"Robert A. Heinlein - Take back your Government" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

When Heinlein wrote, the typical professional politician was what was then
known as a political boss. Most local, district, and county party leaders were
unpaid volunteers. Professional political managers were distrusted. While
some state legislators and congressmen were returned to office year after
year, most were not, and those who were, though powerful through the
seniority system, were often the butts of political jokes - and were quite
aware that they could easily be turned out of office, either in a primary or a
general election. It was a government by amateurs in a true sense, in that
everyone had to live under the laws they passed. They worked hard, too.
Heinlein could (and does) complain that members of Congress, and of die
State Legislature, were underpaid and had too few perks of office; and offer
the opinion that the main reason people went to their city council, or state
capital, or Washington, and endured die hardships of public office, was
patriotism.
It was all true in those days. Some politicians might have been motivated
by greed, or a lust for power, but most thought of themselves as, and were
seen by their constituents to be, public servants, sacrificing some of their
productive years to the political process. Today things are different. However
the professional politicians see themselves, poll after poll shows that the
American people think they are a self-perpetuating elite motivated mostly by
the desire to retain power.
Since Heinlein wrote this book, most states have changed from a part-
time amateur legislature of citizens who approved laws they would have to
live with and make a living under, to full-time paid professionals who spend
most of their time in the state capital rather than in their home districts,
exempt themselves from the laws and regulations they impose on others,
and who, far from making a living under the laws they make, are paid by the
state and sometimes prevented by conflict-of-interest laws from outside work.
(A noted exception is, of course, lawyers, who have been allowed to retain
their partnerships in law firms even if the firm does business with the
government. They did that in Heinlein's day too.) Their idea of making a living
is not yours.
It's doubly true of the Congress of the United States, which has multiplied
its perks while invariably exempting itself from such laws as the Civil Rights
Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Wage/Hours Act, most of the
reporting laws, and nearly all federal regulations. Far from a largely citizen
body, the Congress has become a governing elite with high job security.
Since this book was written, Congress went from an assembly of the people
to an institution with 98 percent incumbency-a lower turnover than Britain's
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hereditary House of Lords. While private industry loses jobs, Congress
multiplies its staff: there are over 30,000 "Hill Rats," as congressional staff
are called in Washington. They serve 535 senators and representatives. Do
you have nearly 50 people to mind details and run errands for you? Each of
your legislators in Washington does, all paid with your taxes. Think about that
before you contemplate running for office. Each congressman commands a
political patronage machine that the old ward bosses would have envied.
Other things have changed. The budget has grown enormously.
Government (federal, state, and local) now spends nearly half the money
generated in this country. The national debt went from an irritation to an