Okay! Okay! Okay!
I know most of you realize the title is a grand juxtaposition.
What prompted this post is a visit to The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler and one of the responses given by Steve. Poor Steve. He couldn't or wouldn't find a job in the private sector and succumbed to becoming another mind-numbed government employee who thinks society would be poorer if government didn't pay him to do such important work.
Apparently, Steve works in some sort of museum capacity. He actually believes that if government did not preserve and protect artifacts of history, they would be lost and forgotten. In other words, if government didn't grab us by the shoulders and say, "Hey, you, look at this, it's really important!" nobody would think about, care about, or try to preserve history.
Just how damned stupid can a person be?
There are all kinds of private museums all across this country. Some are ridiculous. Some are fascinating. Some are extensive and detailed beyond the average person's interest. But above all, it is either the economic motive, or the pure enjoyment and pride of certain individuals to preserve and display historical artifacts that drive them to create such museums.
Governments try to please special interests by picking and choosing what a visitor might see. Stuff gets filtered.
A private individual can simply say, "Here it is. Look or don't look." He may filter the things he displays, but he can't stop the guy down the road from displaying stuff he doesn't like.
But I digress. Back to the Issue of what government does better than the private sector:
National defense is what usually comes to mind to rational people. To me, it begs the question; why only the military?
The military is such a unique bureaucracy. Especially now. With an all volunteer force, we are now seeing the fruit of an incredible experience. With very few exceptions, the most dedicated kids are choosing to enlist in the military. That means they are all willing. No conscripts. This means that 99% of all those people are not pissed off because they were dragged involuntarily into harms way.
Whether it is the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines; the military works pretty effeciently at it's primary mission: killing people and breaking things.
In all of it's secondary things, it is just like most other bureacrasies; slow, cumbersome, mind-numbing. Why the dichotomy? Because where it counts, the military is very good at sorting people into the jobs where they are best suited. Part of it is the pursuit by the individual, but the military doesn't allow you to work where you haven't the aptitude.
Sure you can get into the military with almost no education or skills, but if you meet the minimum standards, they will train you for some type of support job. Somebody has to move supplies and cook the meals. But the guys at the sharp end of the spear have to be smart and capable. Lives depend on it.
When you work for the State Department or the Agriculture or HUD or OSHA, etcetera, you can rise to the level of your incompetence and usually nobody dies; at least not directly, from your stupidity. In the military, most fatal mistakes are recognized the moment they happen and the survivors immediately take steps to make sure it never happens again.
My attempt to get into the Navy and OCS was cut short due to my 15% hearing deficit. Because I had been a Cadet Leiutenant Commander in NJROTC, I was immediately given the chance at RCPO at Great Lakes, IL boot camp. I remember some dumb recruit speaking out in formation. "This is the f---ing Navy. What's with this marching s---." He was supposed to be at attention and silent. I got in his face.
"Marching teaches you discipline and timing. You learn that if you don't do exactly the right thing at the right instant when the command is given, you can royally screw up everybody around you and that kind of s--- is what gets people killed. Do you understand that?"
The PO1 in charge of my platoon turned to his assistant and said, "Holy S---, with this guy we might have the Cinderella unit. He explained it better than I ever have." The Cinderella unit was a knick-name for the platoon that scored highest at graduation and got a whole week furlough before reporting to rating school.
In the military, your primary goal is to stay alive and keep your buddies alive. In all other government agencies, your goal is to expand your department, increase your budget, and insure that you make it to retirement with a fat pension by doing the minimum you need just to get by.
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