It’s easy to consider the subject of bureaucracy a real snoozer. I confess it can be more interesting to follow stories about policies with clear positive or negative impact on freedom and free markets. Fights over tax hikes fall into that category.
But bureaucracy’s impact on taxpayers is equally burdensome. This Herald-Sun story is a great illustration of it. There’s such a tangled web of development and permitting regulations and bureaucracy in Durham that 30 percent of the city’s major construction projects are delayed.
Ask yourself this: Would you continue to frequent a business, or work with a service provider that couldn’t get the job done on time for you 30 percent of the time? And if you were the business or provider, would you continue to operate using procedures that led to the late delivery of your product or service 30 percent of the time? Of course not. So why do we accept it from government?
