Articles Expert View - Julie Meyer Fifty ways to spend all of our money
Fifty ways to spend all of our money |
| Tuesday, 15 September 2009 10:00 | |||
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There can be no doubt that public spending needs to be cut back. One way to do this will be to tackle waste and unnecessary spending in the public sector, which in my experience there is plenty of. The following anecdote brought this home to me. This past week I had lunch with a gentleman who works in a government agency. In another life, he founded a technology company. He mentioned that he has a girl who travels with him to all of his meetings taking notes so that he "knows what to do at the end of the day". Now this is a solid chap, but he is not so busy that he can't take notes himself; I'm sure he has had to do so in the past. And he is not so important that he shouldn't be seen to be taking notes and following up. I had to stop myself at lunch from saying something about the waste of having someone taking notes for him all day, paid for by the hapless taxpayer. Sure, it's only probably a £40,000 salary, but it's £40,000 that the government doesn't need to spend, and you can be sure, in this recession, that in the private sector he wouldn't have this luxury. So with apologies to Paul Simon, I had this dream last night about a conversation with Gordon Brown which has come out in song: "The problem is all inside your head," Brown said to the citizenry
Julie Meyer is CEO of Ariadne Capital and a BBC online Dragon. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
  
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Hits: 581 Comments (2)So true!
This is so true, but what can be actually done to stop it? The system is a power unto itself that just drains the taxpayer pot day in and day out. Maybe time for a march on Downing Street - a couple of million people should just about do it! If the general public could really experience what Julie and I see, in terms of public sector waste the country would grind to a halt with mass protest.
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September 15, 2009
Few would disagree
In fact even Gordon Brown today agreed - he must be reading your blog Julie! The key question is, of course, where do you cut it. The public sector doesn't have the option of an early exit. For instance, my job, helping students to start businesses, is entirely funded by the taxpayer in an optional central fund. As it is not core funded (ie not seen as being central to higher education) it is a prime candidate for cuts. Especially as it's difficult to prove that businesses started by students wouldn't have been started anyway. However, it only takes one of those business to hit the big time - paying millions back to the taxpayer - to pay for my job many times over.
Today I visited the corporate headquarters of a major bank (one of the ones still owned by the private sector). I was faced by a wall of 8 (yes, eight) very bored looking receptionists. I was able to help affirm one of their lives by asking for a visitor pass (they gave me an invalid one, thus helpfully generating additional work for a colleague later). This incident was given added value by the fact that literally minutes earlier I had tried to pay a cheque into the adjacent branch, only to find that they no longer employed cashiers, only machines which (very efficiently) returned my cheque to me every time I paid it in. I think the moral is - inefficiency is endemic in large organisations. Viva la entrepreneur...
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September 15, 2009
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