Ezra Klein: Bureaucracy

« Things You Won't Learn From Industry Propaganda | Main | Values! »

June 29, 2007

Bureaucracy

Megan looks straight into the face of evil -- and finds it sorta dutiful. Responding to one of those Hayekian types who think that deep within any government bureaucracy a purely black heart pumps a statist ichor, she writes:

In this climate, with this cabal leading our country, you somehow look around you and decide that what scares you, the real threat to our democracy is a bunch of civil servants? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK WE DO?

I am dead serious. What do you think we DO? We sit here, thousands of us, infiltrating the entire nation. Every day we come to work and do something that is scarier than making a mockery of the Constitution, disappearing and torturing people, killing thousands of our own and theirs in a country that wasn’t an aggressor, spying on Americans, evading laws to tilt elections. What the hell could that BE?

Part of me wants to explain this one more time. I can tell you what we do. Dave, upstairs? He monitors a bunch of gaging stations in the Delta and likes to talk about telemetry. Amy? She tracks grants and reads invoices very carefully. The guy down the hall? He holds public meetings, dozens per year, to figure out what the public wants us to do with our water. Three cubes over? He surveys culverts along the 1 to see whether salmon can get through them. Also upstairs? They inspect dams and think about whether sirens or radio announcements are more effective for announcing a dam break. Those FIENDS! There are some people whose jobs I don’t know. Maybe they’re the ones doing whatever it is that terrifies you.

June 29, 2007 | Permalink

Comments

Which cubicle is responsible for fluoridation?

That's probably the Nazi cubicle. I mean, the cubes are probably arranged perpendicular to each other in swastika pattern.

Posted by: Consumatopia | Jun 29, 2007 9:53:12 PM

Fluoridation is known to be a communist plot.

Posted by: Sanpete | Jun 29, 2007 10:03:03 PM

Sorry, my bad.

Posted by: Consumatopia | Jun 29, 2007 10:26:36 PM

There's a hippie version of the fluoridation conspiracy in which fluoride is this toxic byproduct of some evil corporation somewhere and putting it in our water is this handy-dandy way to dispose of it.

Posted by: djw | Jun 29, 2007 11:58:31 PM

Megan's broader point about the basic decency of bureaucrats aside, in one of her previous posts she implies that the Endangered Species Act is wildly disproportionate and silly, which strikes me as terrifyingly ignorant. Given that half of all existing species have been predicted to go extinct within the next hundred years, it seems pretty clear that existing protections to maintain biodiversity aren't nearly strong enough.

Posted by: Christmas | Jun 30, 2007 10:25:34 AM

Hayek's slippery slope argument has been discredited to some degree since many social democracies exist today, although he was correct about both the communist bloc and Nazi Germany. I still think he is correct on the tension between freedom and income equality, even if blatant tyranny isn't a guaranteed byproduct.

Posted by: Jason | Jun 30, 2007 10:51:05 AM

You can't fight fears by resorting rational thinking- no gonna happen. Now humor- now that may be the ticket.

Posted by: akaison | Jun 30, 2007 10:57:15 AM

My wife used to be a city preservation planner, handling building permit requests in historic districts and attending public meetings (among other things). She had very little decision-making power, as that was vested in the Historic Review Commission, a politically-appointed body.

Once, at a hearing before the HRC, a lawyer for a group that opposed the designation of a new Historic District accused her of wanting to "expand her bureaucratic power base." It was bizarre - the only thing an additional district meant was more residents calling her to tattle on their neighbors. But this guy, obviously listening to too much talk radio, had this bizarre notion that civil servants are all mini-dictators, lusting after regulatory power.

Sensibly, the guy's firm never let him attend any more hearings.

Posted by: angelique | Jun 30, 2007 10:59:56 AM

"...a purely black heart pumps a statist ichor".
I like that. Visual.

Posted by: has_te | Jun 30, 2007 12:03:30 PM

I dunno, I think Megan hit on exactly what's scary about beauraucrats, the mentality that We Do Good Things, from which follows that

1) If we do it, it is good,

and

2) If there is a thing, we should do it.

Posted by: Senescent | Jun 30, 2007 10:05:43 PM

I think I've hit upon what makes Senescent scary: the mentality that Senescent Is Right, from which it follows that

1)If Senescent says it, it must be true,

and

2)If there is an unsupported gross generalization or logical fallacy to promulgate, Senescent will do it.

Seriously, what a waste of keystrokes.

Posted by: DMonteith | Jul 1, 2007 1:53:29 AM

Christmas, the powers granted under the ESA are astounding. It isn't saving the species it should, but that is for a bunch of other reasons:

FWS and NMFS are too underfunded to research and list all the species that should be on there.
The ESA is systemically underapplied.
Habitat loss is outracing the ESA.
The powers granted by the ESA are too extreme to use. If a judge used the full extent of them (such as by shutting the Delta pumps for several years to protect the Delta smelt and forcing Southern California to evacuate), the law would be overturned. Huge hammer that the ESA is, it is simply too big to swing.

Don't get me wrong. I am in favor of environmental regulation, and I would like it to have broad powers. I would also like it to be applied in every situation that would save a species. I have no problem with the ESA being as strong as it is. It isn't ignorance that makes me admit that the powers granted by the ESA are extraordinary. It is a reasonable thing to acknowledge to people who are scared by the ESA that it is a stronger law than Congress knew it was passing, and I still expect federal officials to enforce it as long as it is law.

Posted by: Megan | Jul 1, 2007 4:49:35 AM

The powers granted by the ESA are too extreme to use.

I'd say "tell that to your great-grandchildren when they're running out of oxygen because we've killed off the plankton," but of course neither of us will be around then.

Posted by: Christmas | Jul 1, 2007 10:35:54 AM

托盘
 托盘
 钢托盘
 钢制托盘
 塑料托盘
 木托盘
 木制托盘
 纸托盘
 木塑托盘