Squeezin’ the Juice
by SVEA SAUER
Why in the world can’t we handle emergencies efficiently? What has happened to our vaunted pride in the government agencies that were established to come to our rescue? Where and why have they failed to prevent catastrophe? There was a time when civil servants, as we called them, were honored. Working for the civil service was a sought after job. It meant good pay, security, and excellent benefits. When we hear the complaint that private business can do a better job than the government, we are forced to admit that neither seem able to do a good job.
How did this happen?
All sound governments have a strong civil service. We only have to look at England at the height of its powers when its civil service was the backbone of its worldwide rule. We only have to look at our own past in my lifetime when the post office delivered the mail in rain or shine, and you didn’t even need a full street address to know that the postmaster would get your letter delivered. Not too long ago, you could depend on FEMA to act quickly and fairly in an emergency.
Along about the time of the Reagan Administration when people had already begun complaining about FDR’s many new government agencies, the idea grew that private business could do a better job than government, and it began to be applied to government through outsourcing, often without bids. This idea was very profitable for business resulting in large government contracts not only for the manufacture of goods but for services formerly provided by a disciplined civil service. Eventually, these contracts were not regulated and “the foxes began to guard the hen house.” This was possible for a number of reasons.
The purpose of business is to make a profit for its owners. The purpose of government is to protect and serve the people. When these became at odds, which was inevitable with the ideology that private business can do a better job of governing, there is a breakdown in government and a rise in a ruling cadre of the rich who are less and less concerned about the poor. And it happened this way. The outsourced employees received a much higher pay than the civil servant working at the next desk. The civil servants’ unions were attacked. The rules for one employee would be determined by the contractor. The rules for the other might be determined by the government. Morale in the civil service was broken by what could almost be called an invasion.
In the meantime, the civil service employee who could provide help to a contractor in getting a contract or other benefits would be guaranteed a good job in the private sector at higher pay, even though our tax money in either case was being used to reward him. The venal civil servant was just one more morale breaker to an efficient organization.
Politics was used effectively to break the civil service by placing cronies of the president or congress person in top positions. (“You did a good job, Brownie.”) Today, despite President Obama’s attempt to change government back to its original purpose to protect the people, we still have holdovers as heads of government agencies who formerly worked as lobbyists against the very laws they are now supposedly defending.
We have a serious shortage in the number of inspectors where rules are still upheld by law. We depend on integrity in the workplace more than on inspection. Even with an adequate number of inspectors, we cannot cope with the deliberate corruption of agencies like Minerals Management Service which had oversight of British Petroleum in the United States.
We must support President Obama in restoring government to its true purpose of serving the people, not just the aspirations of those who seek money and power. Government, in its turn, must have flourishing businesses providing goods and services at a profit, for the nation to be strong. It is time they learned to work together without revolving door lobbyists and corporate campaign funding, so all of us will prosper.
Do away with outsourcing. Reanimate the civil service to its former strong morale. Put people in charge who know what they are doing instead of who they know. And maybe, just maybe, something will get done on time. (For the facts, read “The Wrecking Crew” by Thomas Frank.)
