It does not surprise me that so much of the negative sentiments over health care reform stems from a general sense of distrust in “Government”. The corruption we see reported in almost every State where elected officials abuse the position of trust and power GIVEN to them by their constituents feeds into that distrust and, over time, it has eroded our confidence that anything labeled as “Government” can be of any value or do any good. As the title of a Tyler Perry movie goes, “I can do bad all by myself” – we certainly don’t need to elect or pay anyone to abuse us.
Things have been so bad in New York that a New York Times editorial (Oct 18. 2009) titled “Fed Up with Albany” recommended voting out every incumbent member of the state’s legislature if nothing is done within one year to clean up the mess (click here to view the NYT editorial). Readers from outside of New York chimed in with their comments and left stinging remarks about the disgraceful and shameful behavior by their own state’s elected officials, voicing their agreement with the idea of voting out every incumbent simply because they are an incumbent.
Unfortunately, we often have an innate tendency to generalize issues and things and, in doing so, we destroy the good that is overshadowed by the bad. Identifying the real issues and dealing with them may be more time consuming but clearly more civilized and less damaging. In the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah, even an angry God was prepared to spare the lives of the Lot and his family before he rained fire and brimstone upon those cities. We have a duty to separate the good from the bad; the wheat from the chaff.
In fairness to the New York Times, their editorial included a promise to outline the ways that the existing inbred system allows for abuse and what Albany could do to change its ways. I will watch for their recommendations with great interest – New York is the only home I’ve known since coming to the United States.
The purpose of my posting here is to go one step further because “Government” is not simply made up of elected officials sitting in the halls of power inside the Capitol buildings. It includes Public Services that are run by the Government, funded by tax-payers’ dollars. The people employed by these Public Services are often the only faces most of us will see in our dealings with the Government.
Whenever I have had to avail myself of the services they provide, I make it a point to smile and be friendly, hopeful that in doing so, I will make their day a little brighter and in exchange, what I need done will be achieved with some dignity and expediency. Happily, my tactic works better than 50% of the time so it isn’t a wasted effort.
Unfortunately I can also say from experience that often times the faces I see are dour and the attitudes appalling – almost as if by my being there with a need which only they could service, I have become an unwelcomed intruder in their plans for the day. I’ve had employees of public services disappear on me while I was standing at the service counter because it was their lunch time or a personal call came in on their cell-phone and they didn’t want me to listen in on their private conversation. I’ve watched in amazement as they would stop working on my case because colleagues nearby had started a conversation about something outside of work and they felt a need to be part of that conversation. I’ve had to fill in a tri-fold, 4-color pre-printed form simply because it was standard procedure – despite the fact that all information I had to provide is already in their computer system and unchanged – only to see the form tossed into a trash bin moments later. I could go on…
Public Service is where we clearly need reform as well if we want to improve on the image of Government. Standards of efficiency and quality of service must be set and independently audited to ensure compliance and there must be accountability where the standards are not met. Pay increases must be matched by better performance and increased efficiencies so that they are self-funded and no new taxes are required. Public Service employees must be treated as private sector employees are treated – lifetime employment should not be guaranteed and they should be subject to the same possibility of termination for poor performance and for cause. Outside expertise should be brought in to improve work-flow, eliminate unnecessary processes and costs while enabling greater automation and efficiency. Performance of Public Services employees can and should be bench-marked against performance of employees in the private sector and made public so that there is transparency and necessary actions be taken to weed out the inefficiencies.
There is no reason why public services cannot be just as efficient as the private sector. If virtual monopoly exists, find ways to break up that stranglehold. Private schools co-exist and compete with public schools and private parcel delivery companies co-exist and compete with the US Postal Service. Similarly, private transportation services compete with public transportation services.
If politicians, elected officials and public service employees are keen to keep their jobs, they need to do a better one. The nation is suffering from the cumulative and simultaneous effects of the bursting of the housing bubble, the near meltdown of financial services, and technologies and policies that have enabled the relocation of many of the so-called ‘middle-class’ jobs to lower cost countries. Policies of the past no longer serve the needs of the present or the future and changes must be made from the very top to the very bottom of “Government”. Failing that, we should start looking at outsourcing or off-shoring Government jobs.
