A Spoonful of Sugar

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship
is that in a democracy you vote first
and take orders later;
in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting
--Charles Bukowski

Most new jobs won't come from our biggest employers.
They will come from our smallest.
We've got to do everything we can
to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality
--Ross Perot

Economic history is a long record of
government policies that failed
because they were designed with a bold disregard
for the laws of economics
--Ludwig Von Mises

Government is not the solution to our problem.
Government is the problem
--Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural address (1981)

Ranger Quote of the Day (RQOD):
If we say we are capitalists,
then let the capitalists run the thing
___________________

Reader Avedis recently offered a challenge, and Ranger will pick up the gauntlet: How to remove the bloat from government?

The plan is nothing short of revolutionary (much as anything qualifies for the term, today), its goals, twofold: Make the State the primary governmental entity and eliminate city and state legislative bodies and rendering all civil servants state employees. The goal is elimination of redundancy and uniformity of services and codes.

While one man's fat is another's meat -- and this plan would eviscerate redundant positions -- the country cannot afford such redundancy either in terms of monetary outlay or manpower lost to The System. Those workers brought up to the light of day from the bowels of the local and county Systems would have to be re-processed into meaningful work, and this is where the new state Creative Class will have to innovate.

Ranger's revolutionary idea is to nix the superannuated concept of direct democracy. Removing the pretense of fair representation would allow for the the reduction of layers of bureaucracy, eliminating redundant management.

Once we can relinquish our grip on this quaint chimera, government could be restructured to represent the better interests of all. This may all sound a bit Benthamitic, but what's so wrong with that?

The key is recognizing that true representative democracy is gone; we have grown too large. Therefore, the key to an efficient government is a limned-down version guided by realistic economic principles. State and Federal Government remains, but municipal governance would be largely dissolved, replaced by State administration, assisted by a county manager. This would eliminate county and city taxation issues, concentrating taxes at the state level.

Since voting has become a chaotic, narcissist's catwalk, all local politicking would be abolished and all local civil servants would be directly under the State's aegis.

In its place would be a State decision-making body something like Solon's Council of 400 and the boule. Each state would identify it's top 100 citizens, selected from among banking, corporations, academia and the professions. George Will said Capitalism is a government program, so let us select successful management, competence, compassion and innovation as the criteria for selection, and applicants would be selected by portfolio.

These 100 citizens would function as a House of Representatives, and they would elect the governor. They would also select the State Senators and Representatives, either from among their lot or from any sector of the state's population.

This would eliminate the facades we choose from today, in which posturing masquerades as policy. In this new plan, the State would be the primary functionary, chosen by appointment. City and County elected positions would be eliminated. All housekeeping and public safety functions would be performed by state employees. This would remove unnecessary petty politicking on the city level. It would largely do away with lobbyists, as there would be no local pork projects.

Each county would have a county manager functioning like the ancient Greek archons, and overseeing something like a boule, who would coordinate state-administered operational funds to the cities. This would eliminate county and city taxation issues, concentrating taxes at the state level.

The State 100 could be selected by a simple majority from among ballots cast by county managers. (The selection process for the county manager is undecided by Ranger. Possibly, he would be chosen by county plebiscite.)

The states could be divided into quarters for ease of selection of the State 100, with each county archon choosing the top 25 candidates from their region. Ultimately, the region's 25 representatives would be determined by a collated tally of the regional archon's ballots and a simple majority.

To enable the removal of a representative due to either incompetence or venality, every member is subject to impeachment by a vote among his peers, similar to the Greek's ostracism, a heavy smite to a businessman upon whose reputation rests his fortune.

The State would be standardized pay rates, taxes and services, the latter commensurate with the populations being served. It would then become possible to unionize the state worker in an efficient and realistic manner. All licensing would be at the state level.

All law enforcement and public safety functions would be consolidated. The Highway Patrol and Sheriff Departments are quaint holdovers from the past. A State Police Department would eliminate the redundancy. County courthouses would become State Courthouses, with judges elected by the state's legislature.

The National Guard's Federal function would be eliminated, making them a non-deployable state resource for emergencies. All combat functions would revert to the Federal Army.

The purpose of the plan is streamlining government. We have been limping along with a semblance of representative democracy for a long time -- this would trade in the appearance in return for superior management and integration of and equitable distribution of resources.

It would allow for the possibility of a truly creative class in government, something sorely needed in our 21st century of diminishing resources and dissociated governmental bodies

[Tackling national government is for another day.]