Posted on 07/03/2009 9:34:29 AM PDT by WayneLusvardi
The dominant explanation by mainstream newspaper journalists as to how California got into the budget mess it is in seems to center around a notion of stingy taxpayers (e.g., Prop 13, two-third vote rule to raise taxes, etc.). But such explanations omit any consideration of Parkinson's Law in the historical context of the huge windfall of taxes generated by the Real Estate Bubble.
British naval historian and former Civil Service employee C. Northcoate Parkinson wrote a classic book in 1957 titled Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress which humorously but seriously detailed how bureaucracies grow especially when their stated mission is declining. The historical context of Parkinson's book was the decline of the British Empire due to the abandonment of Colonialism.
Parkinson's Law of bureaucratic growth is:
"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
Parkinson devised two corollary laws: (1) "An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals" and (2) "Officials make work for each other." He notes in particular that the total of those employed inside a bureaucracy rose by 5-7% per year "irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done."
Below is data excerpted from Parkinson's book which shows how the number of dock workers and British Navy admirals grew despite a huge decline in the number of ships and sailors in the Royal Navy just before the Great Depression of the 1930's.
Admiralty Statistics – Great Britain from C. Northcoate Parkinson, Parkinson’s Law
Capital Ships in Commission 1914 - 62 1928 - 20 (minus 67%)
Officers and Men in Royal Navy 1914 - 146,000 1928 - 100,000 (minus 31.5%)
Dockyard Workers 1914 - 57,000 1928 - 62,439 (+9.5%)
Dockyard Officials and Clerks 1914 - 3,249 1928 - 4,558 (+40.3%)
Admiralty Officers 1914 - 2,000 1928 - 3,569 (+78.4%)
California Schools and Parkinson's Law
Unlike the British Navy, California's K-12 school population was growing during the years 1997 to 2007. However, California school bureaucracies grew by an estimated 3,369,870 seemingly unnecessary personnel over the same time period.
Let's must measure the growth in the number of K-12 new school personnel hired between 1997 to 2007 relative to the number of new K-12 students in California.
Below I have recapitulated the total K-12 enrollment in California from 1997 to 2007, which indicates that total enrollment grew by 673,978 students reflect a growth rate of 12.0%.
And below I have also recapitulated the total K-12 Hispanic Enrollment in California from 1997 to 2007, which indicates that total Hispanic enrollment grew by 737,544 or 31.8%.
Also shown is the number and percent of White K-12 enrollment from 1997 to 2007. White K-12 enrollment went down from 2,219,426 to 1,790,573, a drop of 428,913; declining from 38.7% to 28.5% of all enrollments.What the data shows is a relative decline in White K-12 enrollment relative to the rise in Hispanic K-12 enrollment. White families were not being formed and/or were not bearing children or were not emigrating into California!!
The higher proportion of Hispanic students could be from either "legal" or "illegal" immigration or live births. The data can not be easily parsed to indicate which is the case.
The ratio of K-12 school employees to students in 2007 from above was one employee for every 12.92 K-12 students (5,612,965/434,503 = 12.92)
The ratio of K-12 employees to students in 1997 was 1 student for every 7.75 students (973,978/125,743 = 7.75).
So California hired 5 more school personnel per student in the 10 year period from 1997 to 2007, reflecting about 3,369,890 additional school personnel. K-12 new school personnel went up by 28.9% from 1997 to 2007 while total enrollment grew only 12.0%.
Total California K-12 Enrollment
Total K-12 Enrollment 2007 6,286,943 (+12.0%) 1997 5,612,965
Total K-12 Hispanic Enrollment 2007 3,056,616 (48.7% of total)(+31.8% growth) 1997 2,319,072 (40.5% of total)
Total K-12 White Enrollment 2007 - 1,790,573 (28.5% of total)(-10.2% drop) 1997 - 2,219,426 (38.7% of total)
Source: State of California Dept. of Education websit
The California State Legislature is largely made up of liberal zombie sheep, libtards, environmental nuts, homos, union lobbyists and other radical far left nutjobs.
In California’s case, work expands to exceed the time available to complete it. Also, budgets expand to exceed the funds available.
This suggests California’s Law: Government budgets expand to fill the economic Bubbles which government created.
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