Bureaucrats

 

I am one of those nameless, faceless bureaucrats. Yes, that is my job. Though I actually have a name; I even am rumored to have a face. Bureau is the French word for desk, so you could say bureaucrats are “desk people.” In short, I work for the government. I sometimes have to deliver unpleasant news to a taxpayer. I sometimes have to tell them that the deed they recorded won’t work and they will have to record another one with corrections. Or we can’t process their deed until they pay their taxes. I can understand why some of these things upset people. The thing is, we don’t decide these things. It is not the bureaucrats that make the laws. The legislature writes the laws. We are required to follow the law.  If you are going to get mad at someone, get mad at the legislature. Or maybe get mad at the voters who voted the legislature in (That’s you, by the way).

The same thing happens when the voters vote in a new district, or vote for a bond, or a new operating levy for an existing city or water district, or fire district etc. When the measure is on the ballot it is explained that this is going to raise taxes, and it explains how much it is going to raise taxes. But that kind of gets lost in the recognized need that the fire district needs new engines. Or the school district needs a new high school building to replace the crumbling one. Then when it comes time to pay taxes, some people are mad that their taxes have gone up. It never goes over well to point out, “but, you voted for it.” If we were to say that the response would be, “no, I didn’t.”

Perhaps they didn’t vote for it, but a majority of their community neighbors did. Knowing what you know now, would you take it back? Would you let the fire department make do with a couple of trucks that they can no longer repair? Would you let the old bridge fall down? Let the water system shut down because they can no longer process enough with their old plant?

Things cost money. Part of the contract we have as a society is to mutually take care of society. It is only right that we all pay for schools, even if you personally don’t have any kids in school. You still benefit (all of society benefits) by having an educated workforce, an educated population. Otherwise where would all the doctors, inventors, and engineers come from?

Somebody has to implement all this stuff that makes a government function. That would be the bureaucrats. The Oxford English Dictionary defines Bureaucrat as: “An official in a government department, in particular one perceived as being concerned with procedural correctness at the expense of people's needs.” See, even the OED gives us no love.

Star Liner