Government Jobs and Programs Were Really Good When Government Ran Them

Having lived through the back end of the Great Depression and all of the New Deal eras, I can witness to the fact that government jobs are not necessarily bad. It is the people who run them who are good or bad. The Civil Service System jobs and other employment funded by the government were very good. Much of the infrastructure, for example, constructed by them remains in use after seventy or more years. People who worked for and were paid by the government in the good times have retired on good pay and with good health insurance. Since government was declared to be “our enemy” in the 1980’s, that has ended. What was once a government job or program has now, with few if any exceptions, has been outsourced to private sector (for profit) contractors who employ people at low wages with few if any benefits or they send the work overseas for even lower wages (and greater profits). If people only knew what it was like during the 1950’s up until “privatization” and outsourcing became the trend during the late 1980’s and beyond it would be a revelation and government would again mean “people” and not contractors and lobbyists.

A friend who is now deceased gave me a little paperback book many years ago. The book, “Brother Can You Spare A Dime (The Great Depression 1929-1933)” by Milton Meltzer rested in a bookshelf in my home, unread by me, for many years. Recently, I picked it up and found that I had been deceived by its size (168 pages of font 12 size printing). I had heard that it was something of a classic and was used in many college classes and I found it compelling in its presentation, both in the writing and the illustrations.

What struck me most soundly, though, was that by the time I had read twelve pages, I was amazed at the similarity of the depression’s beginnings and the years leading up to it and our current circumstances. If one changed names, years and numbers, it would be a current events book. Republican Warren G. Harding was elected President to begin the 1920’s. His administration was so corrupt that one cabinet member went to jail and other cronies committed suicide. Harding died in office and Calvin Coolidge became President. One quote from the book will suffice to show how much those days were like these days: “When the newspapers were not heralding heroes such as Lindberg…or Babe Ruth, who hit sixty homers in one season, they were front paging the sex scandals of millionaires and movie stars. Publicity and advertising ballyhooed everything from an imported Chinese game…to bathing beauty contests…to real estate in Florida, where swampy lots changed hands ten times in one day, selling at prices incredibly above their real value.” These same charges would apply to all media today.