Word: leveler
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...bureaucracy has grown by 15% in 20 years, and bigger has not meant better. From all accounts at every level, initiative is stifled, mediocrity is rewarded by raises, and there is an unknown number of living, breathing bureaucrats who get paid handsomely for doing virtually nothing. The whole enterprise is snarled in 21 volumes of ever-expanding regulations, which nobody pretends to understand, much less read. Small wonder that the Civil Service Commission, which supervises federal personnel, has itself become a thriving bureaucracy with 8,600 employees. Over the past two decades, the agency has grown five times faster than...
...fill it because of all the initials required at the bottom of countless memos. The average time that elapses between requesting that a job be filled and actually getting the employee is 58.6 working days. The more important the position, the longer the delay: three months for low-level managers, six months for intermediate, almost a year at the top level. By the time an administrator has his own team in place, he may be on the way out himself. Seasoned bureaucrats know how to outwait and outfox a politically appointed boss, no matter how zealous or resolute...
Finally, the plan would encourage decentralization by permitting more decision making at the regional or agency level. Wayne Granquist, an official in the Office of Management and Budget who helped devise the plan, likes to cite the example of the forest ranger who is sent into the woods of Oregon for a wildlife census. Since he is in what is called a remote area, he is entitled to an extra $12 a week. But this modest increase in pay must be approved all the way up the line from district to regional to national headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service...
This was the level of political debate in France last week as the nation prepared for the March 12 and 19 parliamentary elections. The disparity between the stakes in the elections and the banality of the arguments was surprising, since the vote might well determine whether France would continue on its center-right course or veer?no one could say how far?to the left. The polls still showed the leftist parties leading the governing coalition, 50% to 45%, but under the two-round voting system the final outcome remained unpredictable...
...business magazine L 'Expansion indicates that these and other proposed wage increases would average 20% in 1978, boosting inflation to 18% by the end of the year (see chart). Moreover, the hikes may cause 300,000 to 400,000 bankruptcies and boost unemployment from its present level of 4.6%. Clearly, businesses in France that are already having difficulty making ends meet will not be able to pay the higher wage bills...