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COMMISSIONER EVERSON, MEET THE MINISTER OF MAGIC

November 15, 2005

Compare and Contrast.

Paul Streckfus, tax journalist and former IRS agent, on life in the IRS (letter to Tax Analysts; no link available):

..., as a general rule, the IRS's best employees tend to leave after a few years for the private sector out of frustration. Too often this exodus leaves behind the less capable. This problem is compounded by the combination of a strong union, the National Treasury Employees Union, along with civil service protections. This means IRS managers can't fire or even meaningfully discipline employees. The result is that managers don't really manage. As one IRS manager put it to me, he "suggests" that his employees perform tasks. If they decline, there is little or nothing he can do.

The result is an environment where morale is always low, as good employees watch bad employees contribute little to accomplishing organizational goals while receiving the same salaries as those who do.

Benjamin Barton, University of Tennessee College of Law, in his paper "Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy:

...government is controlled by and for the benefit of the self-interested bureaucrat. The most cold-blooded public choice theorist could not present a bleaker portrait of a government captured by special interests and motivated solely by a desire to increase bureaucratic power and influence.

...

Harry's best friend's Dad, Arthur Weasley is a well-meaning government employee. He is described as stuck in a dead end job, in the least respected part of the government, in the worst office in the building. In Rowling's world governmental virtue is disrespected and punished.

I always did like that Potter boy.

Barton link via Instapundit.

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