While everyone (including me, on occasion) like to criticize legislators as a group, there is an interesting disconnect when it comes time to evaluate your own Congressman, Senator, or state legislator. When people are asked to pass judgment on the guy or gal who represents them, they invariably judge them on the basis of how much money they bring back to that district in terms of federal or state dollars for road construction, aid to education, and other projects.
So…we decry spending by our legislators as a whole, but then we only view our own legislator favorably if he/she “brings home the bacon” to our own district.
Am I the only one who sees the inconsistency/hypocrisy in this type of thinking?
Nope,dont like all this big bloated government,probaly never will.the trouble with bureaucracy is it turns into a black hole(and most of your bureaucrats are unelected)-Kevin
I don’t want to make a left turn here, but how much they bring back to Minnesota really is way down on my list. I go back and forth and have to hold my nose sometimes. There may be 5 positions I like and 5 positions I don’t like. It also might be vica versa for the opponent. It comes down to of those 5 positions that I don’t agree with are there one or two that I absolutely can’t go along with? And if that’s the case, I have to go for the other side. I just can’t stand either side spewing and supporting all of the positions of their particular party.
“how much they bring back to Minnesota really is way down on my list”
+1
If I applaud my Congressman for “bringing home the bacon”, I would be a hypocrite if I criticized overall government spending. Right now, the wide-spread philosophy seems to be something along the line of…spending for MY district is fine. If only they would stop spending money on all of those other damn districts…
It will require the majority of constituents in EVERY district nationwide to have a change in philosophy before spending can be brought under control, and when that change in philosophy takes place is likely to be…never.
+2
My vote isn’r guided by who brings back the most money. It’s guided by whose principles I like… and the candidate HAVING principles.
“I just can’t stand either side spewing and supporting all of the positions of their particular party.” is stated perfectly. Any candidate that constantly spews out their party lines has no thoughts of their own, and I’d rather they not be in office.
Growing up in NY and then moving to NH…I’m now very much spoiled with the NH DMV. To register a car in NY I had to take a morning off from work…and wait endlessly in line. Sometimes…it would take all day. First time I registered a car in NH…it took me 15 minutes. I didn’t know what to do with the rest of the morning. I was flabbergasted. I thought something was wrong. I just couldn’t believe that it only took 15 minutes.
The best, most productive job that benefitted the world the most was public sector, working for a medical sciences university. The pay was nothing special, but I rarely worked overtime, had plenty of holidays and vacation time, and they treated me well when my health made me unable to work. We should all be so lucky.
My worst job was private sector, as a document coder in the bowels of a large law firm. The only good parts were the steady hours and low stress. The pay was lousy, benefits nonexistent, and the work was brain-deadening. There was no job security. one day half the office was laid off because our client in a large lawsuit had finally settled. Twenty of us were shown the door (not me, though I envied them slightly.) Nothing about that job did a bit of good for anyone. It just generated billable hours. Most of the cases settled without those thousands of coded documents mattering to anyone.
What was really scary is that these big cases often had well over a dozen parties. Most of the major firms in town had groups of coders doing just what we were doing. A really big case can keep hundreds of people employed. I guess jobs are good, but jobs like those are just wasteful. This was 25 years ago and I’m sure technology has reduced the head counts. Maybe not, as law firms love inefficiency. As long as its billable.
In the private sector, if we are met with incompetence or indifference we move on to try the competition. That option isn’t available with government agencies.
While not related to the DMV, the following is an example of tax money waste and it’s not the only example in this area.
When the “economic stimulus” plan was passed, one of those earmarks was for a wind turbine at the county fairgrounds here. This was described as “creating jobs, saving energy, and shrinking our carbon footprint”.
The turbine was finished and in operation by the fall of 2012.
In the fall of 2013 a blade bent back into the tower a la screwdriver in a box fan. This of course prevented the blades from turning but did not prevent the unit from yawing into the wind all of the time with that power coming from the grid. The turbine head simply dragged the blade around the tower.
So after about 6 months of pointlessly yawing around, two weeks ago the entire turbine was taken down and scrapped with the only thing remaining being a 150 foot tall tower monument. Right at a million dollars consigned to the scrapyard after a year of operation.
In NY State if you renew online or by mail, the state gets your money, if you renew at a physical DMV office, the county gets the money. As a result our DMV clerks are usually helpful.
I really dislike those windmills and think the whole thing is a ruse against the power companies. They’ve got a windmill farm by the cabin and it is really an eyesore. Farmers make money on them though leasing the land. Bad law in my view but what else is new. There has never been a law written that somebody somewhere didn’t want.
@wesw, I do not remember who manufactured the turbine that went south. One would think that for a million dollars there would have been at least a 3 year warranty on it or something.
I’m not sure, but I suspect the gearbox was wiped when the blade hit the tower.
The turbines on the wind farm where I live (140 of them) are manufactured by GE and have been in operation for about 2 years. From what I’ve seen so far, they take a lot of TLC and I have yet to see them turn at their maximum efficiency RPM even when the wind is huffing at 40 MPH.
The electric company says that 18-22 RPM is best but the norm is 6-8 RPM.
I know there is a blade plant in Minnesota around Pipestone or some place. We were going to get a plant here before the recession and it was a Dutch or somewhere around there company.
Far too much money is spent based on partisan expediency with only a cursory concern for being truly worthwhile. Everyone laughs at the bridges to no where in other states while coveting the continued funding of unneeded military bases and weapons systems in their own state.
They’re also blowing money on the military with funds that don’t even come from the DOD.
The taxpayers are funding a runway extension to nowhere at the municipal airport near me and the construction is going on now. This is running about 15 million or so dollars. Pilots in initial training come from the AFB about 5 miles away to do touch and go landings there with turboprop T-6s. The AFB however has 3 parallel runways; all 10k feet long and able to handle anything from F-15s to C-5s.
It’s being claimed by officials that the reason for the extension is to allow an emergency divert point for advanced pilot training in the supersonic T-38 Talons in case of a problem. Those Talons have been in operation here since 1961 and officials have admitted there has never been a single case where a Talon had to be diverted but “it’s better to be safe than sorry”.
Fifty-four years of service and now they claim it’s a problem…
To throw another twist into it. the Talons are in the process of being phased out anyway.
If you want to look at waste look at Homeland Security. Every law enforcement and emergency agency in the country loves them for all the SWAT gear, training, equipment, etc. that’s passed out to everyone. In case there’s a nuclear or terrorist attack in Sioux Falls though they’re ready.