Snowpocalypse’s lesson: The inefficiency of government

I read today that a school superintendent in Central Falls, Rhode Island asked teachers in his district to work an extra half hour a day. The school system there is notoriously bad with a dropout rate of about 50%. The unionized teachers in that district are paid extremely well — an average of 72-78 thousand dollars a year, which is more than twice  the median income in that part of Rhode Island. The teachers union refused. The superintendent fired them all.

It was a bold move. It sent a message. But it could never happen here in Washington D.C. and its suburban environs. Our metropolis is one giant company town. But the company is government.  It faces no competition. It has no deadline to get moving.  Like all governments, one of its unspoken purposes is to sustain itself. And in its inevitable reach for sustenance, it grows and gets bloated and reaches for more.

I heard syndicated radio host Mark Levin last night confide that he lives in one exurban outpost of our company town –  Loudoun County, Va. He angrily revealed  that in six years of living in his home there, his property taxes had gone from roughly 6-thousand dollars a year to more than 20-thousand a year. By my calculations, that 20-thousand dollars would buy more than 20 Powerland 13 horsepower, 32 inch professional snow blowers at $939 a piece on Overstock.com.

Loudoun County schools announced today that they’re opening one hour late until the end of this week. By then, it will have been 14 days since the first snow fell.

Anchorman a well-known news anchor from a top-10, big city station. The Daily Caller has elected to redact his identity to protect his anonymity