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.
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