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
Oh you take care of business but there are some out there who don't....Thank them...
ReplyDeleteCheers buddy,
Bobby
I really wish they'd either let go or actually FIND Jimmy Hoffa's body!
ReplyDeleteAnd that is just the tip of the iceberg I am sure. And the scumbags the regulations were passed to catch ignore them or pay off the inspectors to look the other way.
ReplyDeleteOr that probably never happens does it?
A bit off the subject, but I just learned that "Dumpster" is a registered trademark. All Dumpsters are trash receptacles but not all trash receptacles are Dumpsters. It's correct to capitalize the word Dumpster, just as you would Kleenex. Do we care about correctness? Me neither.
ReplyDeleteSteve...Hmmmm, I learned something new. Thanks. :)
ReplyDeleteJoe...Actually, in my 38+ years building homes I've never been solicited for a bribe, nor have I volunteered to pay one. Our system here is very much on the up-and-up. Isn't it that way everywhere? *wink*
Bug...He's gone. I just told you...he's in my Dumpster. ;)
Bobby...That's always the way it is: A few cause the problems, and the rest of us pay the price.
S
I used to have a sign at work, with a round target on it and the words "Bang head here."
ReplyDeleteYou need one of those signs.
Alternatively, go to my Facebook page and look at my cover picture (not the profile).
ReplyDeleteNot sayin' you should spray paint YOUR Dumpster...you'd probably get fined for it!
Good one, Scott, but I thought you had retired.
ReplyDelete