Dysfunctional - the now acceptable word
Permalink +Mon, Feb 22, 2010, 7:50 am // John Servais
See last paragraph for explanation.
Dysfunctional government. We are reading about that a lot lately from prominent politicians and news commentators. I've been saying that privately to friends for a couple years now. But I didn't have the courage to write it even six months ago. I felt that saying such would simply turn off readers and make them wonder about my ability to understand politics. Just too radical.
Now the term is almost in common use. We especially find the term popular with news commentators lately. Even our Bellingham Herald used it on Sunday in an editorial while reflecting on the rural county septic systems debacle.
I do think our Democratic Republic has become dysfunctional on all levels: Federal, state, county, as well as city and town levels. Dysfunctional is the inability to rationally make decisions and act in your own best interests. It results in out of control costs, unfair taxes, breakdowns of infrastructure and disrespect for public officials. We have that in spades these days - at every level.
So let me state what is as obvious as the fingers on my hand. The cause of dysfunctional government at all levels is two fold. First, our news media does not provide information we need for self government, and second, our social customs lead us to marginalize those who exercise their right of free speech. We citizens don't know what is happening in our governments, and if we speak out candidly we risk hurting our careers or jobs.
Some say I should not criticize the Herald - that it gets in the way of otherwise acceptable comments about our local political scene. Well, this website was started in 1995 because the Herald was covering up scandals and not covering news. The Herald is part of the cause of our local dysfunctional political scene. I cannot ignore the elephant in the room.
The Herald is our daily newspaper and should be held accountable. Saturday the headline read "Re Sources sues Sumas company." Only a careful reading of the entire article revealed that the suit was five months ago - last September. Hardly news anymore. The article was mostly about how a successful suit would bankrupt this fine county company and cause the loss of many jobs - but then - at the very end was a short sentence that noted Re Sources never collected the fines. They brought the action to stop polluting - not gain revenue. However, the headline and 99% of the article gave the other impression. This leaves all of us - conservatives and liberals - with confused information about what is happening.
I think we citizens need to take responsibility for informing each other about what is happening in our community. And we need to screw up the courage to speak out. This website is an effort and an experiment to try to accomplish both those things. If others have a better or different idea, please put it into action and I'll link to you and bring attention to you. This site is not territorial at all. If you want to join in here, we will welcome you. No claim to anything other than an effort by a few of us to speak out and use our supposed freedom of speech to address community issues.
The photo at the top? It is a new road - built by order of local government departments - built with the money of the private developer of the homes - and then closed by local government because they decided the road it connected to was not up to standards. Ordered built as a condition of getting a permit to build the homes, the road has been closed for some months and there are no plans to open it this year. No plans for when to open it. Dysfunctional government - that we are now getting used to. You haven't seen this news in the Bellingham Herald because they have no desire to embarrass the City or County. Stories like this are all over our City and County. What we have is a dysfunctional daily newspaper.
Comments (10)
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Tip Johnson // Mon, Feb 22, 2010, 11:07 am
Correct and incorrect: ReSources does sue to enforce, as the law permits, not to gain revenue. They do not collect the money, but they do designate a recipient - usually Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, for restoring salmon habitat.
This may hurt the company that has benefited financially by polluting instead of complying. However, it may be considerably less dysfunctional, because the money goes straight toward fixing the problems. If government were doing their job, ReSources wouldn’t need to sue, but the money would be squandered in bureaucracy, not spent making improvements.
This may hurt the company that has benefited financially by polluting instead of complying. However, it may be considerably less dysfunctional, because the money goes straight toward fixing the problems. If government were doing their job, ReSources wouldn’t need to sue, but the money would be squandered in bureaucracy, not spent making improvements.
John Servais // Mon, Feb 22, 2010, 12:05 pm
Thanks for the correction, Tip. You bring knowledge that also was not in the Herald article. Indeed, with poor reporting by our daily newspaper, it is left to us citizens to piece together the news - or continue to live without knowing what is happening of importance in our communities.
Anyone else have some relevant facts on this issue?
Anyone else have some relevant facts on this issue?
Doug karlberg // Mon, Feb 22, 2010, 1:59 pm
When the shareholders in a corporation quit watching, often management takes over and begins to take care of themselves, before they take care of the owners.
This can happen with any organization, that is not actively managed by the owners.
This is the risk of hiring “professional” managers.
Government falls into this category, and media has done an ineffective job of watching government. Citizens have become complacent also.
Government’s professional managers are becoming more and more militant. Often hiding information from their owners. Quietly raising taxes, and calling them fees or fines.
Nothing is more powerful than government, and when government goes awry, the nation pays a huge price.
Nothing is more tragic than to watch our public educational system take care of its own members, before the children. Crippling our kids for life, and taking our future as a nation with it.
All to often this is brought on by government worker’s unions, where nobody can be fired for poor performance and now, their compensation packages exceed the private sector, which bears the burden of higher risks, and lower pay.
The Founding Fathers spoke of public service as a virtue. Today, many parents are steering their children towards government jobs, because of the incredible benefits.
We have lost the “virtue” in public service.
As Ben Franklin was reported to have said:
“When we raise the pay offered for public service, we only attract more scoundrels”
Ben had travelled Europe extensively, and he knew too well that the best jobs were handed out by the King, and not according to talent.
We are suffering from “Franklin’s Disease”..
... we have too many scoundrels in public service.
This can happen with any organization, that is not actively managed by the owners.
This is the risk of hiring “professional” managers.
Government falls into this category, and media has done an ineffective job of watching government. Citizens have become complacent also.
Government’s professional managers are becoming more and more militant. Often hiding information from their owners. Quietly raising taxes, and calling them fees or fines.
Nothing is more powerful than government, and when government goes awry, the nation pays a huge price.
Nothing is more tragic than to watch our public educational system take care of its own members, before the children. Crippling our kids for life, and taking our future as a nation with it.
All to often this is brought on by government worker’s unions, where nobody can be fired for poor performance and now, their compensation packages exceed the private sector, which bears the burden of higher risks, and lower pay.
The Founding Fathers spoke of public service as a virtue. Today, many parents are steering their children towards government jobs, because of the incredible benefits.
We have lost the “virtue” in public service.
As Ben Franklin was reported to have said:
“When we raise the pay offered for public service, we only attract more scoundrels”
Ben had travelled Europe extensively, and he knew too well that the best jobs were handed out by the King, and not according to talent.
We are suffering from “Franklin’s Disease”..
... we have too many scoundrels in public service.
Ham Hayes // Mon, Feb 22, 2010, 9:54 pm
John, thanks for visioning, creating and sustaining Northwest Citizen all these years. FDR is reported to have said “The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.”
Silence only serves tyranny. All who seek the truth and are willing to speak out, whatever their political persuasion, are to be thanked for helping preserve our freedoms.
Silence only serves tyranny. All who seek the truth and are willing to speak out, whatever their political persuasion, are to be thanked for helping preserve our freedoms.
Hue Beattie // Tue, Feb 23, 2010, 5:21 pm
I also thought the Herald was kissing up to business .
What is the location of the photo of the street to dysfunction?
What is the location of the photo of the street to dysfunction?
John Servais // Tue, Feb 23, 2010, 5:50 pm
The street is out in Cordata. That neighborhood has been abused by city planners - and by the Parks Department. The street is named “June Road” and connects W Kellogg Road to Aldrich Road.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of examples of this sort of waste and idiocy by our planners and public works departments. Perhaps most citizens are just too overwhelmed to care anymore. This developer had little choice but to quietly comply or be marginalized and have his business wrecked by city bureaucrats.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of examples of this sort of waste and idiocy by our planners and public works departments. Perhaps most citizens are just too overwhelmed to care anymore. This developer had little choice but to quietly comply or be marginalized and have his business wrecked by city bureaucrats.
Craig Mayberry // Wed, Feb 24, 2010, 9:50 pm
The answer to why government is dysfunctional at times is complex, but one important element is governance. Governance “relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists either of a separate process or of a specific part of management or leadership processes.” (Wikipedia). There are many different governance systems, each with its own pros and cons. The best governance is small business owned by an individual. If the business fails, the owner fails and because they have so much skin in the game they will go to great lengths (usually) to help employees and customers. Public corporations use a board of directors as their primary governance devise, but this is far removed from the actual owners (stockholders) that have little power or influence. Management can co-opt the board and effectively management becomes the governance system which can cause big problems (for example: the banking crisis). Non-profits are governed by a board of directors and usually works well because the focus is on the mission of the organization.
Potentially the worst model is government. In principle the executive branch is responsible for the execution of government, but what is the impact of the failure of government. 98% of incumbents get reelected so does Dan Pike really care if someone complains about a road being closed. The government officials have pretty much complete autonomy to do what they want with no real repercussions (contrasted with the small business owner or non-profit that loses customers or funding). You will notice that most of the problems can be traced back to government or public corporations, both of which have problematic governance systems because the people running the organizations have very few checks and balances to make sure the right decisions get made (unlike the small business owner that has lots of checks and balances to make sure they make the right decision).
I have another story about the dysfunctional government. I was talking to a farmer last night and they were forced to get rid of about 10 cases of pickles that the health official said were done improperly (fortunately they had already sold most of what they produced). When the farmer asked what process they should use to make the pickles, the health authority person told them the process to use, which happened to be exactly what they did in the first place. The farmer lost a couple of thousand dollars worth of product, just because the health authority wanted to make a statement.
Government is not always the answer to every problem, because of serious issues with the governance system under which they operate. There are things that could be done that would help like public campaign financing and term limits which make elected officials more accountable then they are now.
Potentially the worst model is government. In principle the executive branch is responsible for the execution of government, but what is the impact of the failure of government. 98% of incumbents get reelected so does Dan Pike really care if someone complains about a road being closed. The government officials have pretty much complete autonomy to do what they want with no real repercussions (contrasted with the small business owner or non-profit that loses customers or funding). You will notice that most of the problems can be traced back to government or public corporations, both of which have problematic governance systems because the people running the organizations have very few checks and balances to make sure the right decisions get made (unlike the small business owner that has lots of checks and balances to make sure they make the right decision).
I have another story about the dysfunctional government. I was talking to a farmer last night and they were forced to get rid of about 10 cases of pickles that the health official said were done improperly (fortunately they had already sold most of what they produced). When the farmer asked what process they should use to make the pickles, the health authority person told them the process to use, which happened to be exactly what they did in the first place. The farmer lost a couple of thousand dollars worth of product, just because the health authority wanted to make a statement.
Government is not always the answer to every problem, because of serious issues with the governance system under which they operate. There are things that could be done that would help like public campaign financing and term limits which make elected officials more accountable then they are now.
John Servais // Thu, Feb 25, 2010, 8:35 am
Craig - thanks. I agree. You bring a systems approach to these issues which is appreciated.
What is lacking for more efficient, rational, common sense government is two things, imo.
1. Knowledge by citizens - voters - of what decisions our elected officials are making and informed perspective on how these decision impact bureaucracies.
2. An election system that actually allows us to elect the people whom we think will do a good or better job.
As things are now, our news media fail us terribly. On some levels, the local newspaper publishers have always been in bed with local governments, police and advertisers. The myth is they ever were watch dogs. I started working for a daily newspaper in 1960 and there was more complete coverage of meetings and issues in those days but the perspective was very much in favor of the establishment and the monied interests of the community.
Our election process is little more democratic than the awful systems of the Soviet Union that we used to mock and laugh at. Rick Larsen is a case in point. Neither Democrats nor Republicans want him but he is rock solid in his office because the system does not allow a viable challenger to get onto the final ballot. The two party system has setup this country to prevent upsets.
Until we change this system, we will continue to be very dysfunctional. We can exist a long time this way as the tax payers simply continue to pay for the waste. My Tea Party friends have their complaints and emotions correct but they don’t seem to be able to connect with supporting real reform.
What is lacking for more efficient, rational, common sense government is two things, imo.
1. Knowledge by citizens - voters - of what decisions our elected officials are making and informed perspective on how these decision impact bureaucracies.
2. An election system that actually allows us to elect the people whom we think will do a good or better job.
As things are now, our news media fail us terribly. On some levels, the local newspaper publishers have always been in bed with local governments, police and advertisers. The myth is they ever were watch dogs. I started working for a daily newspaper in 1960 and there was more complete coverage of meetings and issues in those days but the perspective was very much in favor of the establishment and the monied interests of the community.
Our election process is little more democratic than the awful systems of the Soviet Union that we used to mock and laugh at. Rick Larsen is a case in point. Neither Democrats nor Republicans want him but he is rock solid in his office because the system does not allow a viable challenger to get onto the final ballot. The two party system has setup this country to prevent upsets.
Until we change this system, we will continue to be very dysfunctional. We can exist a long time this way as the tax payers simply continue to pay for the waste. My Tea Party friends have their complaints and emotions correct but they don’t seem to be able to connect with supporting real reform.
Craig Mayberry // Thu, Feb 25, 2010, 10:47 am
John,
I struggle with the knowledge by the citizens issue and what to do about it. Today in my ethics class we had a student presentation on the ethics of violence in video games (same principles apply when we talk about marketing to children, tobacco, gambling, etc). Ultimately it comes down to who is responsible. Is it the parents responsibility to monitor the video games their children are playing, is it the video game makers for producing realistically looking violent games (they showed a video clip of a game where you can walk into a hospital emergency room and shoot everyone). As much as I want to take the position of it being the parents responsibility, I cannot help but think that the manufacturers are more culpable for producing it in the first place (are profits really that important that you have to produce a realistically violent video game in order to make money?).
I face the same dilemma in the political arena. Is it the voters responsibility to be educated and make good choices, or are the politicians doing stupid things just as culpable? I agree that voters should be more educated on the issues, but they also have to balance work, family, and many other issues, so can I really blame them for not understanding every nuance of the health care debate (or knowing that a road was unjustifably closed). Politicians get elected to make the right decisions and balance the needs of all of the voters, shouldn’t they fulfill their obligation irrespective of whether the voter really understands the details?
It is a fascinating conversation that would be great to continue to have in this and other forums.
I struggle with the knowledge by the citizens issue and what to do about it. Today in my ethics class we had a student presentation on the ethics of violence in video games (same principles apply when we talk about marketing to children, tobacco, gambling, etc). Ultimately it comes down to who is responsible. Is it the parents responsibility to monitor the video games their children are playing, is it the video game makers for producing realistically looking violent games (they showed a video clip of a game where you can walk into a hospital emergency room and shoot everyone). As much as I want to take the position of it being the parents responsibility, I cannot help but think that the manufacturers are more culpable for producing it in the first place (are profits really that important that you have to produce a realistically violent video game in order to make money?).
I face the same dilemma in the political arena. Is it the voters responsibility to be educated and make good choices, or are the politicians doing stupid things just as culpable? I agree that voters should be more educated on the issues, but they also have to balance work, family, and many other issues, so can I really blame them for not understanding every nuance of the health care debate (or knowing that a road was unjustifably closed). Politicians get elected to make the right decisions and balance the needs of all of the voters, shouldn’t they fulfill their obligation irrespective of whether the voter really understands the details?
It is a fascinating conversation that would be great to continue to have in this and other forums.
Ham Hayes // Fri, Feb 26, 2010, 7:03 am
Craig, The ethics discussion helps us understand our role as citizens. Every institution, be it government, the press or business, is corruptible by corrupt individuals. The video game maker is accountable for staying within the law, i.e. uncorrupted. But it is ultimately the individual’s responsibility, personally and as a community for defining the law and being vigilant. And the parent has that same responsibility for their children as long as they are minors.
Fighting corruption in our public and private institutions, be it Congress, Toyota, or a dysfunctional press is also an individual personal responsibility. Trusting others to do that job for us is hiring the wolf to herd the sheep. The wolf may have a good resume, “Cares about sheep”, but unless watched will ultimately decide to invite a few lambs to lunch. I agree with John that the press being a trustworthy watchdog is more myth than fact. In some cases, just enough myth to cover the wolf. Fact is, no matter how difficult it is or how appealing it might be, citizens cannot shed their watchdog role without fear of the consequences.
Fighting corruption in our public and private institutions, be it Congress, Toyota, or a dysfunctional press is also an individual personal responsibility. Trusting others to do that job for us is hiring the wolf to herd the sheep. The wolf may have a good resume, “Cares about sheep”, but unless watched will ultimately decide to invite a few lambs to lunch. I agree with John that the press being a trustworthy watchdog is more myth than fact. In some cases, just enough myth to cover the wolf. Fact is, no matter how difficult it is or how appealing it might be, citizens cannot shed their watchdog role without fear of the consequences.
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