Please join us in Auerbach Hall Room 321 at the University of Hartford or online this Wednesday, March 12, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., for our next meeting of the University of Hartford Philosophy Club as Brian Skelly discusses "The Cost-Cutting Efficiency Fallacy—A Sure Sign of Bad Governance."
To join meeting online, click here.
We have been through this before, haven’t we? Someone running for president or governor or mayor on the platform of “cleaning house," “slashing government spending," or “getting rid of government waste." Often this kind of speech comes out of nowhere; even in times of prosperity, when efficiency does not seem to be a sticking point blocking our way forward.
In fact, it can be argued that it usually if not always serves as a default platform of running for government in the absence of any other brighter idea; that is to say, an empty candidate. This cannot bode well for all; at best, such candidates are put out of their misery by losing. But if they happen to win, it’s bad news for the rest of us.
It’s bad news when we elect people to office who have neither articulated intentions toward nor committed to performing any action that could be considered positively contributory toward fulfilling that office. To be efficient is not the purpose of any government or agency I know of but is merely an ancillary function to be performed faithfully and quietly – and non-politically. . People don’t have families so that they can have children who make their beds and do their homework. Nor are football coaches hired to make sure the players take care of the equipment or even get to practice on time. The test of this latter is that getting players to come to practice on time is no reason to keep a coach who can’t win, while failing to get players to all come to practice on time is really no reason to fire a coach who does win.
Those who run on this kind of efficiency platform, as well as those who vote for them don’t seem to care at all about what government is actually for. No government exists for efficiency but should strive for efficiency to better achieve goals that are intrinsically more important and more worth discussing than efficiency itself. After all, efficiency is a means or manner of getting things done not an end in itself. What can achievement of efficiency in government even mean unless attached to a greater ability to achieve palpable goals with the money saved, goals that should be receiving greater attention by far than how efficient a government is?
I learned an important lesson about the “efficiency” mindset running book fairs as a volunteer at my children’s elementary school. The idea was to give children an opportunity to buy some books while conducting a fundraising for the school’s PTO. Every time we ran one, we noticed some shoplifting. We caught some of them. At some point, a few teachers, motivated also by their displeasure with the purchases some of their own students were making, decided to make things more efficient: one line in, one line out; one student at a time. Controlled and limited access to the books.
The University of Hartford Philosophy Club has an informal, jovial atmosphere. It is a place where students, professors, and people from the community at large meet as peers. Sometimes presentations are given, followed by discussion. Other times, topics are hashed out by the whole group.
Presenters may be students, professors, or people from the community. Anyone can offer to present a topic. The mode of presentation may be as formal or informal as the presenter chooses.
Come and go as you wish. Bring friends. Suggest topics and activities. Take over the club! It belongs to you! Just show up! - Brian Skelly (bskelly@hartford.edu ; 414.273.2273)