Washington Monument-strategin

Från David Henderson:

A perennial case in point is the "Washington Monument strategy" of the National Park Service. At budget time, the service frequently threatens to curtail visiting hours at its most popular attractions, such as the Washington Monument, if its budget request is not met, and it threatens to blame Congress and the budget process when tourists complain. Other agencies use this and similar tactics to seek more support for their narrow programs. In doing so, too often they impose enormous costs on society. It is hard to imagine a private firm--even a large, bureaucratic one--responding to hard budget times by curtailing its most popular product or service. The private firm would lose too much business to the competition.

Och vidare ur inlägget:

It would be understandable if the government did not provide Park Service employees. But that's not what the Obama administration did. Instead, it did provide employees to prevent people from getting to the World War II Memorial. In other words, instead of just not providing employees, the U.S. Park Service spent real resources to prevent people from getting access, even though the Memorial is outdoors and, during normal times, has unlimited access.

So what should we call this new U.S. Park Service strategy? How about the "Washington Monument Strategy on Steroids?"

Och utöver att personalen aktivt håller parkerna - även privata parker som inte tar emot bidrag - stängda så tar de bland annat bort handtagen från dricksfontänerna och webbplatser ligger uppe med redirect istället för att plockas ner; personalen har dock uttryckliga order att inte göra något verkligt arbete under nedstängningen, och exempelvis så är barncancervården igenbommad.

Vad hålls då igång? Jo, exempelvis så får kongressledamöterna fortfarande betalt (bara ledamöterna, inte deras personal), och även kongressledamöternas gym anses statsgrundläggande nog för att hållas öppet.

Thomas Sowell har i vanlig ordning uttryckt situationen elegant:

Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this agency's budget were cut, what would it do?

The answer, of course, is that it would cut back on the medications for children. Why? Because that would be what was most likely to get the budget cuts restored. If they cut back on building statues of Benedict Arnold, people might ask why they were building statues of Benedict Arnold in the first place.

Så även om jag nu ännu inte försörjer mig som illustratör (anbud emottages) så tänkte jag förtydliga viralbilden - ursprungligen från Reddit - på barnet på zoogrinden: