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From: ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: The four laws of bureaucracy
Message-ID: <4941@alice.uUCp>
Date: Wed, 5-Feb-86 18:12:16 EST
Article-I.D.: alice.4941
Posted: Wed Feb  5 18:12:16 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Feb-86 21:27:05 EST
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 19

I have noticed the following things that very large organizations
(such as Federal agencies) seem to have in common:

	1. Nothing is ever permanent

	2. Nothing is ever temporary

	3. The older a bureaucracy is, the less its actual
	   activities have anything in common with its stated purpose

	4. Paperwork violations are viewed with a severity out
	   of all proportion to their actual effect.

Anyone care to propose others?

(As an example of #2, I understand that England once established
a civil service position whose holder was to watch the English Channel
and ring a bell if Napoleon was coming.  They finally abolished the
post in 1945.)