No, it's not a stored rant . . . at least I didn't experience it as one. The question I thought you asked was "do you know of any successful businessmen who have succeeded in politics?" And it seemed like what you were looking for was a positive example, and I didn't think that was possible, that was what my response came from.
Goverments can't make any of their citizens go away except by killing them, and then they don't always really go away anyway. They have to keep dealing with them , is my point. Businesses don't have the kind of all-encompassing, never-ending, big-picture responsibilities that governments have. That's what I'm saying: businessmen don't need the kinds of skills that administrators have.
Bureaucrats are administrators. They make systems run, they integrate them with other systems. A low-level bureaucrat doesn't have the same big-picture responsibility that a general administrator does, but a bureaucrat who has worked at several levels of organizaiton is much more appropriately prepared for government than any businessman of any level, particularly the ones of the higher level, who you've noticed, never actually suffer when they make mistakes.
The best people I know of in politics at this time are all people who started as government or NGO bureaucrats or public interest lawyers, who have put in their time at local commissions and county administrations, who have a respect for the rule of law and the process of hearings, debate, and negotiated legislation. They aren't schooled in the skills of looking out for themselves and their cronies at all costs. They're accustomed to taking in the needs of whole communities and looking at long-range repercussions.
Bureaucrats get a bad rap because whenever we meet a bad or obstinate or uncaring one it scars us for life. But good bureaucrats are almost invisible and your power stays on and your street gets cleaned and your parks get maintained and your deed gets recorded.
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zvi and
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Date: 2011-05-01 02:48 pm (UTC)Goverments can't make any of their citizens go away except by killing them, and then they don't always really go away anyway. They have to keep dealing with them , is my point. Businesses don't have the kind of all-encompassing, never-ending, big-picture responsibilities that governments have. That's what I'm saying: businessmen don't need the kinds of skills that administrators have.
Bureaucrats are administrators. They make systems run, they integrate them with other systems. A low-level bureaucrat doesn't have the same big-picture responsibility that a general administrator does, but a bureaucrat who has worked at several levels of organizaiton is much more appropriately prepared for government than any businessman of any level, particularly the ones of the higher level, who you've noticed, never actually suffer when they make mistakes.
The best people I know of in politics at this time are all people who started as government or NGO bureaucrats or public interest lawyers, who have put in their time at local commissions and county administrations, who have a respect for the rule of law and the process of hearings, debate, and negotiated legislation. They aren't schooled in the skills of looking out for themselves and their cronies at all costs. They're accustomed to taking in the needs of whole communities and looking at long-range repercussions.
Bureaucrats get a bad rap because whenever we meet a bad or obstinate or uncaring one it scars us for life. But good bureaucrats are almost invisible and your power stays on and your street gets cleaned and your parks get maintained and your deed gets recorded.