Government bloat is easy to find and easy to hate. I was in my teenage years when I started hearing the jokes about the military spending $500 for a hammer. At the same time, I learned the following mantra about how we spend money. We’re the most careful spending our own money on ourselves. We’re less careful spending our own money on other people. We’re least careful spending other people’s money on other people. Milton Friedman evidently postulated this idea. Taxes fall into the last category, politicians spending taxpayer money on other citizens, non citizens in the country, and other countries’ residents. Ideally we’re electing those we think will do a good job with this task. By now, dear reader, you have an idea what my approach is, considering both sides of a story. So recently, it occurred to me to sympathize with the low-end-of-the-totem-pole government employees.
Every business has a budget. Small business owners reading this feel it in their bones every day. They must consider every box of pens and every palette of paper towels. Owners and managers learn how to stretch every dollar to keep the business afloat and profitable. Government doesn’t work that way. Government can be so bad at spending, the entire nation’s credit rating can suffer. Locally, I applaud those who regularly attend Santa Rosa County Commission meetings and question what they think appear to be unnecessarily spent tax dollars.
However, I feel for those at the bottom. I used to work at a nursing home as a floor tech, buffing and waxing floors, along with other janitorial duties. Spending always was an issue by the higher-ups. It wasn’t until an automatic floor scrubber started sparking that we got a new one. I can’t imagine waiting on new equipment when politics are also involved. A business’ budget comes from what it earns. A government budget comes from what it takes from what other people have earned. I can’t help but imagine the following has been said. “We can’t replace your Tandy 1000 because our chances of getting reelected will drop.”
My budget-wise friends will balk at the notion of easing up on spending criticism. I also have seen the commission regularly spend money to buy trucks and playground equipment. Still, I’ve heard the phrase “lowest bidder meeting the minimum qualifications,” regularly. Generally, I feel this is a sufficient standard, but I wonder in what circumstances spending a little more might have gotten the public a better service or facility. I’ve also noticed the TI-82’s the Driver License & Tax Collector office use for computers. Does my attitude make me a liberal democrat? No, I just hope there isn’t a county employee somewhere kicking a printer asking “‘PC Load Letter?’ What does that mean?”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Sympathy for the devil’s secretary