Last week’s post made the point that the size of our Federal Government is being controlled by the staff and not by the people we elect to represent our interests in the affairs of government. This week we will look a bit more deeply.
The chart above shows us the size of our Federal Government on an adjusted per capita basis. The adjustment is to show the data per one thousand citizens rather than for each citizen. The shape of the curve, when compared to the last posting demonstrates that short-term influences such as World War II are the same for both charts. It is also nice to see that since the early 1950s the size of our Federal Government has been shrinking steadily and we should be pleased with that. But, what does this chart really tell us?
The curve tells us that we currently have approximately nine civilian employees in our Federal Government for every one thousand citizens, but is that good? What should that number be for a really effective government operation? How does the number compare to State and Local Governments?
I live in Washington State and I have been able to get the number for two of the three levels of government in my State. The State of Washington, in 2011 employed almost sixteen persons for every one thousand citizens of the state. My City of Issaquah employed just over eight persons for every one thousand citizens of the city. The third level is my County Government and I haven’t found the data for that calculation just yet, but I feel confident that that number will probably be somewhere between the city and state figures. When we add it all up, every one thousand citizens of Issaquah, Washington are paying for nine federal, sixteen state, about twelve county, and eight city employees for a total of forty five. Still, is that showing us anything important? The various levels of government have different responsibilities both in terms of what they do and how much of it they do.
Even so, forty five government employees for every one thousand citizens means that almost five percent of us work for the government in one way or another. FIVE PERCENT! Put twenty people in a room and one of them is working for the government.
It seems to me that we ought to have a conversation about each level of our government. What they do for us? Are the services they deliver the services they are required to deliver? Is that what the majority of us want them to do? Are the people we elect keeping tabs on these thinks or are they just getting along to go along?
The numbers may be slightly different for each of us, but the questions should be the same. More importantly, the answers should be to our liking and I doubt they will be.
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