Bureaucrats exist for one reason and one reason only; they exist to suck money out of the economy that could have otherwise been put to productive use. For instance a bunch of bureaucrats decided that an umbrella is simply a mechanism to keep one’s self dry during a rain storm… unless you put it on the ground and sit under it, then your umbrella is a structure:
This evening, Seattle police notified the 70 or so hearty souls sleeping downtown that if they weren’t actually holding their umbrellas then they couldn’t lay or sit underneath them.
Because to the city, an unattended umbrella is technically a “structure.” And structures, like the tents that were taken down earlier in the week, aren’t allowed in city parks.
This type of absurd decision is similar to the one in Minneapolis that state you can seek shelter under a tarp during a rainstorm unless that tarp is tied to something or otherwise propped up, then it’s a structure. What’s most offensive about this decision though is that taxpayer money was used to pay these assholes while they debated this absolutely pointless topic.
Seriously, who the fuck even cares? I understand why many people don’t want tents being pitched in public areas but does it matter if somebody decides to sit under their umbrella? By Thor in Valhalla how have we allowed our society to degrade to such a point that we’re willing to pay some asshole in a suit large amounts of money to decide these minor and pointless things?
I wonder what it would cost to just send such people to nice little individual rooms, each one equipped with attractive furniture, a toady to reply “yes, your majesty” to his or her every articulated whim, an unlimited supply of Thorazine, and a sturdy lock to keep them from getting back out to resume bothering the rest of us.
Might be expensive. But it’d surely be cheaper than the present system, where we actually let them be in charge of stuff.
I’d start a collection to initiate this.