I'm not sure if there is an actual "First Rule of Bureaucracy", but if there is I'm sure it's something like, "Job security is directly proportional to the number of stupid new rules you can dream up."
We started another new custom home last week. We're to the point now of putting up the perimeter silt fence (to please the Federal bureaucrats at the EPA*) and bringing in the trash dumpster. Now we find that we must have yet another permit, this time to bring a dumpster onto our property, something we've been doing for years.
It seems this large Dallas-area suburb now wants us to declare what's going in the dumpster.
Me: "Uhh....trash, Sir!"
City Dumpster Police: "What kind of trash?"
Me: "Construction trash, Sir!"
City Dumpster Police: "Specifically, what kind of 'construction trash'?"
I'm so tempted to say, "Scrap lumber, plywood, roofing, cardboard boxes, Jimmy Hoffa's body, leaking barrels of toxic DDT, old bloody wound dressings from the illegal AIDS clinic next door....you know....the usual."
*Speaking of the parasites in Washington, did you know I have to pay a 3rd party inspector to come and check our "storm water runoff mitigation compliance" twice every month and within 24 hours of every 1/2" rain, at a cost of $75 per visit? (You can "self inspect", but they'll hang you if you're audited.)
This adds about $1,500 to the cost of every home I build, yet another example of why homes cost so much. IMO we have way too many people doing similar unproductive tasks that add absolutely nothing to our economy. They make a living, a very good living I might add, by leaching on to those who actually produce something of value.
Just sayin'.
S
