[Attocs]

What I find bizarre about this is that where I live, India, this seems more prevalent than anywhere else I have traveled in the world. Its as if the vestiges of British bureaucracy have left behind a middle class with such a sense of entitlement that they seem to have no problem with the obvious fact that their job is meaningless.

Apparently the official policy is that government employees cannot be fired so are simply given something, anything, to do until they retire - don't quote me on this.

The strange thing is that you have a non-english speaking, poorer, class beneath this (of around 600 million people) that simply MUST make an economic contribution in order to survive because no one will pay them anything unless their economic contribution is undeniable.....

[RougeFemme]

It's not just government employees. . .this also happens in private industry. . .especially in those companies that provide services to the government and have cost-plus contracts with the government.

[Attocs]

I know what you mean, have seen the same thing - I just wonder if it is a culture that started in govt? It surprises me for a country that is supposedly struggling to gather the resources to meet the needs of its less fortunate people that there is obviously a mountain of resources being supplied to those that are contributing very little economically but could actually contribute a lot given the motivation/opportunity/incentive

[RougeFemme]

I've worked on both sides of the government/contractor line and my gut feel says it's a culture that started in government, but I could be wrong, obviously. But since there are policy-makers and politicians who believe that one of the functions of government is to provide jobs, it makes sense that it would start on the government side. There would be little to no incentive to be more efficient since that would result in a loss of jobs. And then some of those inefficient processes and workflows become embedded in the contracts and so it goes.

[Attocs]

Government should provide jobs - so they simply pay people to do unproductive jobs rather than removing some of the hurdles to new business starts, lowering costs of compliance etc etc....gosh I love this country