Robert Robb Sure Complains A Lot...

I know I pick on Robb a lot, but I just can't help myself. The truth is that he is more reasonable than most of the columnists at the Arizona Republic. Making fun of most their columnists is not worth the time... Here is his latest column.

In his latest column, he basically complains about the government being, well the government. The simple fact is, for those of you that don't know, the government does a lot of boring stuff. Most of what he outlines is the stuff that government actually does right. They regulate various professions and study problems. Well, we wouldn't want the government to study things :). I get his point, but come-on let's call this what it is, you are a Republican that doesn't like government. You see what you want to see...

I hate to break it too all of you conservatives out there, but big business acts in a very similar way. Work at a fortune 500 company for a few years and see how much time you spend in special committee meetings, conference calls studying problems and endlessly discussing things. It is the reality of large organizations...

One of the things that I find particularly galling is how most people understand so little about the things they desperately oppose. You should read Max Weber and his thoughts on bureaucracy. The simple fact is that government does some things well (and it changes from organization to organization) and not others. It is no different than any other organization in that is goes through cycles of increased efficiency and decreased efficiency. It goes through cycles of innovation and reform and has times of stagnation.

One of the biggest problems in government is the lack of understanding on the part of public officials. I read this book years ago that has case studies of this exact problem (I wish I could remember the name). Basically, you have a professional class that actually runs the government, but every 18 months or so, they have to deal with a political appointee who generally has very little experience and no institutional memory. It makes it particularly difficult to run things efficiently. The result all too often is a repeat of many of the same mistakes. Imagine if your boss changed every 18 months, was very young, inexperienced and felt that they had all answers.

I know I am generalizing, but this is true for many departments at all levels of government.