Some years ago, I attended an informal
reunion of high-school friends and acquaintances. (Baby Boom era,
upper-middle-class suburb of Washington, DC.) Almost everyone there
had wound up working in the Government/Nonprofit/Academia world. And
almost without exception, when they told war stories about their
challenges and achievements, the stories had to do with obtaining
government grants.
These people live on the banks of a
great, roiling river of money. They are aware intellectually, I'm
sure, that there's a lot of productive work being done upstream. But
they mostly don't see it being done, and they mostly don't know the
people doing it. For them, the river is just part of the landscape,
fixed and eternal.
They're sure it won't affect the river if they dip their little bucket down to fund this bike path, or that conference, or some "initiative." It will surely do some good. And anyway, look at all the people who are scooping it out by the barrelful and spending it on things we don't like.
These are not bad people, and though
they live comfortably, they are not getting rich. But my Lord, there
sure are a lot of them.
4 comments:
Ah yes, the world of the infamous Beltway Bandits. I lived and worked among them for decades. It is a different world up there, and even though I have been gone for many years, I suspect it has only grown and metastasized. Can't say that I miss it, other than, as you say, dipping my bucket into the river of money, but I am not going back.
What I remember was working for a place that wrote replies to RFQs and other gubmit documents and how carefully they tailored their responses to match the req. The smart businesses would get inside the bandit's company and get the reqs written in such a way that only one company could meet the specs to the exclusion of the competition. Good times...
Excellent first post, Mumpsimus -
It's hard to avoid taking government money. There's so much government that businesses are forced to rely on it to stay in business.
I just read today how the well-connected are getting stimulus money. Most ironically, Grover Norquist, famous for anti-government-spending activism. Well, I guess, more ironically, the Church of Scientology. Surely that can't be accurate.
Sixty:
"how carefully they tailored their responses to match the req"
Reminds me of the days of managed care, where you had to say key words for the doctor to order a test. DRGs, diagnostic related groups. He'd say something like, well, you did mention fatigue...
"they live comfortably"
There's the hook that holds them in place. They can scoop from the river as long as they don't dig too deep, pull up some of the river bed, and disturb the base. All that lovely sparkly water, there for the taking.
Part of a system, I'd say, one that allows a wide variety of bucket holders the privilege of dipping, with special platforms built for some that allow for ease of access.
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