As is often the case in political writing, the diagnosis of the problem seemed far more plausible than the proposed solution.
There’s just something weird about the humungous proportion of career bureaucrats and governmental employees vs. the few people who get elected. E.g. according to this, in the US there are ~9 million federal employees plus ~16 million people employed by local and state governments. Contrast that with <1000 (?) federally elected politicians, and you get a proportion of >9000 unelected employees per elected politician, which sounds kind of bizarre. (In fact, in a moment of kabbalistic fortuitousness, I noticed while editing this comment that the proportion is Over 9000!)
From this perspective the problem diagnosed in Cummings’ essay sounds eerily plausible.
As is often the case in political writing, the diagnosis of the problem seemed far more plausible than the proposed solution.
There’s just something weird about the humungous proportion of career bureaucrats and governmental employees vs. the few people who get elected. E.g. according to this, in the US there are ~9 million federal employees plus ~16 million people employed by local and state governments. Contrast that with <1000 (?) federally elected politicians, and you get a proportion of >9000 unelected employees per elected politician, which sounds kind of bizarre. (In fact, in a moment of kabbalistic fortuitousness, I noticed while editing this comment that the proportion is Over 9000!)
From this perspective the problem diagnosed in Cummings’ essay sounds eerily plausible.