Look, it is extremely difficult for any large organization to cut spending. Much of that is not due to wasteful programs but the steady and seemingly inevitable rise in the number of people whose work involves the organization, rather than what the organization does. Worked at NSA for 35 years. When I started, the bulk of the people were involved with the actual collection, evaluation and dissemination of our information. We had three operational groups and Agency staff was modest in size. Over the years, things changed. We still had the same number of operational groups but the number of staff people and administrative people within those groups mushroomed. Meanwhile, Agency staff multiplied like amoebas. By the time I left, the named staff groups had reached W. A mere handful were necessary--Computers, for example. Liaison groups out the ying yang. Personnel branched out into several named groups and swelled like the crowd at a hot concert. That in addition to the personnel people within each of the three operational groups. Even back a good decade before I retired, an anonymous writer penned an article for the Agency magazine describing the chaos and estimating that only about one in ten people was now directly involved in the collection, evaluation and dissemination of our information. The Agency's response was to cease publication of the magazine.
Parkinson's Law is a humorous book, but it makes great points. The number of employees in a given organization rises at a steady rate regardless of the work done. Officials make work for each other. Officials seek to multiply subordinates, not rivals. Those are some of the key axioms Parkinson states. One of his example was the British Admiralty, which continued to grow apace even as the British fleet dwindled.
Have always believed that the four basic human need were food, shelter, reproduction and the impulse to bureaucratize. Which is why New Jersey's state government is irretrievably screwed.
