Defining the Terms for Failure and Permeaucracy

Hayward (formerly known as Doctor Zero) essays on Gummint duplication and waste.

Well, yah, water is wet, the sun is hot, death, taxes.....you know the drill. But there's a paragraph here that deserves attention:

Government programs succeed through failure. A program that actually “solved” whatever problem prompted its creation would be wiped out. A bureaucrat who runs a tight ship, and brings his operation in under budget, will be “rewarded” with a smaller budget. Every single organ of our federal government is working tirelessly to solve a problem that is much worse than originally anticipated, and therefore requires increased funding.

This relates directly to the post below, wherein Klein discovered that death is inevitable. While the Gummint will never title a program "The Bureaucracy for Elimination of Human Death," the Gummint does have programs which will "restore the environment" and "eliminate consumer fraud" and "eliminate poverty." In fact, there are several Gummints which all promise those results, at the Federal, State, and local levels.

Ergo, so long as there is one particle of dust invading the 'clean' air, or one lousy crook ripping off Granny, or one person who is "poor" (whatever that is in this society), the Gummint program still has a mandate.

It's not that Gummint workers actually seek "failure" of their program.

It's that, by defining the terms, Legislators have ensured Permeaucracy. Yes, legislators are cynics. It's their job. Or, as Ernie would say: "Fooled you, Bert!" (We note that 'eliminating fraud' does not include eliminating legislators...)