When one thinks of unfriendly, inefficent bureaucracy, they might think of the DMV or the Post Office. While these are quintessential examples, I have this personal anecdote, experienced during a six-week visit to the former U.S.S.R. in the summer of 1999. I had been there once before as a recent high school graduate 10 years prior and, to be sure, there was a huge difference! But some things remained the same, in particular mindless, inefficient bureaucracy. (By the way, there is no single indigeneous Russian word for “efficiency,” but there is a single Russian word meaning “to drink oneself to death. How’s that for language reflecting its culture!).
Anyway, even as late as 1999, if you needed someone’s phone number or address, there were no White Pages or Yellow Pages like in the West. Instead, you had to visit these government-run information services sprinkled throughout the country. Upon receiving the requested information, which might not even be accurate or up-to-date, you paid a fee of about 15 cents per piece of information. Like most government-run services, they are open certain times of the day, and on some days not at all.
When I and the friend with whom I was traveling arrived at one of these info service centers in Moscow, we found two women sitting behind the counter, doing absolutely nothing. When my friend told them the name of the Muscovite friend she wanted to look up, one of them informed us they were closed and couldn’t look up the information. But she and a coworker were sitting right there, with the phone books containing the needed information sitting on the shelves right behind them! It made no difference; the woman repeated that they were currently closed. When we asked when they would be reopening, the woman responded with a completely straight emotionless face: “Maybe two weeks, maybe four weeks, maybe never.” Exasperated, we finally asked where the nearest open info center was. The woman, clearly annoyed by having to move her rear end, extracted a big book and turned to a page therein. She wrote down an address on a slip of paper, handed it to us … and then charged us 15 cents for that information!
I was reminded of this story when reading the latest piece by Dennis Prager about how bureaucracy turns people into unthinking automatons. People living and/or working in this type of environment—and this pertains not only to government bureaucracies, but corporate ones as well—learn not to think or use common sense. They only learn how to follow orders and regulations. It is not the sign of a progressive and enlightened society, but quite the opposite.
Here’s another perfect example: A couple years ago in Britain a 72 year-old man was prohibited from purchasing alcohol at a supermarket. Why? He didn’t have his I.D. and company policy was to not sell alcohol without proof of age. But this type of mindlessness happens in states throughout the U.S. too. Here’s a story about a Wal-mart that refused to sell alcohol to a customer. Even though he was in his 40’s and proved it with I.D., the clerk wouldn’t let him buy it because the two people with him—his own children for goodness sake—were minors. So if he left them in the car, he could have bought the booze, but then would have been charged with child endangerment for leaving his kids unattended in a vehicle. Isn’t bureaucracy fun!
Dennis Prager writes of this issue in yesterday’s piece.
The Bigger the Government, the Smaller the Citizen
September 1, 20091. People who are able to take care of themselves and do so are generally better than people who are able to take care of themselves but rely on others. Of course, there are times when some people have absolutely no choice and must rely on others to take care of them. Life is tragic and some people, despite their best efforts and their commitment to being a responsible person, must have others support them.
Even if one believes, as the left does by definition, that the ideal society is one in which the state takes care of as many of our needs as possible, one must acknowledge that this has deleterious effects on many, if not most, citizens' moral character. The moment one acknowledges that the more one takes care of oneself, the more developed is his or her character, one must acknowledge that a bigger state diminishes its citizens' characters.
Presumably one might argue that there is no relationship between character development and taking responsibility for oneself. But to do so is to turn the concept of character, as it has been understood throughout Judeo-Christian and Western history, on its head. The essence of good character is to care of oneself and then take of others who cannot take care of themselves.
2. The more people come to rely on government, the more they develop a sense of entitlement—an attitude characterized by the belief that one is owed (whatever the state provides and more). This is a second big government blow to character development because it has at least three terrible consequences:
First, the more one feels entitled, the less one believes he has to work for anything. Why work hard if I can look to the state to give much of what I need, and, increasingly, much of what I want? Second, the more one feels entitled, the less grateful one feels. This is obvious: The more one expects to be given, the less one is grateful for what one is given. Third, the more entitled and the less grateful one feels, the angrier one becomes. The opposite of gratitude is not only ingratitude, it is anger. People who do not get what they think they are entitled to become angry.
3. People develop disdain for work.
One of the effects of the welfare state on vast numbers of European citizens is disdain for work. This is in keeping with Marx's view of utopia as a time when people will work very little and devote their large amount of non-working time writing poetry and engaging in other such lofty pursuits. Work is not regarded by the left as ennobling. It is highly ennobling in the American value system, however.
4. People become preoccupied with vacation time.
Along with disdain for work, one witnesses among Western Europeans a preoccupation with not working. Vacation time has become a moral value among many Europeans. There have been riots in countries like France merely over working hours. In Sweden and elsewhere, more and more workers take more and more time off from work, knowing they will be paid anyway. In Germany and elsewhere, it is against the law to keep one's store open after a certain hour, lest that give that store owner an income advantage and thereby compel a competing store to stay open longer as well. And, of course, Americans are viewed as working far too hard.
5. People are rendered more selfish.
Not only does bigger government teach people not to take care of themselves, it teaches them not to take of others. Smaller government is the primary reason Americans give more charity and volunteer more time per capita than do Europeans living in welfare states. Why take care of your fellow citizen, or even your family, when the government will do it for you?
Even though this piece specifies government bureaucracy, here is a clip from his radio show yesterday that corporate bureaucracy yields the same brainlessness. Try to keep away from any sharp objects as you listen to Prager discuss a Bank of America in Tampa where a man with no arms was not allowed to cash a check because he was unable to provide a company-required thumb print!
[Edited for long silences, commercial breaks, and any other moments of extraneous talking]
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