[jbooth]

Well, it's not hard to convince me that large bureaucratic organizations turn into a mess.

But the same thing happens in private industry, too. Constantly. And nobody would ever label a private bureaucratic mess as "there to provide jobs first and turn a profit second". That was my bone of contention with your post, you're mistaking generic incompetence for something more perverse.

[gaius]

Mmm, but corporations frequently correct for that by downsizing. Governments do it very, very rarely.

The PCS union picketed Downing Street over proposals to reduce their redundancy package from 3 years salary to 2...