As bureaucrats in the US and elsewhere, are being required to work and justify their existence, they are upset. Welcome to the real world.
Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities; we didn’t have to produce anything! You’ve never been out of college! You don’t know what it’s like out there! I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results.
Professor Raymond Stantz, portrayed by Dan Aykroyd
Ghostbusters, 1984
As liberals and others scream as the Trump administration and Elon Musk, through the Department of Government Efficiency, work on shirking the federal work force, the usual suspects are screeching on how they are “critical” and “needed” in the Department of Redundancy Department. Sorry, if your only purpose is to ensure people are hired because of their race, sex, “gender,” “pronouns,” or other irrelevant crap, you really don’t need to be stealing any more oxygen at taxpayer expense. But are we the only ones going through this process.
I’ve read STRATFOR.COM since its founding in 1996. An online private intelligence publication, it’s a mainstay of intel nerds like me. Last week I caught an article on how Saudi Arabia is trying to transform its economy from overdependence on oil. Ambitious, to say the least. From the article (emphasis mine):
As the Finish Line Approaches, Saudi Arabia Dials Back Its Vision 2030 Ambitions
As it enters the final phase of its Vision 2030 economic transformation program, Saudi Arabia is increasingly likely to continue to scale back less viable megaprojects while focusing on successful reforms that have strengthened its diversification away from oil, though higher oil prices and improved regional security conditions could bring back an appetite for some of these aspirational projects.
With the finish line for Vision 2030 just five years away, Saudi Arabia is paring back its ambitious vision for its economic transformation program…disappointments aside, Saudi Arabia has also achieved notable breakthroughs in diversifying away from its oil sector. In 2023, according to Saudi statistics, nonoil revenue contributed 50% of the country’s gross domestic product for the first time in the kingdom’s history, driven by private sector investment, arts and entertainment, tourism, social services, health care, and education. In 2024, as oil activities declined 4.5%, nonoil GDP grew 4.3% to help keep Saudi GDP growing. Saudi women have also entered the workforce at increasingly higher rates as the country pushes its citizens out of government jobs and into the private sector, reaching 36% at the end of 2024, an all-time high.
- Vision 2030 incorporates both aspirational qualitative goals and quantitative measures to outline its economic transformation program. Saudi Arabia wants 50% of the country’s GDP to come from nonoil revenue by 2030, increase the private sector’s contribution to GDP to 65%, raise foreign direct investment’s contribution to GDP to 25.7%, boost women’s participation in the workforce to 30%, enhance public investment fund assets to $1.86 trillion, and rank the Saudi economy as the 15th largest in the world, among other objectives…
Beyond megaprojects, Saudi Arabia has also faced challenges in reducing unemployment and attracting foreign investment. The kingdom aims to achieve a 7% unemployment rate for Saudi citizens by 2030 but has struggled to maintain rates below 8% for years. (The rate for Q3 2024 stood at 7.8% for nationals, the most recent data available). The problem persists partly due to high youth unemployment rates, as Saudi citizens often resist integration into the private sector, where work conditions can be more demanding and benefits less generous than those traditionally offered in the public sector. Education is another issue since Saudi students continue to underperform compared to their peers in developed countries on international assessments like the PISA exam, and Saudi employers complain about the lack of necessary skill sets among citizens for private sector roles…
Large scale transformation for a country that’s been the leader of OPEC for decades, which attempted to throttle the oil market to destroy the fracking drilling boom of the early 2010s, and held a special relationship with the West. Based on the fact they could control one of the most critical product’s for the world’s economy, crude oil.
But I found the reference to the resistance to private sector employment enlightening. For generations young Saudi’s would study (often overseas), obtain Islamic Studies degrees, then return to guaranteed lifetime employment in the government, paid for by oil sales. The kingdom is discovering all good things must end.
While Saudi Arabia has over 200 years of known reserves at present, OPEC, particularly Saudi Arabia, can no longer set market price at command. With the fracking revolution, the US has again become the largest producer of crude oil, averaging 12.9 million barrels a day, while the Saudi’s have dropped to 9.5 million barrels a day. Seeing his country could not rely only on oil (a mistake made by many US states in the 1970s), the government, led by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, began the slow, painful process of weaning the kingdom off its dependence on energy.
Now I found the comments in the STRATFOR article on young Saudi’s resistance to private sector employment, and the remarks of employers enlightening. Young people, believing they are entitled to lifetime make-work jobs, are opposed to being brought into the private sector where “They expect results.” The employers also expect their employees to function for the good of the company, serving their customers well.
Have we ever seen an issue like this before?
Federal workers are resistant to returning to the office, giving all types of excuses, such as the expense of needing childcare, or the time and cost of commuting. One VA bureaucrat was worried he would disclose “private information” because he would be in a “cubicle farm” where people are close. You mean like you worked for decades before COVID?
DOGE sent out a tasking email requiring the recipients to respond with five things they did in the previous week. One per day, and there was outrage and pushback on that. I was a police patrol officer for 15 years and every night I would submit a work card to my sergeant showing what I had done in the previous eight hours. How many calls for service, reports, self-initiated investigations, other items. Rarely did I put in less than ten, my record for one shift was over thirty. I don’t think asking for one a day is too much.
A close friend, an information technology specialist (IT) at a state agency laughed at the need for five items. “Mike, we got sent out a memo asking for what we did last week. My response was over 300 items (calls for service, direct support of other state agencies, etc.).
Discussed this with another close friend, 59 years old, another IT specialist. Since he started his “real” career, he’s been a manager and sales associate at Radio Shack, IT at a hospital, IT at a law firm, IT at a home construction company, IT at a warehouse, IT at an energy company, and currently IT at a hospital in New Orleans. Seven major jobs in 30 years. As he said, “These were totally market results driven decisions. I had highest performance reviews, but when conditions changed, they had to decide. Just roll with the punches, and you will come out. America has always been that way for me and my family.”
The point of this? We’re not the only nation needing to adjust its workforce to new conditions. Saudi Arabia needs more STEM graduates, doctors, nurses, businesspeople, not Islamic Studies majors. These people need to work in the private sector to ensure a strong economy for the kingdom.
America needs more STEM graduates, accountants, doctors, nurses. We do not need any more victim’s studies majors with classes in Taylor Swift, or other worthless degrees to feed into the government workforce. We need to bring people into the private sector for employment, paying taxes into the treasury and generating wealth for Americans. We need fewer bureaucrats pushing paper and interfering with the people who make this nation work.
We also don’t need any more “public servants” who have never worked the cash register at a store, don’t know how to make a payroll, or have no understanding of the purpose of a business: To make money for the owner, either directly (the proprietor of a local construction business) or the stockholders (major corporation). You don’t understand that you don’t understand how a capitalist economy works and have no business being in charge of our government.
My friend with the multiple IT jobs migrated from India in the 1970s, and his family is the America success story. We need a lot more like him, more people wanting to work, lie the American dream and contribute No more DEI specialists or other oxygen thieves.
Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.
Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers.
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