How The Government Solves Problems

The government has a vast scrap yard in the middle of the desert. The congressman whose district it’s in says someone might steal from it at night, so congress creates a night watchman GS-4 position and hires a person for the job.

Then the congressman asks, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?”

So, congress creates a planning position and hires two people, one person to write the instructions, a GS-12, and one person to do time studies, a GS-11.

“How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?” the congressman asks.

So, Congress creates a quality control position and hires a GS-9 to do quality control studies and a GS-11 to write the reports.

Then the congressman asks, “How are these people going to get paid?”

So, congress authorizes positions of timekeeper, GS-9, and payroll officer, GS-11, and two people are hired to fill the slots.

“Who will be accountable for all of these people?” the congressman asks.

So, they hire three people, an administrative officer, GS-13, an assistant administrative officer GS-12, and a legal secretary, a GS-8.

On the eve of the next election season the congressman looks at the cost and says, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $40,000 over budget. We must cutback overall costs.”

So, they lay off the night watchman.

About right.I have mentioned before about how my son who was stationed in the sandbox was ordered by his Lt. to clean her sidearm (Berretta 92).Well that is just not done in military parlance. One cleans their own.But orders are orders,so he did. Took all the bluing off w/ steel wool,etc. + then returned it to her holster.She did'nt notice it until 3 months later (that should you tell you something).When she found this bucket of rust that was her resposability (go back to the top about getting some one else to clean your piece)Her choices were to repay the army for that pistol at the cost of $1500.00or she could replace it on the civilian market for around $700.00. Point taken I hope. BTW,Sig has now got the military contract on sidearms + will be built in the USA.Good move.

True that one.