Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays
Interesting perspective....thanks.
Now, we all do derive some benefits in exchange for taxes paid. I don't think anyone seriously advocates eliminating all taxes! The general problem with incremental government spending above what is necessary to provide essential government functions is the incredible "drag" produced by payroll costs.
We have too many people on our town's payroll who don't do much work, for example; while there are some people on our town's payroll who are tremendously overworked. Yet town managers can't correct these imbalances.
On the state level, it is even worse....sadly I know first-hand how many people collect paychecks for 37.5 hours who perhaps actually work less than an hour each day. yet if managers try to get them to do their jobs there is such insurrection it is astonishing. At the same time, there are a few people in the same place who do more work than four or five people comgined in comparable positions (a staff of five is supposed to produce x reports per month....at the end of five months, 5 * x reports are completed, all by the same person, none by the other four!!!).
I imagine it is true on the federal level as well, though I have no direct knowledge. Still, I'd submit that SEALs are probably underpaid relative to the value they deliver while mid-level managers, given the advances in computer technology we've seen over the past decade, are way overpaid relative to the value they deliver.
the general rule for all governments at any level is that there are too many managers relative to too few people who are actually "on the front lines" delivering true value to the public. I wonder what is the ratio between food safety inspectors and their supervisors at the FDA for one example....or how did the CFTC completely miss MF Global stealing from their customers? or how did the SEC ignore warnings they received about Madoff? yet they have multi-million dollar budgets and don't perform their essential functions!
There would be a lot less resentment of "big government" if they actually delivered value in proportion to the money allocated. Too many layers of bureaucracy.
While peoplemay decry the "profit" motive as based on avarice, we do need some measure of effectiveness, and no one has yet proposed a better one.
Interesting perspective....thanks.
Now, we all do derive some benefits in exchange for taxes paid. I don't think anyone seriously advocates eliminating all taxes! The general problem with incremental government spending above what is necessary to provide essential government functions is the incredible "drag" produced by payroll costs.
We have too many people on our town's payroll who don't do much work, for example; while there are some people on our town's payroll who are tremendously overworked. Yet town managers can't correct these imbalances.
On the state level, it is even worse....sadly I know first-hand how many people collect paychecks for 37.5 hours who perhaps actually work less than an hour each day. yet if managers try to get them to do their jobs there is such insurrection it is astonishing. At the same time, there are a few people in the same place who do more work than four or five people comgined in comparable positions (a staff of five is supposed to produce x reports per month....at the end of five months, 5 * x reports are completed, all by the same person, none by the other four!!!).
I imagine it is true on the federal level as well, though I have no direct knowledge. Still, I'd submit that SEALs are probably underpaid relative to the value they deliver while mid-level managers, given the advances in computer technology we've seen over the past decade, are way overpaid relative to the value they deliver.
the general rule for all governments at any level is that there are too many managers relative to too few people who are actually "on the front lines" delivering true value to the public. I wonder what is the ratio between food safety inspectors and their supervisors at the FDA for one example....or how did the CFTC completely miss MF Global stealing from their customers? or how did the SEC ignore warnings they received about Madoff? yet they have multi-million dollar budgets and don't perform their essential functions!
There would be a lot less resentment of "big government" if they actually delivered value in proportion to the money allocated. Too many layers of bureaucracy.
While peoplemay decry the "profit" motive as based on avarice, we do need some measure of effectiveness, and no one has yet proposed a better one.
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