Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin (as well as Hitler) all had the prescription for the well-run society. Their plans should have worked. They failed, however, to take people into account. People in general. People the various ways they are, not people as cogs in a machine. (Remember, however: even cogs show wear after awhile.)
Your tax dollars at work are managed by people. Forget, for the moment, the people you have seen standing around. Think with me, instead, about the empire builder. She or he wants to manage people, manage projects, manage paper -- whatever combination of stuff she or he wants to manage, the end goal is seldom an efficient operation. It is personal power, personal space, personal popularity or personal comfort. Maybe even being perceived as indispensable. It's about the "ME" in the equation, not about the efficiency and quality of the service to the taxpayer.
I speak of well meaning , even necessary, legislation that helps children stay safe, guards you in your car as you drive or keeps roaches out of your ragout. But someone is hired to "make it so" and that someone has a personal power agenda. At first, maybe, she or he does well. But the purpose of the bureau, committee, commission or council seems to fade into the historical background only to be trotted out when there is a threat to the empire. Your money at work making him a comfy next seems to be more and more the problem.
But we want to get rid of people like that, don't we? So we invent an investigating group, which (more often than not) seeks to maintain itself in comfort and the "you scratch my back and I'll scratch your back" transactions begin. The ideal falls prey to the human.
This is only one issue, of course. What do you think?
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