Cycle. The first article in this series listed a number of ways the government can increase the amount of action in the economy if t...		 Jan 23, 08 Will Offensicht 0 1

Government Don't Know Jack: Introduction

As we've pointed out earlier, the government gets a piece of everybody's action through taxation. One way for government to get more tax revenue is to help businesses generate more action. We believe deeply that there are many things which government o...		 Jan 22, 08 Will Offensicht 0 2

Cynicism and the Confucian Cycle

A reader recently commented that Scragged seems to be too cynical. Our readers comment about many things, but we found this comment to be particularly thought-provoking and worthy of intense review. There was internal debate over our level of cynicism ...		 Jan 18, 08 Will Offensicht 0 18

Why Can't We have a Cheap Car?

The International Herald Tribune reports that Tata Motors, an Indian conglomerate which is about to buy Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford, has announced a $2,500 automobile. The 4-seater Nano, with an engine around 625 cc, will have a dealer price of 10...		 Jan 16, 08 Will Offensicht 0 19

Simple Solutions for Social Security

Politicians and pundits have been wringing their hands for years about the Social Security "Crisis." As people retire and live longer, there won't be enough workers paying into the system to cover the Social Security benefits paid out. Depending on who...		 Dec 6, 07 Will Offensicht 0 9

The CIA Strikes Again

Ask the man on the street to name a spy, and the answer will almost certainly be "James Bond." Suave, omni-competent (particularly with the fairer sex), and invariably bringing victory to the Right Side, Agent 007 represents all that's glamorous and eff...		 Dec 5, 07 Petrarch 0 7

"Free House" Free-For-All?

 Mortgage meltdown, housing crisis, bubbles bursting... There is one fundamental issue that summarizes it all: people were given loans that they could not afford, for houses too expensive, on the expectation that the property value would contin...		 Dec 4, 07 Petrarch 0 1

Who Shrunk My Pie?

As we've noted before, governments always want more money. There are two ways governments can get more money - raise taxes so they get a bigger piece of the pie, or stimulate economic activity so they get the same percentage of a bigger pie. L...		 Nov 7, 07 Will Offensicht 0 3

How To Evaluate a Public School

Mr. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program focused attention on the question of how to evaluate a school. The basic idea was to test each student, add up the student test results, and you had a result for the school. That sounds good, but rating a schoo...		 Sep 4, 07 Will Offensicht 0 6

The Only Health Care Question

There's a lot of talk about health insurance, the uninsured, single-payer, co-pays, and other topics related to health care, but everybody ignores the real question - how do we limit demand for health care? If the government gave everybody free food, ...		 Aug 28, 07 Will Offensicht 0 28

Flying Down to Rio

Brazil is one of those foreign places that most Americans have at least heard of, and even have a somewhat vaguely accurate picture in their head. Ask the proverbial Man on the Street about Brazil, and the answer will most likely include beaches, bikini...		 Jul 23, 07 Petrarch 0 1