Two restaurants have complained lately about the enforcement of Lewiston city regulations. Cowbell Grille & Tap decamped from downtown (to Yarmouth), and DaVinci’s Eatery closed for nine days because of a sanitation complaint. The owners mentioned the obstacles of dealing with city bureaucrats.
Sometimes in this job, I have a kernel of a column idea that doesn’t pan out. But other times, I begin looking into a topic and find a problem so massive that I can’t believe I’ve ever written about anything else. This latter experience happened as I looked into the growing bureaucratization of American life. It’s not only that growing bureaucracies cost a lot of money; they also enervate American society. They redistribute power from workers to rule makers, and in so doing sap initiative, discretion, creativity and drive.
Columbia University professor Mark Lilla, a perspicacious liberal critic of the contemporary right and left, has an essay in the latest issue of Liberties ..