Instead of being what they are supposed to be — servants of the people, bureaucrats have the ascendancy over civilians, and practice legalized thievery to sate their atrocious appetite for control
Consider this: If a citizen is set upon by a gang and a policeman is near, he will put his life on the line to save the person under attack; yet, law enforcement personnel are paid a mere pittance compared to bureaucrats’ earnings.
Ironically, if a policeman isn’t near, and the gang’s theft is successful, the person relieved of his coin purse gets nothing in return. But, through taxation, government bureaucrats indulge in thievery, and the result is the exact same: those robbed get nothing in return.
While some bureaucrats are mere goldbricking shirkers, loafing in comfortable workplaces, enjoying all holidays, getting paid for sick leave, and being able to look forward to worry-free retirement, other bureaucrats, encouraged by the higher up at court, actively discourage and disrupt productivity, thereby confirming what famed economist Dr. Thomas Sowell said, “One of the sad signs of our times is that we demonize those who produce, subsidize those who refuse to produce, and canonize those who complain.”
If a concerted effort were made to purge the bureaucracy, those who cling to that delusory hope — a huge central government is vital to the general public’s wellbeing — would howl in protest, screaming that the economy would suffer because the evicted bureaucrats would no longer be able to patronize businesses, invest in the stock market, or use their fat paychecks in other gainful ways.
What a fallacy! The naïve, Pollyanna proletarian wannabes who skip down the primrose path toward cradle-to-grave big government refuse to accept this reality: Once the bureaucracy’s useless members are thrown out in the streets, those on whom they were parasites would be able to spend and invest the money saved from lowered taxes.
In other words, while the purchasing power of the bureaucratic bums will fall, the purchasing power of the citizens who unwillingly support them will rise. This would be especially true in America’s cesspool — the insular Washington, D.C., Beltway.
Pondering this, I thought … as an ultra-right-wing conservative, am I being too harsh on the bean-counting apparatchiks whose sole concern is procedural correctness? To confirm or deny my thesis, I perused comments made by others about bureaucrats. Here are a few.
African-American political activist Alan Keyes: “Bureaucracies are inherently antidemocratic. Bureaucrats derive their power from their position in the structure, not from their relations with the people they are supposed to serve. The people are not the bureaucracy’s masters, but its clients.”
American author Mary McCarthy: “Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.”
American Navy Admiral Hyman Rickover: “If you are going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you — the bureaucracy won't.”
French novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac: “Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.”
These quotes and many more confirm what I believe: Bureaucrats are Bureau-Creeps.
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
