Today I came across an interesting idea in World Out of Balance by Paul Laudicina. Yes, I’ve mentioned this book before. It’s been a while since last mentioned and that’s because I’m reading it slowly. This one I read while I Nordic Track in the morning, so I might do only about ten pages at a time, and some days I listen to the radio while working out. So progress in this book is slower than normal. But my reading strategy on this book is not because it is not interesting. Quite the contrary. Here’s one intriguing thought that came from my reading of this book.
From pages 148 to 149 Paul presents an interesting concept: that there will be an increase in activism because of the Baby Boom. He doesn’t say it in quite this way, but he does say that because of the aging of the U.S. population that there will be a decrease in the number of employees working for the American government. Paul hypothesizes, from the perspective of the publication year of 2005, that these retiring employees would likely not be replaced at a rate that would equal the attrition. The reason he gives is that government employment is not as attractive as that in the private sector, and that because of this handicap the attrition rate may exceed the replacement rate.
Of course, that viewpoint was from 2005, before the stuff hit the fan in Fall 2008. Currently, with government being one of the few employment sectors that is expanding its hiring, Paul’s theory may not be entirely sound. Yet, analyzing from a current perspective, there are valid take-aways that may be had from this line of reasoning. Paul’s theory relates to the quantity of government workers, but he says little to nothing about the quality. Having worked for the federal government at one time, I could say something about the quality of federal workers. But that’s material for a different post. For now, let’s extend Paul’s thinking into present circumstances.
Because the aging U.S. population will cause more and more employees to retire from the ranks of federal employment, there will be progressively fewer experienced workers to carry out the regulatory mandates set down by the feds. Right now, because of government’s mania to hire more workers, the issue isn’t so much about the quantity as it is about the quality, i.e., the experience factor.
So, my point is that due to the Baby Boom the quality of federal regulatory enforcement may likely decrease because less experienced employees would need to takeover for those with decades of experience in regulatory matters. And if there are fewer experienced regulators, then businesses might be less likely to adhere to federal regulations than if the feds were fully staffed with experienced regulators.
How does this problem create more activism? Well, when activists see this situation, and believe me they won’t miss this, there would likely be an increase in their efforts. Activists and NGOs would increase their efforts to
Continue reading Will the Baby Boom Create More Activism?
