Friday, September 25, 2009

The Fable of the Nightwatchman; or, How Government "Works"

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said someone might steal from it at night, so they created a night watchman position (GS-4) and hired a person for the job.


Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?” So they created a planning position and hired two people: one person to write the instructions (GS-12) and one person to do time studies (GS-11).


Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?” So they created a Q.C. position and hired two people, one GS-9 to do the studies and one GS-11 to write the reports.


Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?” So they created the following positions, a timekeeper (GS-09) and a payroll officer (GS-11) and hired two people.


Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?”


So they created an administrative position and hired three people: an Admin. Officer (GM-13), an Assistant Admin. Officer (GS-13) and a Legal Secretary (GS-08).


Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $18,000 over budget, we must cutback overall cost,” so they laid off the night watchman.




From: Tammy Bruce

2 comments:

public works environment said...

The rule is that with a President who is weak or uninterested in economic policy or in public works environment or when the chairs of house banking, senate banking, senate finance are strong, then the treasury Secretary is the more powerful position. But with a President who is strong and interested in economic policy, the assistant to the president is the higher ranking job.

public works energy said...

when Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people? Is that answer should be about public works energy?