[jackcosgrove]

The silliest part of this worldview among political people is that they themselves are usually just mediocre to above-average in their own specialization. What technologist dreams of working for the FCC? What business owner dreams of working for the Department of Commerce? Of the few parts of government that attract excellence, most are in the security services and legal system where there is no real competition from the private sector for talent because of a government monopoly on force. Where government competes with the private sector, the latter wins the talent war.

If your metric of status or intelligence is doing the least amount of work for the most payoff, then government probably is the best deal around. So I don't think that government officials necessarily think of us as morons, but more like rubes who are easily seduced by idealistic rhetoric. If you are completely cynical and just want to "get yours", then working for government is indeed a smart choice.

[trendia]

Not only are they mediocre in skill, but studies suggest politicians spend up to 60% of their time raising donations. That means they're developing skills in raising money, not designing legislation that benefits their constituency.

Further, expertise comes not just from the amount of time you spend on something but how much feedback you receive and how you respond to that feedback. Few, if any, legislators will measure the economic or social impact of their bills 1-5 years after it's enacted.

What you end up with is a lot of people who are convinced they're doing a whole lot of good, when in fact they're more or less pushing paper and making their donors happy.