I should add that my profession has also colored my thinking. Lawyers comprise an unusually high percentage of elected officials in government. Shocking as it may sound, before I went to law school I believed in the goodness and kindness of men, the honesty of those charged with leading us and the fairness of our justice system. All that completely changed by my third year in law school after I had spent thousands of hours poring over cases written by men (and women) who claimed to honor our judicial system, but too often and quite clearly manipulated it to accomplish their own agenda. Seriously, if you want to see damn smart people twist language and reason backwards to reach conclusions and opinions formed at the outset, just spend a few days in a law library. Bush v Gore pretty much ended my belief in the justice system – and our government.
And now, sadly, the people responsible for destroying my faith in our justice system (lawyers) are the people “leading” us through this crisis.
This is why I have retreated to the only area of law that I can stomach: entertainment. At least when lawyers screw people over in my line of work, the only ones who get hurt are overpaid dolts with marginal talent.
[/quote]
Partypup, I am with you. Grew up in Ohio, my father not only did not believe what was on TV, but we were not allowed to watch it. He gave me the book “Plug In Drug” to read when I was maybe 12 or 13 years old. He was an M.D. and did not trust doctors. Said their intentions may be good, but they will prescribe most anything, and any drug under 10 years old on the market was not to be trusted. Needless to say, we never took many pills, even aspirin.
So, I did a similar career path as you….got advanced degree as a Social Worker. Thought I was going to help some folks. Aaaah, the idealism of youth. Got a job with the government a long time ago. At that time, I thought the government was fair, organized, efficient. What a disappointment that turned out to be! Reality! What we do is process people through the system–it reminds me of the movie “Metropolis”—people on this board should be old enough to remember that one. Not to mention the corruption and waste that I see, even at the grunt level.
Here is a funny one though (VERY LOW level waste, compared to what I have seen):
The microwave, coffee maker, etc., in the staff lounge are all donated by staff and cannot be bought by government. However, 3 weeks ago, 3 major coffee makers come in—ummm, the big commercial ones, Bunn, with the burners on top and bottom. I am guessing they are all around $300 at least, because they were probably forced to buy from a GSA contract, which double prices their items. (remember the 60 Minutes show about $100 hammers?) The specific rules are they can only be used for clients, in groups. Here is the punch line…according to “rules” the government cannot buy the coffee! Me thinks the coffee makers will sit in boxes for several months, then get moved to the conference rooms, and then sit, unused for 2 years, and then get tossed.
