OK! I am about ready to do my own Stimulus Plan! I will give the federal government some money, but will hold them accountable for their spending like they want to do with businesses. (Even though I have to see that happen like they say!)
Recently, because of my position at the University where I work with employers and jobs for students/alumni, I received a telephone call from the U.S. Census Bureau. They wanted to come and visit with me. So we set up a time for the gentleman (if you can call him that!) to drive across the State to visit with me for about 30 minutes. He was interested in hiring our students for part-time and summer positions that would pay $12 - $14 hr. Sweet! I think that might work for our students was my first thought!
We set up a date and I scheduled a conference room in our newly constructed Student Center. Plus they needed another classroom on campus. I advertised around campus and let the students know they were coming. Then the day of the event came. I had signs up and they were supposed to be on campus between 11:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Several days prior I had another gentleman (loosely used term!) show up at my doorstep and wanting to know where this "Big Event" was going to be held? I asked him who he was since he didn't show me any I.D. nor introduce himself and I mentioned that I had sent all of the parking regulations, a campus map, and directions to our building to the main contact person.
I suggested this man get in touch with that contact person. His response was, "He never tells us nothin!!!!! I don't know squat!" I looked at him and thought to myself, I have already spent too much time with these idiots who work for our federal government. As a taxpayer, I had more important things to do than to watch federal bureaucrats working. I am sure they make more money than I do and yet have much less education than I do!
So I filled in this man and gave him a tour of where they would conduct their interviews, where to park and where they could get food, etc.! (45 minutes of wasted time!).
Then the day of the "Big Event" finally came. I got a call from Paula (a close sister and friend) at the switchboard/main reception desk upstairs telling me that there were people sitting in the lounge area. They had shown up around 8:00 in the morning! Gee, talk about not having much to do. I guess they could be a census taker!!!!! So I came upstairs and talked with them and informed them that the "Big Event" didn't start until 11:00 a.m. One lady looked at me in terror and said, "Well the newspaper said 8:00 a.m.!" I responded with, "The newspaper? It was in the newspaper?" I soon learned that these governmental bozos had invited the entire city of Sioux Falls, SD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, I finally had it figured out! USF was a sucker! We were offering them "FREE RENT!!!!!" So I had my graduate student and staff checking on the situation. There were all kinds of unemployed "weird" people all over the campus and Union!!!! (Yes, I know not all unemployed people are weird.) What had started as a recruitment visit to hire our students had turned into a reunion of unemployed people of Sioux Falls! It reminded me of having a toilet overflowing and then someone flushes it again! I just couldn't stop it.
In the afternoon I received a telephone call from Paula, the Telephone Operator/Receptionist saying, "It is nuts up here. Lines of people are out the door! Is there someone down there who could help control traffic up here?" I immediately asked Aimee, my Graduate Assistant if she could go upstairs and help out. I had appointments with students waiting to see me.
Sometime later Aimee returned with a horror look on her face. "They're nuts Markus! The gal from the government is using the Sioux Falls map to determine where people live. She isn't even from Sioux Falls! She is lost! I was helping her find addresses. It was crazy!" Of course, I thanked Aimee and proceeded to buy her a soda from Java City!
Several days later I got a note from the federal employee in Rapid City who I never got to see the day they were on campus thanking me and Paula for our work. Poor Aimee did a chunk of work and didn't even get mentioned!
So, today after I had somewhat recovered from this governmental idiot game I received a telephone call from another governmental official. He wanted to know if we might have several classrooms or conference rooms available for them to use for training on our campus. I told him that our classrooms are used continuously and that we even have a 2-week student teacher class that is renting space off-campus. I suggested some other locations in Sioux Falls and then there was silence. The man said, "Oh the government doesn't pay for renting a room to train people!" "WHAT? I replied. You've got to be kidding me? You are just looking for a place that will give you free rent! Sir, we are a private university, not a rental agency!" I had all I could do to keep from hanging up on him.
In reflecting on that call and the entire issue with the Census Bureau I thought of all of the governmental waste we all see as taxpayers and then the Census Bureau can't even rent a room for training employees. An interesting side note is that one of my colleagues is employed at USF through a federal grant. She is gone this week with 3 other USF employees (required by the grant) in Hawaii for training! Now nothing against my fellow employees, but what a waste of governmental money! Could it be the feds wanted to get a vacation while doing the training???
I'm going to e-mail my congress people and suggest they enact a law that in the future instead of calling it federal spending or federal dollars that should be required to call it, "Taxpayers Dollars!" Something locally (just as bad as Washington DC), our State and the Feds need reality. We all have to meet out home budgets, either get on board or stay home!!!!!!
I now get to do my taxes and am sure we will have to take an additional $400 - $500 from our savings account to pay our high taxes so we can deal with idiots like the U.S. Census Bureau! I will keep you posted....
Markus
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