Sunday, October 23, 2011

Wasting taxpayer money

The real problem with the trillion dollar "stimulus" and the multi-trillion dollar deficits is that is encourages a sense of "it's good to spend money" among the Organs of the State.

Case in point: The Center for Disease Control has funded a graphic novel describing how to prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse:
CDC has a fun new way of teaching the importance of emergency preparedness. Our new graphic novel, "Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic" demonstrates the importance of being prepared in an entertaining way that people of all ages will enjoy.
Really?

Here we see the problem in action.  Money is spent on something "fun" that is plausibly (but unconvincingly) related to the organization's mission.  High-profile press events are staged.  Any metrics as to the effectiveness of the ostensible mission (teaching the importance of emergency preparedness) are nowhere to be seen.

But c'mon - it was probably only a few tens of thousands of dollars.  Don't you have a sense of humor?

Multiply by the 3 million public employees, and you see the impossibility of reform.  The elimination of entire agencies is one option.  Another option is to freeze all government salaries for ten years and let attrition take care of the overstaffing.  These options are not mutually exclusive.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think this zombie thing just jumped the shark.

Steve