Letter: Civil service

To the editor:

I found myself horrified, but not surprised, by the announcement in Thursday’s Journal-World that our secretary of Administration is preparing to “streamline” civil service protection in order to bring them in line with those of the private sectors.

To my knowledge, the civil service first emerged in Korea as a means of employing competent people who could run an empire. Corruption in the ranks is recognized when the civil service selection and job execution is blocked due to political meddling. The key to the idea is that people can do their jobs, do them well, and not be subject to politics outside the office. For large portions of the population, this describes the sort of job they’d prefer to have, and increasingly civil service jobs are the only place where you can find these conditions. Once “streamlined” to resemble the private sector, there is no reason someone smart or competent would ever want such a job in Kansas.

The reason presidents and governors talk about the middle class so much is that it is both the reflection and cause of a strong economy: They can buy quality goods and small luxuries that drive other well-paid jobs. The middle class depends on jobs that are relatively well-paid, and free of politics, with overtime and workplace protections to let them do their job. An administration should never aspire to being like Walmart in its workplace policies.