I now look back with some chagrin at my arrival back in the Northwest after some years working in and for governments in other states.I was a Bureaucrat.

At first it was bliss here in Olympia,surrounded by bureaucrats and politicians running around with glazed eyes spending OPM. My kind of people.

Then came the terrible realization that the 20% cut in family income we suffered because of our move, was precisely the 20% I used to pay for our NEEDS. The other 80% was of course budgeted for my WANTS.

I was faced with the fact that I could not pay for my NEEDS like food, shelter,clothing,medical care and the like with the loss of the 20% of income I had budgeted for NEEDS.

Of course my wants;the vegas trips,the expensive vacations,give aways to my non-working relatives,grafitti artists etc. were fully funded with the remaining 80%.

I was whining and bewailing my fate when a kindly old neighbor asked what was wrong. I explained my terrible dilemma;that my income cut of 20% was going to cause me to lose my home,and leave my family in the streets.

The kindly old gent then whispered the words in my ear that were to change my life. "Downsize the WANTS to fund the NEEDS,Reallocate and Reprioritize."

Suddenly, it was as if the bureaucratic fog that had clouded my mind had been lifted. I no longer had to be a slave to my addiction to WANTS over NEEDS.

Fiscal sanity returned.

And, what do you think I did when that wise old fella asked me to sign the petition for i-695? I signed,grateful for the chance to relieve the polit/bureaus of access to at least some of OPM and force them into rehab.

Ricardo

-- Ricardo (ricardoxxx@home.com), October 14, 1999

Answers

Yes, your piece on government's attitude toward Wants vs. Needs is quite accurate. The mindset of government, (at all levels), is that you need more-and-more government just to live; That government will take care of you and tend to more-and-more of your personal needs. I, too, was in government many years ago; I experienced the hipocracy of bureaucrats and politicians; I left and never looked back again. I've been in the commercial marketplace since and have had my understanding eyes opened, so to speak. The passage of I-695 is but just another of the many battles that citizens will wage with the government mindset. This battle is ongoing and from generation-to-generation without ceasing. I-695 is an excellent step, along with 601, that will require continued intervention by the citizens through the direct-initiative process, well out into the future, to keep our government in check.

On to Victory,

Richard Henderson

-- Richard Henderson (grassroots3@earthlink.net), October 15, 1999.