2022-08-22
They have been growing for decades, if not centuries, and are seriously well-entrenched within the fabric of the nation, whichever (western) nation we are talking about.
And we are not just talking about government departments. We must also include all the "arms-length" NGOs regulators QUANGOs and private corporations, even regulated charities and other "non-profit" "foundations" that are dependent on the State for their feed and watering and that enable that same State to hide behind commercial confidentiality clauses and the like to keep stuff out of the public view.
We might also include the "privatised" regulated monopolies (railways, water, power, etc) - that model has been done to death and found wanting, being entirely dependent upon a regulator that might well be weak ineffective or even corruptible.
For example, there is no incentive for water companies to plug leaks in their distribution network if they don't pay for the water lost. The incentives are perverse, the oversight nugatory, the model is bankrupt.
Jeffery Tucker writing for the Brownstone Institute provides chapter and verse - and the solution that he considers most appropriate.
The problem of course is how to then provide the services currently undertaken by the bureaucracy? Would abolition not simply result in chaos? Sadly that's a question for another article, but it does need to be answered, and quickly if progress is to be made.
Devolution to local communities should be top of the list - it's partly the size and remoteness of the bureaucracies and the costs associated with change on that scale that makes them resistant and inaccessible; people often don't even know where to start.
Breaking them down to manageable chunks and making the locals responsible for their feed and watering would be a good principle to start with.
