I’ve shared ant-related humor before with this modern version of the fable of the ant and the grasshopper.
Now our six-legged friend makes an appearance in a joke that I received from an increasingly famous libertarian on the left coast.
It’s very amusing, so long as you’re willing to laugh at bureaucracy’s expansion and America’s decline. Enjoy.
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Want to know why we are still in a recession even though we have added
over 200,000 new federal employees in the past two years?
Simple, it’s not a good time to be an ant!
If you like this post, you will also enjoy this one and this one. Similar themes about the inefficiency of government and who pays the price.
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Welcome to all Instapundit readers! Your comments are great, especially about the creeping bureaucratization of corporate America. Yes, the same cartoon could apply to companies like GM.
Gotta love bureaucracy!
You could apply this to what’s going on in higher education today. And you might point out that when the Lion hires the cockroach, the cockroach is immediately paid double what the ant is paid.
This is corporate America to a T.
This is more Government than corporate America – Government demands all the paperwork, and then the Senate demands “investigations” – but not of itself or its own demented pandering.
[...] HOW BUREAUCRACY WORKS: I’d like to see this as widely distributed as Who Moved My Cheese? But I’m not holding my breath. [...]
Couldn’t be government. Nobody’s fired in government. They just raise taxes.
This is certainly NOT limited to government. It more or less describes private companies, schools, law firms, etc.
If you don’t think corporate America loves paperwork, you’ve never worked in corporate America. It’s true that small companies don’t like paperwork, but once a company reaches a certain threshold with huge separation between ant & lion, then the behavior in this story becomes the norm.
[...] Bureaucracy Humor, Probably Created by Somebody at Homeland Security or HUD « International Liberty. [...]
Mike,
I am not forced to give to corporate America if I don’t want to. Government bureaucracy is paid for partly by me, and I have no choice in the matter.
Is there a powerpoint version of this? We need to get the Desktop Publishing department on the case. But seriously, I would love a powerpoint version to send around (or see it uploaded at slideshare.com).
One man’s accountability is another man’s paperwork.
Don’t forget your TPS reports, mmkay?
S*U*P*E*R*B !!!!
I’m not sure if you’re aware of the President’s Save Award nonsense, but it’s always my favorite form of comic relief (when i’m not terrified by the stupidity) at work.
http://saveaward2011.ideascale.com/
My favorite one this year was to create “energy marshals” to monitory their coworkers energy usage.
[...] have as many as 18 levels of management. That leads to one of my favorite economists and a little ‘Bureaucracy Humor’, probably created by somebody at Homeland Security of [...]
“This is corporate America to a T.”
Discussing corporations with libertarians is like discussing evolution with Flat-Earth Creationists.
Note the passive-aggressive manner in which the author cites General Motors as an example of a corporation this could apply to, with a link to one of his blog posts (rightly) critical of Obama’s G.M. bailout.
Not-so-subtle message: never admit that private corporations behave stupidly, inefficiently, badly, etc. unless you can somehow blame it on the government.
These people probably think the comic strip “Dilbert” was inspired by the government sector.
“Note the passive-aggressive manner in which the author cites General Motors as an example of a corporation this could apply to, with a link to one of his blog posts (rightly) critical of Obama’s G.M. bailout.
Not-so-subtle message: never admit that private corporations behave stupidly, inefficiently, badly, etc. unless you can somehow blame it on the government.
These people probably think the comic strip “Dilbert” was inspired by the government sector.”
Corporations that are less efficient than competitors have a tendency to go poof, unless they are well connected like GM.
Governments are very much insultated against poof moments, but when they do, oh boy. See Greece.
But your ranting nonsense was soooo earnestly delivered, we will not mock you.
/pat head
Yeah, that story sounds like any biggish corporation. Reminds me of Office Space. Did you get the memo about the new cover sheet for the TPS reports?
[...] a link to a parable. Intended to be about the government, I think, but relevant to any bureaucracy, including [...]
I think I worked there.
Mike – I disagree that corporate America “loves” paperwork. Most of the excess paperwork is to make sure there are ample paper trails to prove the company is in compliance with the innumerable government regulations or is a CYA maneuver to be prepared for potential lawsuits.
Is this a real story on what is happening in Senegal? No, really. I am asking because it looks like the same.
Oh, ok. It is happening in the United States. It means that governments. all around the world, do the same stupid mistakes. Overstaffed.
I love this post and i will reblog it.
“Yeah, that story sounds like any biggish corporation. Reminds me of Office Space.”
Didn’t you get the memo?
Corporations that are less efficient than competitors have a tendency to go poof, unless they are well connected like GM.
Governments are very much insultated against poof moments, but when they do, oh boy. See Greece.
But your ranting nonsense was soooo earnestly delivered, we will not mock you.
/pat head
This is almost exactly what happened to the company I worked for when it become ISO 3000 certified. I ran a furnace and all it did was double the paperwork I had to do and some of it was redundant. They also had to hire people to write the ISO 3000 rules, all which were paid more then me. They got certified and the only difference is more paperwork and we no longer have any flexibility to change anything because this would mess up the standards.
It applies to any bureaucracy. For even greater understanding of how bureaucracy’s inevitably lead to over-regulation and inefficiency– read “The Peter Principle”.
[...] Bureaucracy Humor, Probably Created by Somebody at Homeland Security or HUD [...]
[...] I came across a different version of the story from Dan Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC, and Lenore Hawkins of Meritas Advisors [...]
[...] I came across a different version of the story from Dan Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC, and Lenore Hawkins of Meritas Advisors in [...]
And let’s not forget the legal department to ensure the workplace is conforming to the massive regulations/hiring quotas.
There are three insect grocery stores in my town. I went to the cheapest one to buy some pollen. But the line was really long because they only have one checkout ant–she was really great at her job, but she simply couldn’t handle the volume. So I went to the slightly more expensive one. At that store, everything was chaotic because they have a bunch of checkout ants, some good, some bad, but no one supervising them, so the lines were haphazard, some fast, some slow, and customers were milling around trying to get in the best line. Then I went to the third, slightly more expensive insect store: There they had a bunch of checkout people, some good and some bad, but also a manager, whose job it was to see that they all worked up to a certain standard. The lines there were orderly, predictable, and short. I paid slightly more for my pollen, but the service was worth it.
Incredible! This is the Postal Service!
[...] cartoon is good, but here’s another that is remarkable because it does capture the mindset that exists inside the government. GA_googleAddAttr("AdOpt", "1"); GA_googleAddAttr("Origin", "other"); [...]
I know this was suppose to be a joke but as i read it. Memories of what happen to our companies: Instead of promoting from within, they would hire outside COLLEGE graduates to be trained by the people that should have been promoted. FROM day one I knew that was the down fall of productions and more expensive unknowledge positions.
Why is our companies not promoting from within??????
Cedric, I’ve been to all 3 of ur stores with the same story at all. Did the 3 stores all have a boss?????? Does the boss need a manager????? OR do the employee (ants) need a GOOD BOSS???????
[...] but not least, this joke about bureaucracy is a good way to close. Rate this: Share [...]
So, is the lion hiring?