North’s first law of bureaucracy is this: “Some bureaucrat will always do something preposterous just by following the bureaucracy’s rules to the letter.”
When he does, it hits the press. It makes for fun reading. Nothing of substance will change unless the legislature cuts the agencies budget and imposes an outside agency to monitor the bureaucracy. This is never done. So, nothing changes. But we can still have fun reading abut the infractions.
The Economic Collapse Blog has assembled a choice list of infractions that illustrate how North’s first law operates. What is interesting is this: what is common in government applies outside of government. That’s because the government intrudes into every nook and cranny of the economy. It is remaking the economy in its own image.
The blog has collected 20 examples of widespread stupidity. Here are a few of them.
#2 A TSA manager (not just an agent) at Dulles International Airport was recently discovered to be running a prostitution ring out of a local hotel room. TSA agents have been charged with crime after crime after crime and yet we continue to allow them to be in charge of airport security.
#3 CBS News is reporting that approximately 200 pieces of luggage a day are being stolen by employees at John F. Kennedy International Airport and authorities still have not been able to stop it.
#5 The U.S. military is buying huge amounts of electronic parts from China (mistake number one) and a government investigation has uncovered the fact that a large percentage of these parts are counterfeit. Yet the U.S. military continues to buy huge amounts of electronic parts from China (mistake number two).
#7 Police in Chicago apparently believe that our “First Amendment rights can be terminated” at their discretion.
#9 An increasing number of American families are taking out student loans in order to pay for their children’s kindergarten tuition.
#10 One town in Massachusetts plans to distribute free condoms to children as young as 12 years of age.
#13 According to Natural News, the Michigan state government intends to raid private farms and kill pigs that have “the wrong hair color” even though some of these farmers have been raising these pigs for decades.
#14 An executive order recently updated by the Obama administration would give the federal government complete control over all food, all energy, all health resources, all transportation resources and “all other materials, services, and facilities” at the discretion of Barack Obama. The wording of the executive order has been changed so that this can now be done even in “non-emergency” situations. Very few Americans seem concerned by this.
#20 New federal rules will severely restrict the kind of work that children can do on farms in America. Kids will be banned from doing many of the most basic kinds of farm chores under the new regulations. Perhaps the children can just sit inside and watch television while the adults do all the work.
To read all 20, click the link.
Is this a great country or what? said rather sarcastically. Sort of like the old saying "you can't win, and you can't quit".
About condoms, I know of an agency that put them on the counter for anyone to have for the taking, no questions asked.
Please, God, I have always prayed, for protection (not the condom kind) for our young people.