Andy Finch wrote:
snip
>
> May I also say, as an former employee on Capitol Hill, at a public
> university, and at a Fortune 500 company, that the waste and extravagance
> at the company were far greater than any I've seen in government.  Or to
> put it another way, the company's disregard of shareholders, not to
> mention customers and the general public, far outstripped any supposed
> arrogance on the part of a government agency towards the taxpayers.
>
Very true Andy,

The supposed efficiency of the private sector as opposed to the public
sector is a myth known to be false by anyone who has worked extensively
in both sectors.

I too have  found gross wastage, bad customer service and incompetence
to be rife in the public sector, and far less in govermnment.

The myth of the relative efficiencies no doubt developed in the "bad old
days" when jobs were secure in both sectors and thus people remained
with the job most of their lives, knowing little about the other
sector,(and as is the wont of human nature) imagining life to be cushier
on the other side.
It is also of course, much easier for a politician to publicly blame the
mechanics of government for his own policy failures, than it is to blame
the mechanics of his supporters in private enterprise.

These days  many of us have moved (of necessity!) between capitalism and
beaurocracy, and will no longer accept that drivel about private
enterprise being lean and mean and far better at business. In fact, the
opposite is more often the case!

Alan Sisley
Director
Orange Regional Gallery
NSW Australia