Is it normal in small towns to stock the jobs in government and education with loyal cronies

[Baitball Blogger]

who were involved with pushing programs which undermined their own residential community?

I just find it odd how you can almost set your clock to it around here. When things get so apparently out of kilter, who's suppose to step in to clean up the graft?

[patrice]

1. "At Will" employment makes A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G possible, especially in fields exposed to liabilities

of any kind, say, for example, Elder Care.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

2. only if you consider Phoenix a small town.

[begin_within]

3. Or San Diego...

[Safetykitten]

19. Excellent example.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Small towns, big towns, counties...

states, federal.

Pretty much bidness as usual.

[FarCenter]

5. Yes

[Tom Ripley]

6. That was certainly the case in southern textile towns

[NNN0LHI]

7. I can only speak for Illinois but any government position here is a patronage job

Been that was for as long I can remember.

Have to be friends or related to someone to get these jobs here.

Don

[shcrane71]

8. Nepotism is alive and well *everywhere* including corporate America.

It's not just for public sector jobs.

[Herlong]

9. Yes

restating calmly, yes.

[LuckyLib]

10. Forget loyal cronies. In most small towns the jobs go to

relatives. And women's jobs, rather than being full time, will be "parceled out" to many women on a part-time basis. After doing some work in several small towns, I was astounded at how entrenched power brokers rewarded family members.

[WinkyDink]

11. In my small town, yes. (Agree with above post about relatives.)

[Baitball Blogger]

12. Dang. If it's that prevalent why are we so surprised that our country is so fucked up?

People, we have found the problem. And it is them!

[TheKentuckian]

13. I don't get the limit to small towns or the public sector. The private sector is at least as bad

and I tend to think worse as I think of the many worthless puppets of the well placed that I have had to make up for or the influx of "talent" that comes with high-mid to high personnel changes. They just drag their cronies along, create new higher level positions for them, and put them to the front of the line.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. When you've caught your town in a conspiracy and fraud that undermined your residential community,

it becomes a problem you cannot fix easily because they keep rewarding the people who know the community leader's secrets.

I think the feds should have stepped in a long time ago.

[Curmudgeoness]

15. Duh!!!!

We could never get anyone to "volunteer" for the unpaid positions on school boards here if there wasn't someone whose daughter/son/neice/nephew/friend/friend's dog was going to be graduating with an education degree and be looking for a job.

If you did a family tree of most government jobs in my community, you would find it incestual.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. How could this be a good thing?

People are getting jobs for all the wrong reasons.

[Curmudgeoness]

24. Oh, this is not a good thing.

Whenever (private businesses or in the public sector) you put people in jobs because of nepotism instead of the ability to do the best job, you will have problems. Incompetent or substandard employees will just drag you down. You see how so many people are saying this happens in their cities and towns---so why do you think that government is looked at as incompetent?

I wish it was possible to stop this, but I don't see it happening.

[Baitball Blogger]

25. The signs of cronyism are easy to spot.

It looks like endemic incompetence.

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. Almost everywhere. From Adairsville, GA to Portland, OR, this is how it has been and continues

to be. City, county, and state are notoriously hard to get into without a really good connection. The feds are better, but they frequently have such bizarre requirements and hiring practices that it makes little difference.

If you're a veteran and need a job, apply with the feds. You get substantial preferences right now and the only person that's going to beat you out is another vet with better quals.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. On the contrary. I think we have found the target for a fight for social justice .

How can we defend government, and say that Democrats are for government when the Republicans have been steadily taking it over with their cronies? Government, as we knew it, does not exist anymore. Not on a local or state level, anyway.

[Egalitarian Thug]

21. You asked if it was normal, and the answer to that question is yes.

Lack of targets is not the problem we have in the fight for social justice, they're everywhere all around us.

The system of political patronage has been an integral part of this nation since before it was a nation. Overcoming that requires that those with the deep roots in the community put a stop to it, and since they are the beneficiaries of it, it seems less than likely that they will change it without some very powerful motivation.

[Baitball Blogger]

22. Oh, there's a way to break it up, since it's these kind of networks which

create inequities in society which disadvantages minority groups. That's why the feds have to step in and fix the problem, especially when you can show that people that were involved in fraud and conspiracy never were held accountable for their crimes.

[Curmudgeoness]

26. This sword cuts both ways.

You suggest that the Repugs are taking over with their cronies, but in my area, it is the Dems who are in charge---and doing this same thing. This is not a Rep/Dem problem, it only depends on if you are on the side of the "winners" in your town as to how you look at it.

My town is all Dems, my state is all Reps, and neither of them are doing a very good job by using cronies instead of the best qualified.

[Baitball Blogger]

27. The proof is in the pudding.

Is the Democratic government promoting economic development programs that undermine the Association documents of the residential communities in the area, creating strife among the neighbors? If the answer is yes, then I would say they need to be targeted also.

However, I suspect that this economic development program concept that condones fraud and conspiracy to achieve its goals, is a primarily Republican affectation.

[FarCenter]

28. Municipal and county units tend to be either heavily Democrat or Republican

Whichever party is in charge implements essentially the same spoils system.

The more heavily a unit leans towards one party, the longer the party is in power, the more corrupt it is.

Occasionally there is a change in party or a major sting by the FBI, state prosecutor, etc., but those are rare. It has to get so blatant that they are passing large envelopes of 100s in diners.

[Baitball Blogger]

29. In Florida, especially Central Florida,

I think both parties are a concern. It's too incestual and that just won't work in a growing city.

[RB TexLa]

20. There are four groups of people you can give jobs to

Qualified Friends

Unqualified Friends

Qualified Enemies

Unqualified Enemies


If you look hard enough you'll never exhaust the first category.

[XemaSab]

23. It's certainly the case here in Redding, CA