They do provide benefit - it's just not immediately quantifiable to a dollar value, so apparently worthless in your eyes.
Quite a lot do, I think I said that. If you actually read my 'waffle' you would've noticed. While I didn't give examples, Health, Education, Nat Parks, Emergency Services all do a great job and in an area that needs public money. My brother-in-law looks after his school's computer network as part of his teaching job, the money he could save if the Qld Education Dept weren't fixated policing crap like using a big approved vendor that charges a rural call-out fee and tries to ignore his small rural school. He should be able to use a small local supplier that is two minutes down the road, thus is half the price and invested in the local community, but it requires too many vendors for Brisbane to adminster so they can't. The Dept workers in Brisbane are no doubt flat out, under resourced and over worked, but Schools get better value themselves than the Dept could ever get for them. Teachers are pretty clever and local communities take pride in their schools, let them work. He can get cheaper work with a lower administration cost, the Dept saves twice.
.........Yes it's annoying, but you'll have assurance that the end product will be acceptable - to you as an investment in your health and well being, and financially, and to any prospective purchaser down the track. Just because YOU don't see it as tangible, doesn't mean it isn't so. The irony is that years ago, all the councils did this all in-house, for minimal fee, but now it's (public service) been split up and made more "accountable" they are trying to recover costs for their "products" thanks to the economic/privatisation rationalists out there. So you, the user, pays.........
An investment in my health and wellbeing, what a load of crap. While it is the intention, the reality is not so warm and fuzzy. This 'big government' attitude is derogatory and the reality differs somewhat. I'm somewhat invested in my health and wellbeing, more so than anyone else. I like user-pays, but there is a difference between charging a fee and providing a service. As for assurances of the quality of the end product, bullshit. The paperwork that Qld Transport processed when I built my car trailer was nothing more that a few calculations to ascertain the axle position, it had nothing to do with construction method, design or quality. The person doing the paperwork didn't understand the details of the axle position anyway, just the ability to see that if the calculation in box F is less than the sum of box N and R so it passes.
This individual was neither technically qualified or competent for the role, however the role was public service and therefore merely required a certain QPS level, not someone with an iota of knowledge, experience, or using any reference to materials, welding, basic engineering or Aust Standards. It was an exercise in paperwork, not technical compliance. For the service that was actually provided I would say that the Government gave a hearthy 'screw you' to my health and wellbeing and anyone that could've potentially been injured by a deathtrap that could've been registered that day. The Government is great at policing the private sector, both public and private are shit house at policing themselves.
Having worked in (state govt) public service, at the pointy end, I didn't see or experience waste and inefficiency, I saw a lot of people doing an often thankless job, with an ever increasing workload, while being seeing the budgets and available resources shrink...........
Agreed, but if you're flat out processing systems that no longer have a tangible benefit to society, what is the real contribution to society vs the cost incurred. As for being a thankless job with budget and resource restrictions, welcome to the the real world where that is something faced everywhere everyday. Public servants aren't taking one for the team, they do a job, the question is whether each job is relevant, not the work ethic or motivation of those involved.
I can just not accept that everything must have a quantifiable dollar value to be justifiable. At the end of the day, the economy is a means to an end - not the end in itself.
At the end of the day when the ageing population stops paying income tax the Government's income pool will shrink and retirement costs grow. The economy is everything if the money stops, hence why budgets get cut and resources get stretched.
Get the Public sector back to providing oversight, keep the service delivery to contained to only areas where the public interest is best served. Let Principals run schools, let Health Professionals run hospitals, let the public service watch over, not try to do it for them from 2000km away.
