Here’s another example of government losing focus of why it even exists in the first place. Governments are formed by people so that certain tasks get accomplished through the payment of taxes. Government does NOT exist as a permanent jobs program — people are not hired by the government simply to hold a job and get a paycheck. Right? Well… meet the person hired as the Detroit horseshoer. The only problem is that there are no horses to shoe.
As reported by Michigan Capitol Confidential, the city of Detroit, through its water and sewage department, has a horseshoer on the payroll. Does this person actually shoe horses? No. There aren’t any. But the powerful unions that dominate government workers insist on hiring more and more workers even if the jobs are not necessary.
Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer.
Yet even with a department so bloated that it has a horseshoer and no horses, the local union president said it is “not possible” to eliminate positions.
Union rules have turned the department into a government jobs program, some critics say.
According to the story, the department is woefully inefficient. In fact, as reported in the Detroit Free Press, the mayor of the city ordered an independent review of the Water and Sewage Department. The consultant’s review suggests that the department cut 81% of its workforce. That’s not a typo: 81%!
The recommendation calls for the department to cut its work force 81% from 1,978 employees currently to about 374 over five years. An additional 361 outside employees would work for the department on contracts, bringing the total workforce to 735, about 63% below current levels.
All job descriptions would be rewritten to be much broader than current ones to allow more flexibility. Brian Hurding, vice president of EMA, the firm that did the study, said the department had 257 job classifications, including “horseshoer.”
“We didn’t find any horses,” Hurding said. “That’s the strangest job classification I’ve ever seen.”
This is what happens when people gain power (and jobs) and government is left to grow unchecked. The goal becomes having more power and adding more government jobs… even when there is no need. Government and union officials can just add more and more and more.
This is what Barack Obama and others on the left fail to see. Government is NOT a jobs creator… it just takes money out of the private sector and puts it into the public sector without the mechanisms of supply and demand being able to work.
It’s pretty simple to understand. But apparently, if there are governments and unions that will staff a position of horseshoer, then perhaps some people have a harder time than others with the concept.
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