1. re: #9 Obdicut

re: #5 jvic

Every bureaucracy I’ve dealt with—corporate, nonprofit, government—tries to expand its budget, size, and mission. Their stated rationales are rarely illegitimate on their face.

How is that a response to what I said? Is this just a blanket “Government will just always grow and there’s nothing we can do about it” thing?

Whether or not that’s true, it’s not what I’m getting at.

Many in the bottom quintile are clients of the social-services bureaucracy. If the incomes of that quintile began rising significantly via some unspecified process, practical politics as I understand it implies that that bureaucracy would look for reasons to get involved with that process and to remain involved with the clientele.

Similarly—similarly, not equivalently—, there are those who say that defense cuts are unthinkable because we need a strong defense.

That we need a strong defense and a social safety net is beside my point.

2. re: #8 000G

Iron law of oligarchy

Thanks for the link. The few in the oligarchy are…maybe one or few percent?

It was worth my time to click through to the Iron Law of Bureaucracy.