>>>Except that effort is meaningless without opportunity.
>>>
>>>And opportunity is wasted without effort and ability.
>>
>>Right. Success requires all three. What I suspect you and Dmitry may be focused on is that effort is the only one of the three under your own control.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>Here is a big problem I see in the way the government works in this country (presently, at least). The nice salaries and very lucrative pension benefits, and health-care benefits make working for government a cushioned job. And people are striving to get these jobs. And the politicians, instead of filling the government jobs based on merit, give these jobs to friends, family, and political connections. With no responsibility and/or accountability. People rarely if ever get fired from government jobs. Unless they commit a crime and even then often can still continue collecting. Here in Mass I read almost weekly in the Globe (local newspaper) of corruption in the government. Relatives who have no qualifications get no-show jobs with big pay. And great pension benefits. Many cases like that. I am sure that Federal Government jobs work the same way.
>
>All this – jobs based on connections – remind me very much of the Soviet Union system. Over there you could not get a good job without a connection either. Funny thing is that both Russian and English use the same word “connection” for this type of employment.

Of course, the civil service doesn't work that way. It's only the folks at the top of agencies who get appointed, and thus give politicians the opportunity to bestow favors. Most government jobs today do not work that way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_civil_service

>But the bottom line is that the quality of what we get from the government is very bad. We probably get 10 cents on the dollar for what we pay into the government.

I think you're wrong about how much we get, but as voters, we get a say. If we don't like what we're getting, we can vote to change the leadership.

Tamar