These two stories are completely unrelated, but they both struck me as examples of why governments have a well-deserved reputation for squandering money and making life more difficult for ordinary people.
And even though the stories are radically different, they give us a good opportunity to ask whether government is more stupid and incompetent in Europe or the United States.
Our European entry in the contest is from Germany, where the government apparently has lost blueprints for its new spy headquarters. Here are some excerpts from a BBC report, though I can’t help thinking it should be in the Onion.
Germany is investigating reports that the blueprints for the future headquarters of its BND intelligence agency have gone missing. If the report in Focus magazine is confirmed, it could pose a serious security risk – and would be a huge embarrassment for the spy agency. The new 1.6bn euro (£1.4bn; $2.3bn) agency headquarters are currently under construction in Berlin. …They purportedly show extremely sensitive aspects of the building’s construction, such as the alarm system, anti-terror installations, emergency exits, cable routes and sewers.
By the way, I’m also shocked by the $2.3 billion price tag for the building. But cost overruns and waste are so routine that only fiscal policy wonks like me seem to get upset about such things.
The American entry is from (I’m embarrassed to admit) Georgia, where the Keystone Cops in Midway have stopped a major crime wave of…(get ready to be shocked)…unregulated lemonade! Here’s part of the AP report.
Police in Georgia have shut down a lemonade stand run by three girls trying to save up for a trip to a water park, saying they didn’t have a business license or the required permits. Midway Police Chief Kelly Morningstar says police also didn’t know how the lemonade was made, who made it or what was in it. The girls had been operating for one day when Morningstar and another officer cruised by. The girls needed a business license, peddler’s permit and food permit to operate, even on residential property. The permits cost $50 a day or $180 per year.
Other local governments have been guilty of this type of petty harassment, but what’s remarkable about the Midway story is that the Barney-Fife-wannabee police chief shut down the lemonade stand, in part, because the girls “didn’t know how the lemonade was made.”
So I guess this means that the kids not only should have coughed up big bucks for a permit, but they also should have posted the recipe for some regulator to approve?
I weep for my country.
[…] really describe what happened. Almost makes the Pentagon look frugal. Almost makes the German intelligence service look […]
[…] for our third and final example. It seems lemonade cops don’t just exist in California, Georgia, and Oregon, they also patrol the mean streets of […]
[…] Let’s now turn to Germany. I’ve previously referenced the country’s intelligence community because the BND managed to lose the blueprints for its costly new headquarters building. […]
[…] Let’s now turn to Germany. I’ve previously referenced the country’s intelligence community because the BND managed to lose the blueprints for its costly new headquarters building. […]
[…] have pointed out that the German government occasionally can waste money with Gallic flair. Or even display Greek levels of government incompetence. So, unlike the Washington Post, I would never refer to the country as […]
[…] an unlicensed – gasp! – lemonade stand (the same thing happens in California, Georgia, and […]
[…] heroically thwarted rogue operators of unregulated and unlicensed lemonade stands, in California, Georgia, and […]
[…] and unlicensed children’s lemonade stands. Why? Because bureaucrats (like ones in California, Georgia, and Oregon) won’t be prowling the streets to shut them […]
[…] and unlicensed children’s lemonade stands. Why? Because bureaucrats (like ones in California, Georgia, and Oregon) won’t be prowling the streets to shut them […]
[…] Germany, the government misplaced the sensitive blueprints of its new $2.3 billion spy […]
[…] incompetence and political idiocy in other parts of the world, including Italy, Greece, Germany, and the European Union. So I hope nobody gets offended that their country isn’t on the list. […]
Milkman said “They lost the blueprint for a building so important it’s worth literally billions of dollars.”
WORTH billions, or COSTING billions? There is a difference.
[…] other German posts mocked the country’s scheme to tax prostitutes, mocked the government for losing the blueprints for its new spy headquarters, mocked the government for a money-losing scheme to tax coffee, and even mocked the supposedly […]
[…] other German posts mocked the country’s scheme to tax prostitutes, mocked the government for losing the blueprints for its new spy headquarters, mocked the government for a money-losing scheme to tax coffee, and even mocked the supposedly […]
[…] as part of my ongoing series comparing foolish government policies (previous editions include the U.S. v Germany and the U.S. v. the U.K.), let’s figure out whether California or the European Union is more […]
[…] Last week, we compared a bone-headed display tpqof incompetence by the German government with a perverse form of harassment by a local government in the United States. […]
Art,
Much of what you say is true, but the school system is very inflexible in the end, which cripples the labor force when one combines that with German employment law. Businesses have no flexibility to get rid of inefficient or incompetent workers, though they have recently found a way around this by only awarding short-term contracts.
The apprentice system is another example of overbureaucratization. The trade unions use it as a mechanism for keeping out cheaper labor and competition. It’s much akin to the absurd licensing restrictions in the US in industries such as interior design.
But, yes, Germany is much better off than the rest of Europe (outside of Luxembourg and Switzerland – much freer economies). However, it is not a question of being the least worst. Germany could do wonders if the system would unleash the productive capacity of the German labor force. Ludwig Erhardt did it once, and, surprise, Germany experienced the Wirtschaftswunder. Alas, the social state has destroyed much of the fruits of such endeavors.
Luckily for the rest of the world, other countries benefit from well-educated German emigres.
@soonerliberty
I understand that a lot of young Germans are thinking of emigrating. Germany’s sterile industrial culture, government bureaucracy, high prices especially in housing and gloomy weather that lasts all winter are reasons. The sun, sand and surf of Australia are a big inducement.
Young Germans who emigrate have valuable skills that enable them to do very well in their newly adopted countries. Less than 30% of German youth matriculate at the “Gymnasium” or high standard academic high school. Most students are enrolled in vocational high schools or are apprenticed to industry or a trade. That’s where the German educational system differs from the USA, where every student is deemed to be “college material” and huge amounts of money are thrown at the educational establishment to train them to be “professionals” as part of the “new world order.”
Germany has its good and bad points. But economically, Germans are better off than other Europeans because they prepare most of their young for industry not commerce.
My wife is finishing her medical studies, while I pay 60% (Mehrwertsteuer included) taxes for nothing and barely have enough left for the tasty German beer.
Germany is nice, but the system is a nightmare, which is why many are fleeing from here in droves to Switzerland, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US. Doctors especially.
I can second it that the standard of living is lower here. Everything is absurdly expensive and the service is incredibly lacking, not to mention the mountain of bureaucratic fees and taxes you have to pay.
You would think over 10,000 years of failure would eclipse this “better king syndrome,” but, alas, it has not done so. This time I’m sure it will be different if we just have the right plans and leaders.
(Sorry Mr. Dan Mitchell for doing such an abusively long comment but because of the disdainful tone that Donald used I needed to show that I am serious person that knows what I am talking about)
Donald:
You see no solutions offered here? If you see no solutions then there are no solutions? Brilliant! Please enroll yourself into a basic course in logic!
The solution is written on this blog´s very first line: “Restraining Government in America and Around the World” read it yourself. Almost every one of Dr. Mitchell’s posts shows how damaging and wealth and happiness destroying is the power of the political class over our lives. If he repeated the solution at every post it would be annoying.
Probably you have been brain washed by the mainstream European media, academia and public education system and then probably you have never heard about freedom and restraining government being the solution and the power of the political class being the problem. Probably you have heard that almost everything good that happens is due to the exorbitant immoral power that the political class has over your life. Mainstream media, academia and public education systems have inside them colossal machines promoting that message.
Those that want to conserve the humongous power they have over hundreds millions people like you -and the $trillions they take away from people like you- need to contain the message of freedom and restrain that comes from people like Dr. Mitchell. This is an old story.
You say that Dr. Mitchell propagates fear. You think that you should not fear the power of the political class? How many people were MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD by the National SOCIALIST regime in Germany? 21 million, not counting the dead in combat!
POWER KILLS! See for yourself http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM: In the 20th century alone 77 million people were murdered by the communist government in China, 62 million were murdered by the Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics government, 50 million by colonialism, 21 million by the National SOCIALISTS. The total mass murder toll is about 262 million murdered by governments to which you must add the tens millions killed in wars. The political classes that mass murdered did it because they had the POWER to do it
About standards of living being lower in Europe than in the USA I meant that not only I knew about statistics showing USA’s higher standard of living at but that I actually knew the facts first hand since I lived in Europe. This paper http://www.timbro.se/bokhandel/pdf/9175665646.pdf shows the higher standard of living in the USA. I said that growth was lower in Europe because of bigger government. This paper http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2005/03/the-impact-of-government-spending-on-economic-growth by Dr. Mitchell shows enormous multi country evidence of bigger government slowing growth. This paper http://www.house.gov/jec/growth/function/function.htm shows too lots of multi country evidence of INCREASING government -as in Western Europe in 1960-1996- slowing growth and DECREASING government accelerating growth
I went myself to the IMF World Economic Outlook latest database http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/01/weodata/index.aspx and downloaded all the available data on “Percent change of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at constant prices” which I think are the “growth” figures that the media quotes. I was able to compute the total growth from 1980 to 2010 for 144 countries. I computed the total growth, not the annual rate of change. 1st place in growth is Equatorial Guinea with a mind boggling 10203% (!!!) total growth in 1980-2010 !. 2nd place is China with 1813% growth (astounding!!!) 6th place is Singapore with 698% growth. Singapore is particularly interesting since it has a non-European “investment accumulation instead of taxing the young to sustain the old” social security system and Singapore has one of the worlds highest standard’s of living, economic growth and one of the world’s smallest governments. 40th is Luxembourg (275% growth), a tax haven. 51th Ireland (241% growth). Ireland had massive government reduction in 1987-2000 showing the DECREASING government HIGHER growth pattern. 54th Costa Rica (226% growth). 85th USA (126% growth) 86th Norway (125% growth). But Norway not only went through massive reduction in government -its government spending as % of GDP is today slightly higher than USA’s- but Norway is too very rich in oil (look what oil did for Equatorial Guinea!) . Then comes 91th Spain (121%), 98th Finland (109%), 106th Sweden (94%), 111th United Kingdom (90%), 119th France (77%), 126 Germany (70%), 127 Denmark (69%), 132 Italy (50%) and finally, the country at the bottom of the list is 144th Libya (-3%)
So, growth in Western European tax hells that never reduced government (France, Italy, Germany, etc) is among the lowest in the world. Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden and others reduced government. That was my point. And what Dr. Mitchell says is not “nonsense, which isn’t even well researched” as you said. It is just the opposite,
Josef: Kafka is dead. If Germany is so bad, why are you still there?
Luis: Ditto. Lived in Europe in the late 70’s? You really think you 30+ old perspective on Europe still holds today? Korea was a mess in the 70’s, you still want to use them as a measure?
Please enroll yourself into a basic macro and micro economics course.
I still see no solutions being offered here. As I said, Dan propagates the same fear that causes cops to shut down lemonade stands. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If someone loses plans, they you have a force mejeure clause to protect yourself for redesign costs…it’s probably in the contract, and as always, this blog only tells half of the story. Dan is not a journalist. He is a salesman pitching ideology, and you are buying at bargain prices with minutes of your life sitting at a computer. Stop reading this stuff and go play with your kids or go for a walk with your wife. Is this nonsense, which isn’t even well researched, worth time taken out of your daily life? Probably not.
Anonymous poster said:
Totally agree with Donald. Dan is writing on a 8th grade level, which is appropriate, as that is probably the education level of most of his readers.
The big problem with mainstream academia is that any non retarded 8th grader can understand why an important part of mainstream academia’s “justifications” for more power, control & $trillions for the political class are pseudoscience. You only have to talk in a clear language without contradictions and fallacies, as Mr. Mitchell does, and any non retarded 8th grader will understand facts.
Take tax cuts, Paul Krugman has been demonizing them but if you see polls you will see that people understand that higher taxes are damaging. The ultimate Krugman’s defeat was Obama extending Bush tax cuts. Once you take confusion and sophism away from John Keynes pseudoscience any non retarded 8th grader can understand that Keynes General Theory of Employment is nonsense based on a ridiculous assumption that is equivalent to saying “There is a DEFINITE 100 to 1 RATIO between my income and what I spend on alcohol. Therefore, if I multiply by 1000 my alcohol consumption then my income will be too multiplied by 1000”. Keynes pseudoscience is central in “justifying” insane control, oppression and wealth and growth destruction by the political class with schemes like the “european” social security scheme. In those schemes exorbitant taxes on today’s young to sustain today’s old impede today’s young to accumulate tens $trillions in growth creating investments that would sustain today’s young when old without needing to tax tomorrow’s young.
It is just a matter of time. Blogs like these, through the wonderful availability of information of the Internet and clear logical language, will finally destroy the pseudoscience that mainstream academia gave us.
Mr. Art R:.
This is not paradise . We are still much worse than the USA in regulations. And, most important, and we do not have accumulated capital as the USA has and therefore our wages are much lower than in the high capital USA. The USA has centuries of high capital accumulation, we do not have them. The USA became the world economic superpower at blazing speed in the 1800s with government spending probably lower than 10% of GDP, much lower than today’s Costa Rica’s 20%-25% of GDP.
Our women are, like brazilian, colombian and venezuelan women, famous for their beauty. In that sense we may have a paradise.
@ Senior Di Mare
Anyone seriously thinking about moving to the paradise of Costa Rico, read THIS.
Mr. Donald:
Standard’s of living are considerably LOWER in Europe than in the USA and the reason is more government spending, more taxation and more regulation in Europe i.e. the reason is more power in the hands of the political class in Europe. Just read Understanding Poverty in America http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2004/01/understanding-poverty-in-america and you will see how those considered “poor” in the USA enjoy some standards of living that near the AVERAGE standards in “paradisaical” tax hell Sweden. Mr. Mitchell wrote landmark papers on matters like these.
Those Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures when not adjusted for purchasing power are nonsense. But in Western Europe you often rely on them to allege that you live in paradise. It is nonsense to allege, based on those figures, that a person in Norway produces about twice what a person produces in the USA or 93 times what a person produces in Nicaragua. Western European exorbitant high taxes mean exorbitant prices and considerably lower standard of living. And the “European” way of heavily taxing the young to sustain the old means that the young will not be able to accumulate tens $trillions in wealth that could sustain them when old.
I lived in the late 1970s, early 1980s in Western Europe and the lower -compared to the USA- standard of living in Europe was for me a shock as hard as a kick in the face. Today that standard must be even lower since according to figures by Western Europe bureaucracies after the 1970s growth in the European (tax increasing) tax hells was considerably lower than in the USA. We are Rich, You are not. End of Story http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/17/weekinreview/17bawer.html is a short newspaper article from the New York times that I think accurately shows how exorbitant taxes (and the resulting exorbitant prices) mean considerably lower standard of livings in western Europe’s tax hells (compared to the USA)
Mr. Mitchell has given the solution dozens of times. I probably read from him how Singapore and Hong Kong were dirt poor in the 1960s. But they rejected the big government “advice” from the mainstream economics profession and they established governments -measured as a % of GDP- that were a half, a third and at moments even a quarter the size of governments in western European tax hells. They went too through massive liberalization. Singapore and Hong Kong became rich very fast and now they both have higher PPP (adjusted for purchasing power) per capita GDP figures than tax hell Sweden. Sweden in the 1960s was one of the world’s richest kids (Source, CIA Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/) But today Singapore’s GDP PPP per person is more than 50% higher than Sweden’s. And Singapore essentially has a social security system that lets the young accumulate wealth instead of heavily taxing the young to sustain the old.
I saw my country, Costa Rica, became much richer in my lifetime through deregulation, lower taxes, not exorbitant government spending and zero taxes on some kinds of capital. Those recommendations have much in common with Mr Mitchell’s. I often cannot recognize my childhood neighborhoods here in Costa Rica because there are so many new beautiful houses. But Western European tax hells remain essentially a collection of old houses and buildings. They live in considerable part from capital accumulated in their lower government lower tax past.
I already made several comments similar to this one but I make this comment again because it is so unfair to say -as you do- that Mr. Mitchell has never given the solution while he has showed the solution dozens of times, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of times.
If you are planning to offer lemonade at your next children’s party, please put together a ballot initiative for voter approval. It is a communal issue and the electorate has a say.
Lossing a set of plans is probably not in reality that big a deal except for the government thinking that it is. There are probably many sets out there for the builders to use. I doubt they all have the highest security clearances and you could get a halfway decent view of the construction under progress you could probably determine alot about many of the items mentioned.
Busting kids for lemonaide stands is just some of the over regulation and over zelous police police tatics brough on by the drug war and legislators trying to regulate everything.
Donald,
I live in Germany, and your fawning over the country’s “order” is laughable for someone living within these glass walls. Prices are outrageous (overregulation and taxation), the bureaucracy is slow and xenophobic (if you’re E. European or Turkish, forget about it), property is absurdly expensive, the education system is crumbling from within (facilities are old and dilapidated), the medical system is out of money, but, yes, alles geht schon in Ordnung.
It is easy to understand Kafka when one stands in the German bureaucracy and sees a sign that read, “The Death Bureau.” One wonders if you need permission to die in this country, as you need an Erlaubnis for everything else.
It is perfectly legitimate to criticize any country. I feel perfectly within my rights to criticize the US and Europe, both of which have bankrupted their populations by dealing favors to the politically connected. There is nothing wrong with that. I hear Germans exercise this right every day, though they remain woefully ignorant of their own fiscal situation. However, many are thoughtful, though they are flooding from Germany en masse.
And these comments about deregulation border on insanity. How can a country with over 50,000 pages of regulatory nonsense be considered deregulated? Ronald Reagan talked deregulation, but he never did anything to enforce it. He tripled spending. Just because he talked a big game does not mean he followed through. Carter deregulated more than him in the end. Under such standards, 49,000 pages would be considered laissez-faire. How can anyone consider an economy with a central-planning mechanism such as the FED economically liberalized? The sad irony in the whole debate is that regulation only helps the rich and politically connected at the expense of the poor, who pay in stagnated wages and inflated prices. Unfortunately, this is also true in Germany.
There are many places that are considered more economically liberal than the US: Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, even Australia and Canada these days. When people are paying 35% taxes, it’s difficult to say the US has anything even remotely resembling deregulation.
Josef K.
I think the cops were looking for an OSHA required MSDS, given that it was a chemical concoction — AND they wanted a counter-signed approval from Michelle, since it was a food (potentially) served to children
“Yes, indeed, you do weep for your country, but what are your solutions?”
Um, have you ever watched any of his Cato Institute videos? The dude offers solutions all the time.
“Sorry Dan, but if you are looking for a 100% perfect process execution rate and zero failure, then you should…”
You make it sound like Dan is asking for perfection. They lost the blueprint for a building so important it’s worth literally billions of dollars.
Totally agree with Donald. Dan is writing on a 8th grade level, which is appropriate, as that is probably the education level of most of his readers. Is this really journalism of even gentlemanly when “stupid” and “incompetent” are thrown around so loosely.
I don’t get it. I like living in the U.S. and Germany is great, and the government is doing what it is supposed to be doing, carrying out adversarial negotiations without anyone being physically harmed. The U.S. and Europe both enjoy strong societies and civil liberties. Yes, the U.S. has flaws, but what did Churchill say? “Democracy is the worst form of governmental….except for all the others.”
Sorry Dan, but if you are looking for a 100% perfect process execution rate and zero failure, then you should move CATO to China where they make sure their workers and engineers don’t lose anything, lest they lose their lives.
Your posting is an oxymoron, because in one sense, you are faulting the government for making an error, which promotes the underlying problem in the U.S. and elsewhere that we cannot take on any risk at all, which is also why the cops shut down the lemonade stand, because they don’t want to take any risk. It’s a losing game…and you help propagate it. Zero risk cultures create these problems, and the fear you instill in society ensures people demand zero risk solutions.
Yes, indeed, you do weep for your country, but what are your solutions? One of the reasons our country is in trouble is because all the right does is weep and gripe, but doesn’t actually offer any constructive, realistic ways forward.
As for Germany losing plans for their building, I am not sure what that has to do with fixing the U.S. If you travel to Germany (or ever leave the country) you would find their infrastructure, management practices, and balance sheets quite enviable by American standards. Instead of weeping about lost blueprints in some foreign country that has nothing to do with our crumbling economy and infrastructure, why don’t you highlight what governments like Germany are doing to maintain excellent infrastructure, a broad middle class, good education and health care, and lower personal debt to GDP per capita ratio?
We just underwent a decade of economic liberalization on an unprecedented scale. The American system is one of the least regulated in the world. Instead of poking our allies in the face and cherrypicking bad news from around the world, why don’t you write a blog entry on your plan for lifting the U.S. out of economic stagnation, consumer debt culture, and the required lowering of the entitlement across the board among all classes.
This blog entry is provocative, nothing more. Bad news can be found by anyone who knows how to work Google. Good solutions take more than the 2 minutes it took to churn out this chaff.
My dear Mr. Mitchell, i think this article is very well-written dwn., contrary to i encounter great efforts in deciphering your American slang. As i have just received a notice about the famous English opera singer Angela Gheorghiu,who is originated in Romania like we all are, in the end(!!), according to her voice had a fall, during a latest show in England, i remember what i’ve already written down today on my AMYCOMMUNICATIONS.COM. And also added more, into the Amycommunications on blogspot.com. Also, smb. from Barack Obama & t.democrats had sent me instantaneously onto my Facebook account, some news regarding the American women in sports. In Foreign Policy magazine, it’s also a topic describing the reality men are worldwide and in every single place while they also eliminated the women in the high and governamental public life. Well, in Romania, there are only the prostitues and their families to rule us, while i also have no option but dreaming to a prince whose name starts with A. and making policy and counseling online, without any chance for ever being paied for. As the rest of, in the Government and more, are.
In the end, as a diplomat, it comes obvious the ethnocentrism and individualism of each country and continent is ruling the world. That, withing this fight btwn, the prides, it will only be us to be in loses and deep pain. Of course i could only think to myself while i’ve been and still am the most discriminated of all, still, it’s hard not to remember the real ethics and balance in the legislation for the human rights, you know i love, together with my old fashioned Roman Catholicism, is gone. It had disappeared since many years, only because this multiculturalism & different levels in the developements in mind, i prefer the North EU more than your U.S. nowadays, with its Russia and also the Ukraine. Thank you.
I don’t believe it’s accurate to say the stand was shut down because “the GIRLS ‘didn’t know how the lemonade was made'”. The story says the COPS didn’t know enough about how it was made. The girls could have given the Barney Fifes book, chapter and verse on the recipe but if it didn’t come from a government approved, pre-made mix or they didn’t personally witness it being prepared then they’ll say they didn’t know how it was made.