We’ve written about the problems with FDA and CDC bureaucracies holding up responses to the Coronavirus. This a.m. John Hinderaker of Power Line has more on this issue. Before this pandemic is over we’ll read a lot more on the subject.
If you’ve not worked in the Federal bureaucracy, as I’ve done on two occasions for a total of roughly 3 years, you may have trouble understanding how these functionaries get so bogged down. It has to do with the reward-and-punishment matrix in FedGov civil service.
No civil servant gets punished for being too cautious, too careful, too closely hewing to the written policies. On the other hand, rewards for taking initiative and risk in pursuit of big achievements are doggone scarce.
In other words, as long as you follow the rules, even if the outcome is bad, your career is unharmed, you’ve CYA’d. If you break or evade the rules to accomplish something major, and your deviation proves useful, you get maybe a pat on the head, or maybe a jealous colleague nails you for rule violations.
It is a system that does not much reward, but often punishes, initiative or out-of-the-box thinking. Ergo, little initiative is taken. Folks plod along for 30 years ‘turning the crank’, following rules and then draw their pensions.
Routine responses normally work “okay” for routine circumstances; for black swan events like this pandemic, not so much. It is a design flaw, but perhaps an inevitable one.
Later ... See also this just-posted Steven Hayward column at Power Line which adds another supporting incident re the bureaucratic bumf we’ve experienced with Coronavirus.
