Federal Aid to the States: Historical Cause of Government Growth and Bureaucracy.

[Mike]

Federal Aid to the States: Historical Cause of Government Growth and
Bureaucracy.
CATO.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa593.pdf

[George Conklin]

Post by Mike
Federal Aid to the States: Historical Cause of Government Growth and
Bureaucracy.
CATO.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa593.pdf

Mike, increasing technological complexity is the main cause of growth of any
bureaucracy. CATO is a biased organization. Sometimes they are right, but
they are a one-note-Charlie about the Feds. And Wrong.

[Pat]

Post by George Conklin

Post by Mike
Federal Aid to the States: Historical Cause of Government Growth and
Bureaucracy.
CATO.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa593.pdf

Mike, increasing technological complexity is the main cause of growth of any
bureaucracy. CATO is a biased organization. Sometimes they are right, but
they are a one-note-Charlie about the Feds. And Wrong.

Increasing complexity is NOT the cause of growth of a local government
and does not limit or increase the size of local government. After
driving through more towns you can possibly imagine, I can firmly
concluded that the size of government is dictated SOLELY by the size
of the municipal building. This is

Pat's First Law of Government: The size of government expands to fill
the space allotted to it.

No one likes to be crowed and would rather do more work than be too
crowded. Boards and commissions think there's waste if there's empty
space -- or the employees clamor for more help.

Pat's Second Law of Government is: If you install a by-pass, people
will pass you buy.

Communities with efficient transportation systems that allow one to
easily bypass the downtown end up with an empty downtown and all of
the stores in strip malls along the bypass.

These laws apply to small and medium sized communities. Large
communities may, or may not, have different dynamics.

[George Conklin]

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin

Post by Mike
Federal Aid to the States: Historical Cause of Government Growth and
Bureaucracy.
CATO.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa593.pdf

Mike, increasing technological complexity is the main cause of growth of any
bureaucracy. CATO is a biased organization. Sometimes they are right, but
they are a one-note-Charlie about the Feds. And Wrong.

Increasing complexity is NOT the cause of growth of a local government
and does not limit or increase the size of local government. After
driving through more towns you can possibly imagine, I can firmly
concluded that the size of government is dictated SOLELY by the size
of the municipal building.

You can't be serious?

[Pat]

Post by George Conklin

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin

Post by Mike
Federal Aid to the States: Historical Cause of Government Growth and
Bureaucracy.
CATO.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa593.pdf

Mike, increasing technological complexity is the main cause of growth of

any

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin
bureaucracy. CATO is a biased organization. Sometimes they are right,

but

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin
they are a one-note-Charlie about the Feds. And Wrong.

Increasing complexity is NOT the cause of growth of a local government
and does not limit or increase the size of local government. After
driving through more towns you can possibly imagine, I can firmly
concluded that the size of government is dictated SOLELY by the size
of the municipal building.

You can't be serious?

Totally serious. That's now local gov't works. Build is too big,
then fill it. Building is too small, well voters will kill us if we
bond for a new building. It is the building that enforces the status
quo. If a dept moves out and gets their own space, the old space is
IMMEDIATELY absorbed by other departments and their number of
employees will increase correspondingly.

Go look at every local government you can find. There is a very
limited range of employee density. That is the controlling factor.
There is an equilibrium.

It is fortunate that gov't don't tend to rent because then there'd be
no control. Fortunately it is hard to justify a bond issue.

[George Conklin]

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin

Post by Mike
Federal Aid to the States: Historical Cause of Government Growth and
Bureaucracy.
CATO.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa593.pdf

Mike, increasing technological complexity is the main cause of growth of

any

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin
bureaucracy. CATO is a biased organization. Sometimes they are right,

but

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin
they are a one-note-Charlie about the Feds. And Wrong.

Increasing complexity is NOT the cause of growth of a local government
and does not limit or increase the size of local government. After
driving through more towns you can possibly imagine, I can firmly
concluded that the size of government is dictated SOLELY by the size
of the municipal building.

You can't be serious?

Totally serious. That's now local gov't works. Build is too big,
then fill it. Building is too small, well voters will kill us if we
bond for a new building. It is the building that enforces the status
quo. If a dept moves out and gets their own space, the old space is
IMMEDIATELY absorbed by other departments and their number of
employees will increase correspondingly.
Go look at every local government you can find. There is a very
limited range of employee density. That is the controlling factor.
There is an equilibrium.
It is fortunate that gov't don't tend to rent because then there'd be
no control. Fortunately it is hard to justify a bond issue.

You really are a true cynic. But local governments today have all kinds of
things they have to do which was not true in the past. Of course, planning
is one which people push on government, and all the planners run the same
rants. ACCESS made that point this issue in memory of Webber, who just died
after being the editor for 20 years (he was 86). Webber, they said, asked
commonly what evidence people had that their plans worked, since planning
was seen as a normative exercise. Check out that issue.

[Pat]

Post by George Conklin

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin

Post by Mike
Federal Aid to the States: Historical Cause of Government Growth

and

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin

Post by Mike
Bureaucracy.
CATO.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa593.pdf

Mike, increasing technological complexity is the main cause of

growth of

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin
any

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin
bureaucracy. CATO is a biased organization. Sometimes they are

right,

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin
but

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin
they are a one-note-Charlie about the Feds. And Wrong.

Increasing complexity is NOT the cause of growth of a local government
and does not limit or increase the size of local government. After
driving through more towns you can possibly imagine, I can firmly
concluded that the size of government is dictated SOLELY by the size
of the municipal building.

You can't be serious?

Totally serious. That's now local gov't works. Build is too big,
then fill it. Building is too small, well voters will kill us if we
bond for a new building. It is the building that enforces the status
quo. If a dept moves out and gets their own space, the old space is
IMMEDIATELY absorbed by other departments and their number of
employees will increase correspondingly.
Go look at every local government you can find. There is a very
limited range of employee density. That is the controlling factor.
There is an equilibrium.
It is fortunate that gov't don't tend to rent because then there'd be
no control. Fortunately it is hard to justify a bond issue.

You really are a true cynic. But local governments today have all kinds of
things they have to do which was not true in the past. Of course, planning
is one which people push on government, and all the planners run the same
rants. ACCESS made that point this issue in memory of Webber, who just died
after being the editor for 20 years (he was 86). Webber, they said, asked
commonly what evidence people had that their plans worked, since planning
was seen as a normative exercise. Check out that issue.

Planning is supposed to work? Surely you jest. It's just supposed to
pester the heck out of people who want to do someting. It is to
institutionalize the status quo.

George Carlin said "If you think that there's a solution, then you're
part of the problem".

[George Conklin]

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin

Post by Mike
Federal Aid to the States: Historical Cause of Government Growth and
Bureaucracy.
CATO.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa593.pdf

Mike, increasing technological complexity is the main cause of growth of

any

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin
bureaucracy. CATO is a biased organization. Sometimes they are right,

but

Post by Pat

Post by George Conklin
they are a one-note-Charlie about the Feds. And Wrong.

Increasing complexity is NOT the cause of growth of a local government
and does not limit or increase the size of local government. After
driving through more towns you can possibly imagine, I can firmly
concluded that the size of government is dictated SOLELY by the size
of the municipal building.

You can't be serious?

Totally serious. That's now local gov't works. Build is too big,
then fill it. Building is too small, well voters will kill us if we
bond for a new building. It is the building that enforces the status
quo. If a dept moves out and gets their own space, the old space is
IMMEDIATELY absorbed by other departments and their number of
employees will increase correspondingly.
Go look at every local government you can find. There is a very
limited range of employee density. That is the controlling factor.
There is an equilibrium.
It is fortunate that gov't don't tend to rent because then there'd be
no control. Fortunately it is hard to justify a bond issue.

You really are a true cynic. But local governments today have all kinds of
things they have to do which was not true in the past. Of course, planning
is one which people push on government, and all the planners run the same
rants. ACCESS made that point this issue in memory of Webber, who just died
after being the editor for 20 years (he was 86). Webber, they said, asked
commonly what evidence people had that their plans worked, since planning
was seen as a normative exercise. Check out that issue.