Cornithaca County

“The Celebrated Breakfast Program . . .”

This story highlights how the focus of a government or charitable institution can switch from the welfare of the recipients to the welfare of the program itself. After all, the program is where the time and money, and reputations are committed. It’s an actual story of the effectiveness of a school breakfast program somewhere. [And maybe many-wheres.] • Programs and charities become vested with goodness; cloaking themselves with the same moral protections as the people that are supposed to be helping — the perfect environment for bureaucracy, inefficiency, and waste. • Our government and our institutions would be much more effective if they saw themselves as self-dissolving servants of our welfare; rather than enthroning themselves as administrators. • Modern technology may be used to reduce the paperwork, but not the work. It’s like inventing the internal combustion engine; and using it to circulate air among the galley slaves. • Why do we spend $100,000 to pay someone to distribute $1,000, when it could be done with a $10 chip?