What if?

He sits at his desk and finishes the final touches on the department update, the update no-one needs or is going to read. It’s taken most of the day, just like he had planned the day before. Killing time is his real job. His official title is “Director of Accounts”. It's a made up position; One to protect the ongoing yearly budget allocation. He is there to enhance the image of what it takes to get things done. What does he care as long as he gets paid. The “job” puts food on his family's table, and as long as he shows up, puts in a full day and seems busy, all's right with the world. Well if he's honest with himself, and he is sometimes, he knows they are fleecing the good taxpayers for everything they can. Guilt had long since been abandoned though. The “everyone does it” culture is everywhere. If they don't take the allocation, another department will, so it might as well be them. He closes the spreadsheet and opens a browser to the Office Chair shopping section. Another job to get done before he heads home. “I like that leather one.”

This description is purely fictional, but every bit of it has actually happened. On the hopeful side, there does exist those individuals who can swim against the flow and somehow be productive in environments like this, but they are few and far between.

What if?

What if the taxpayer had direct control over who received the pool of tax revenue? What if those receiving the funding was based fully on real things being accomplished? What if we had direct access to know exactly how money was being spent? What if others could compete for the pool of revenue base on their actual accomplishments? Those are dangerous questions to be asking. Those questions are not legitimate, nor should they be allowable. No, our public servants do a great job administering the governance of the people, and don't you forget it.

What if?

What if others posted fictitious but factual stories and asked similar questions and tagged them #what-if?