A slow-motion catastrophe has arisen in America that if not truncated will compel American society into far worse than its contemporary post-Constitutional malaise.
Instead, it is necessary to focus upon each individual government worker. This dilemma is similar to that wherein too many attorneys chasing too few legitimate cases leads to countless frivolous but damaging lawsuits. Similarly, in government too many workers lead to unwarranted expansion and purview of the Administrative State -- in compliance with the inevitable twin imperatives of growth for growth's sake and mission creep. Worse, many government workers find themselves working in administrations of which no component is necessary at all -- the optimal number of workers is zero.
The focus upon the destructive nature of the individual government worker is crucial. In only this way can one understand the true nature of the expense of government to society. It is the power of the individual government worker, at times the "least" elevated worker, which nevertheless is capable of unleashing unimaginable loss and despair.
Worse, the individual government worker possesses power that is exponential in its effects.
The Administrative State is in truth a Termitic State -- a force relentlessly eating away at the foundations of our society. To be clear, it is assumed the individual government worker is well-meaning and honorable. In fact, there is no instance in which the profound destruction of the government worker requires any but the most honorable intentions. In particular, the Termitic State is often at its
most destructive when each of its workers is the most honorable and the most efficient.
Furthermore, the argument here does not devolve around the presumption of malicious intent on the part of the colony housing the worker. As with the individual worker, the government department is at its most destructive when it is most well-intentioned and efficient in service of its Mission. To be clear, true understanding of the nature of much/most of our post-Constitutional federal government is
not founded in the allegation of wickedness on the part of any of its workers or their colonies/departments.
What of our government in real life? Certainly, government bureaucracy is wasteful. It is inefficient. It is slothful. It is unresponsive and capricious. It produces and enforces innumerable senseless and burdensome regulations. These attributes are easily recognized -- and just as easily misleading. To understand, we must overlook the obvious. We must understand that these attributes, wastefulness, etc., are the effects but not the source of the destructiveness of the Administrative State. To end current damage, to prevent further damage, we must focus upon the source.
It is the unintended damage caused by the individual worker that is so devastating to our society. That such damage is exponential in its effects is the true nature of government's unintended damage to society. The destructive power of a single government worker is magnified 100 to 1000 times in its effects upon the citizen or his/her institutions. If this nature of the Administrative State, and the government worker, is overlooked -- misunderstood - any well-intentioned reform efforts will fail.
It is not the rot that is most damaging. It is the endless production of more rot that threatens most.
This is why the true nature of the Administrative State is that of a Termitic State. It inexorably, but
slowly, imperceptibly, gnaws away the foundation of our nation. Assuredly, termites in the field serve a vital function -- breaking down organic matter into more useful bits. Yet, if hard-working termites are set loose upon the foundations of a home, they work just as indefatigably as when in the field, but the result of their hard work,
especially if efficient, is the destruction of the home. The more there are, the harder they work, the more destruction they cause. Yet, they harbor no ill intent. Each is "just doing his job."
The true cost of government, then, is the least visible, the least intuited, the least measurable. The true cost and destructive power of the Administrative State is the day-to-day functioning of its bureaucrats.
To help visualize this, it helps to reconcile oneself with this declaration: The U.S. would benefit
one hundred fold were it to furlough every federal bureaucrat (or at least 90% of them), AND, also pay each a pension equal to his/her current salary
for life, provide his/her current benefit level
for life, pay for his/her training or further education, pay for his/her children's college -- all expenses included, AND buy each a new Mercedes. It is only when this allegation makes sense to you will you understand the true cost and nature of the Termitic Administrative State.
The analogy with termites is not as helpful regarding the particular exponential nature of the destructive force of the government worker. Certainly the termite analogy illuminates the allegation that well-meaning, high-functioning, honorable termites are the
most destructive -- they are also invisible. Unlike termites, however, the far more dangerous nature of the Administrative State worker is the multiplier effect attendant to his/her exertions -- his/her capacity for exponential destruction.
One bureaucrat employee,
in only very few hours, is empowered to initiate the destruction of a small business. This employee will spend only a very few hours documenting complaints, conducting an initial investigation, obtaining supervisory approval, and acquiring a prosecutor. This time, these hours, are of inconsequential cost (and the bureaucrat is getting paid to wreak this misfortune) compared with the hundreds and thousands of hours and dollars the victim (business or citizen) will bear in responding to the initial governmental attack. Worse, if and when the citizen/business prevails in its defense, it is not reimbursed lost hours, time, money, or emotional distress. The Administrative State worker merely peruses the next complaint on his/her desk and starts anew. Imagine it requiring only a day or two for the government worker to set in motion forces that will devastate the lives of employers, employees, and family members, or anyone within reach of the well-intentioned investigation/prosecution. This is exponential power of a remarkable sort -- a power available to even the least governmental employee -- and especially those inhabiting the Administrative State.
And, after wreaking such havoc, the bureaucrat goes home at night believing he or she has done a good job -- and no one alleges otherwise.
A finer point: Consider, you know the value of every last hour you can squeeze out of your day. Is it not entirely demoralizing then to come to an awareness that the average bureaucrat is
paid for each hour spent mucking about in your affairs in order to detect some rules violation to justify further incursion or sanction?
Imagine -- if you are charged with a rules violation -- it follows that day in and day out there are persons, beyond your sight, working to uncover any possible justification for your undoing. While you are trying to remain in business or build a business, or run your life, your life and work are all the while torn apart by people
paid to do so, hour by hour -- and without the due process granted the average criminal.
Given the elements of well-intentioned devastation, relentless eating away at our society's foundations, and exponential effect, it is crucial we acquire an understanding of the numbers involved. It is helpful to begin with the number of federal employees (not counting military): 2.7 million. This number translates to 108 million work hours per week. Since not each federal employee is situated to exact substantial damage, let us reduce 108 million hours to 50 million effective hours -- per week -- of exponential destructive action.
Imagine the EPA worker who determines the swamplet behind your house is really a protected wetland (forget about your plans for an addition). Imagine the Fish and Game worker fining an eleven-year old for saving a baby woodpecker (true story). Imagine workers in the Department of Education conceiving "Common Core" and then requiring nationwide adoption of this deplorable product of the Administrative State. Keep in mind, these workers are getting
paid, hour by hour, to find fault, assess fines, apply restrictions and much more, many if not most of these actions unwarranted. Now, consider how hard you work to scrape up just one hour a day to call your own, if that, and contrast this with the lavish hours granted the government worker to leisurely initiate your undoing with merely a few phone calls and typed memos. Consider.
The direct cost to the victims of government intrusion, including fines, lost hours, attorney's fees, and more, likely amounts to 500 billion to 1.5 trillion per year (10-100 multiplier effect) -- not including costs of emotional damage or life destruction of the direct victims and their families; and not including the cost of the government workers themselves -- about 162 billion dollars per year.
It could be asserted that not all victims of the federal Administrative State are truly
victims. This is inarguable. However, given that we excluded more than one-half of government workers from the start (see above) -- and by implication the non-victim victims they deal with -- our current estimates of destruction -- 500 billion to 1.5 trillion per year, is conservative.
So, can it really be all that difficult to imagine the enormity of the benefit to society were as many as possible of our Administrative State's 2.7 million workers to stay at home -- forever -- and to receive full salary with benefits, including 100% of all healthcare expenses (or double or triple all of this)
for life, a full-ride college expense coverage for all of their children, and perhaps a Mercedes, maybe even two. And this would still leave 50% of workers in place to keep searching for "the real killers."
Seriously, we're talking about eliminating 50 million work hours per week -- hours with the destructive effect of 500 million to one billion work hours PER WEEK. We're talking about one billion hours PER WEEK of less destruction and despair across the entire landscape of America. Even if we include the Mercedes! And all shall have prizes!
Spread the word.
