I have worked with the federal government for 20 yrs. Spent a year at the CDC. Spent 3 yrs overseeing a team of Nobel prize winning academics. 1. Academics care about publishing and scoring points on their peers. Its opens financial doors. It opens doors to awards and accolades, many of which come with a lot of money. It gives them statu…
I have worked with the federal government for 20 yrs. Spent a year at the CDC. Spent 3 yrs overseeing a team of Nobel prize winning academics.
1. Academics care about publishing and scoring points on their peers. Its opens financial doors. It opens doors to awards and accolades, many of which come with a lot of money. It gives them status among their peers. They can be, and often are, single minded and fail to consider the externalities or the ethics of what they are doing they only care about what is possible, not what SHOULD be done.
2. Never ever trust a government bureaucrat. They are like academics with tenure. They are constantly trying to justify their existence and protect their positions. They will do everything from hiding information to intentionally misleading watchdogs, congress or the media, to protect themselves or gain budgets and they very often have an eye toward what they will do in the private sector once their pension is set. They will work to please politicians and whichever industry is associated with what they oversee.
We vote not all but most people into office. Some of them may be guided by selfish motives but they're there to do a job for often way less than what private sector would offer. If we don't trust them how are they to do their job? We can hold them accountable and if they don't deliver vote them out.
For too many people, everything is about money and power. Everything.
Back in 2012, I worked for few months as a tutor at a boarding school for "troubled teens." It was the only job I've ever been fired from, but I was clearly asking too many questions and expressing too many concerns. The place had a horrible rate of employee turnover (mostly people getting fired for spurious reasons, as I was), because there were only two ways to keep your job there: buy into the bullying culture or keep your head down and your mouth shut. A lot of "good" people (indeed, people I *know* are good people) were motivated by their need for money to keep their heads down and their mouths shut.
I had never heard of WWASP until after I was fired (another former employee suggested I google it). But the system of breaking troubled kids down through abuse and reprogramming them has an ugly history. Unfortunately, there's a LOT of money in it. Rich parents who give their kid stuff instead of love will likewise pay almost any price to have someone control the rebellious child whose problems they created with their bad parenting. And they are desperate enough to overlook things that ought to be questioned.
At the school were I worked, several years later, a conscientious teacher finally got solid information she could (and indeed, was legally required to) report to the authorities. She was fired for doing so (which is illegal...oops).
The firestorm that resulted brought to light the fact that both the sheriff's office AND children's services were (and had long been) aware of problems at the school. But no one took action because of...you guessed, MONEY! Any agency that shut the school down would become financially responsible for the children until their parents came for them. So they looked the other way.
The man who ran the school was eventually convicted of abuse, including sexual abuse. A few weeks ago, he failed to turn himself in as scheduled (having failed in all his appeals). He claimed to have misunderstood the date. The sheriff's office, instead of sending someone to haul his ass immediately to jail, allowed him several days to drive there (unsupervised) on his own. That option didn't cost any money.
Thank u for sharing. We need back to basics parenting. It’s hard but needed. I raised 2 boys and it was all about being consistent and enforcing rules and consequences. It’s more difficult today because of all the screens.
Good response to this excellent article. The points you make about academics and bureaucrats have certainly been proven true many times over in the last 3-5 years, to the point where the vast majority in this country know it almost instinctively. Two questions, if you care to answer. What made you get out? Did you leave with a pension?
I am a contractor, not a govie, but have worked in a bunch of agencies over the last 20 yrs. Still working, still trying to make some kind of difference.
Contractors do not get pensions, we get 401k's like everybody else.
As a side note, most of the "work" done by the federal government is done by contractors. There are whole agencies that would simply cease to function if the contractors went away. There was one office I worked at that only had 4 government staff out of about 25 or 30. That is why you have to take the numbers about people who work "for" the federal government with a major grain of salt.
One man made a decision to fund this research in a country that does not believe in civil rights. He denied it and lied even though funding says different. HIs wife was in charge of the ethics. Learned by a FoIFA request and suit. 340 million people are confined home and told to wear a mask. People are fired and ostracized if they question the scientist.
You stack the facts up and read what you wrote Lemon, and it is very difficult to stomach, 'science' and government. What blows my mind is how we have not had a Commission to get through this. This is what we know now. At the initial onset of the pandemic, I was wondering why very few if any hospitals had PPE for a mass casualty event. There are so many questions for the incompetence in Healthcare Complex and the Government that funds it.
My aunt has worked for the federal government in some fashion for nearly her entire life. She set up a lunch for me with one of her colleagues to talk to me about the benefits of working for the government. His primary pitch was that once you’ve worked for three years it’s almost impossible to be fired and you’re guaranteed raises based on a schedule and job ranking. He emphasized, “just make it three years and you’re set”. I think this is a major problem.
That’s frightening. I wish someone would drain the swamp 😂. It’s unelected government employees for life like Fauci who make life changing decisions for us. They do it for power . I used to think that government employees wanted to help citizens. I’m a fool ( autocorrect must have AI because it changed fool to tool )
The average tenure in high tech is 5 years. Somehow the high tech industry thrives.
You re-apply for your job every year. Your manager takes your skills & accomplishments to a review meeting, where everyone in your category is ranked. The top 10% get promoted, the bottom 10% get put on corrective action. Somehow I survived 21 years of this.
That’s a bad thing? After Pres Ramaswamy cancels the Dept Education he can look at other useless government entities. We need fewer overlords. Way fewer.
And feds do useful things as well… I think we need to review what the gov does and how many people it really takes (how many climate advisors does each agency need, why DOE and NIH do what seems to be the same kinds of research and so on) coupled with not throwing out the baby with the bathwater, e.g. wildland firefighters, people processing taxes and so on.
We wouldn't need 85,000 new IRS agents to "process taxes" if we had a flat tax, or a national sales tax. Our existing tax law is what allows politicians to curry favor with businesses to feed the corruption mill. This is how our "public servants" get so rich.
I respect our wildland firefighters, but we wouldn't need as many of them if we managed our national forests. Our Mega fires are not due to climate change, but gross mismanagement by bureaucrats.
Both points are so true of Fauci and it makes me so angry. He got away with it for way too many years and leaves his position as a multi millionaire on the backs of taxpayers.
I have worked with the federal government for 20 yrs. Spent a year at the CDC. Spent 3 yrs overseeing a team of Nobel prize winning academics.
1. Academics care about publishing and scoring points on their peers. Its opens financial doors. It opens doors to awards and accolades, many of which come with a lot of money. It gives them status among their peers. They can be, and often are, single minded and fail to consider the externalities or the ethics of what they are doing they only care about what is possible, not what SHOULD be done.
2. Never ever trust a government bureaucrat. They are like academics with tenure. They are constantly trying to justify their existence and protect their positions. They will do everything from hiding information to intentionally misleading watchdogs, congress or the media, to protect themselves or gain budgets and they very often have an eye toward what they will do in the private sector once their pension is set. They will work to please politicians and whichever industry is associated with what they oversee.
We vote not all but most people into office. Some of them may be guided by selfish motives but they're there to do a job for often way less than what private sector would offer. If we don't trust them how are they to do their job? We can hold them accountable and if they don't deliver vote them out.
For too many people, everything is about money and power. Everything.
Back in 2012, I worked for few months as a tutor at a boarding school for "troubled teens." It was the only job I've ever been fired from, but I was clearly asking too many questions and expressing too many concerns. The place had a horrible rate of employee turnover (mostly people getting fired for spurious reasons, as I was), because there were only two ways to keep your job there: buy into the bullying culture or keep your head down and your mouth shut. A lot of "good" people (indeed, people I *know* are good people) were motivated by their need for money to keep their heads down and their mouths shut.
I had never heard of WWASP until after I was fired (another former employee suggested I google it). But the system of breaking troubled kids down through abuse and reprogramming them has an ugly history. Unfortunately, there's a LOT of money in it. Rich parents who give their kid stuff instead of love will likewise pay almost any price to have someone control the rebellious child whose problems they created with their bad parenting. And they are desperate enough to overlook things that ought to be questioned.
At the school were I worked, several years later, a conscientious teacher finally got solid information she could (and indeed, was legally required to) report to the authorities. She was fired for doing so (which is illegal...oops).
The firestorm that resulted brought to light the fact that both the sheriff's office AND children's services were (and had long been) aware of problems at the school. But no one took action because of...you guessed, MONEY! Any agency that shut the school down would become financially responsible for the children until their parents came for them. So they looked the other way.
The man who ran the school was eventually convicted of abuse, including sexual abuse. A few weeks ago, he failed to turn himself in as scheduled (having failed in all his appeals). He claimed to have misunderstood the date. The sheriff's office, instead of sending someone to haul his ass immediately to jail, allowed him several days to drive there (unsupervised) on his own. That option didn't cost any money.
Thank u for sharing. We need back to basics parenting. It’s hard but needed. I raised 2 boys and it was all about being consistent and enforcing rules and consequences. It’s more difficult today because of all the screens.
Good response to this excellent article. The points you make about academics and bureaucrats have certainly been proven true many times over in the last 3-5 years, to the point where the vast majority in this country know it almost instinctively. Two questions, if you care to answer. What made you get out? Did you leave with a pension?
No issues answering.
I am a contractor, not a govie, but have worked in a bunch of agencies over the last 20 yrs. Still working, still trying to make some kind of difference.
Contractors do not get pensions, we get 401k's like everybody else.
As a side note, most of the "work" done by the federal government is done by contractors. There are whole agencies that would simply cease to function if the contractors went away. There was one office I worked at that only had 4 government staff out of about 25 or 30. That is why you have to take the numbers about people who work "for" the federal government with a major grain of salt.
One man made a decision to fund this research in a country that does not believe in civil rights. He denied it and lied even though funding says different. HIs wife was in charge of the ethics. Learned by a FoIFA request and suit. 340 million people are confined home and told to wear a mask. People are fired and ostracized if they question the scientist.
You stack the facts up and read what you wrote Lemon, and it is very difficult to stomach, 'science' and government. What blows my mind is how we have not had a Commission to get through this. This is what we know now. At the initial onset of the pandemic, I was wondering why very few if any hospitals had PPE for a mass casualty event. There are so many questions for the incompetence in Healthcare Complex and the Government that funds it.
Vivek Ramaswamy says federal employees should have no more than 8 yrs. And that the President can and should fire them.
I think it’s time we try that approach.
My aunt has worked for the federal government in some fashion for nearly her entire life. She set up a lunch for me with one of her colleagues to talk to me about the benefits of working for the government. His primary pitch was that once you’ve worked for three years it’s almost impossible to be fired and you’re guaranteed raises based on a schedule and job ranking. He emphasized, “just make it three years and you’re set”. I think this is a major problem.
That’s frightening. I wish someone would drain the swamp 😂. It’s unelected government employees for life like Fauci who make life changing decisions for us. They do it for power . I used to think that government employees wanted to help citizens. I’m a fool ( autocorrect must have AI because it changed fool to tool )
Unless its been changed recently, for DoD it is 2 years, for the rest of the GS workforce it is 1-yr.
Feds are having trouble hiring people now… all we’d have is HR people if that were implemented…
The average tenure in high tech is 5 years. Somehow the high tech industry thrives.
You re-apply for your job every year. Your manager takes your skills & accomplishments to a review meeting, where everyone in your category is ranked. The top 10% get promoted, the bottom 10% get put on corrective action. Somehow I survived 21 years of this.
That’s a bad thing? After Pres Ramaswamy cancels the Dept Education he can look at other useless government entities. We need fewer overlords. Way fewer.
And feds do useful things as well… I think we need to review what the gov does and how many people it really takes (how many climate advisors does each agency need, why DOE and NIH do what seems to be the same kinds of research and so on) coupled with not throwing out the baby with the bathwater, e.g. wildland firefighters, people processing taxes and so on.
We wouldn't need 85,000 new IRS agents to "process taxes" if we had a flat tax, or a national sales tax. Our existing tax law is what allows politicians to curry favor with businesses to feed the corruption mill. This is how our "public servants" get so rich.
I respect our wildland firefighters, but we wouldn't need as many of them if we managed our national forests. Our Mega fires are not due to climate change, but gross mismanagement by bureaucrats.
Both points are so true of Fauci and it makes me so angry. He got away with it for way too many years and leaves his position as a multi millionaire on the backs of taxpayers.