You know that our government's answer to any problem is to attach a label. Just look at your next bottle of beer, wine or stuffed pillow.

The latest news item is a complaint by the association of blind people, that their constituents have a hard time hearing those Hybrid Cars on the road, and are in danger of being overrun.

I like to help our hard working government staff with this suggested label to be attached to every hybrid car:
"Open all windows and turn your radio to full volume when driving!"

No doubt, you yourself can help your government too, and give us a helpful label suggestion.

Why should the blind people even care? They should really only be crossing the road in places like traffic lights and zebra crossings anyway. Cars are required to stop at zebra crossings and traffic lights have a tone when it is safe to cross.

yah, the noise is there for the deaf, the light for the blind.

Anything the government "produces" (iow, makes available internally or externally in its organisations) should carry a label mentioning the exact cost in tax money of the item.
This should extend from sachets of coffee creamer in the canteen to vehicles and buildings.

Why?

to install some sense of what the government is actually spending on things into its own staff.
They spend tax money like water as it is, not caring for the cost of things. The $10.000 cupholder story from the USAF may have been made up, but the phenomenon is real.
I've spent some time working for a government department myself (as an outside contractor) and we (all the contractors) were amazed at the terrible waste going on.
Things being bought just to get rid of money, then stored somewhere until depreciated before being disposed of. Things being thrown away that were perfectly usable, things being purchased for no reason whatsoever, purchases made to the highest bidder on the premise that the most expensive must automatically be the best, etc. etc. etc.

Just one example I heard from a coworker: late one year the organisation noted they would run a surplus of some €100.000.
To prevent their budget from being cut by that amount for the next year they ordered for €200.000 (to create a deficit and thus a budget increase...) in brand new computer equipment they didn't need.
That equipment was never put to use (not even to replace existing older equipment, as that would have defeated the purpose of the exercise (instead on the budget for the next year another several hundred thousand in identical equipment was budgetted), but stored in the original shrinkwrap and boxes in a basement.
3 years later (the time for depreciation of computers) the computers, still in their packing material, never used, were sent to a garbage incinerator (computer equipment can't be dumped or resold for security reasons, never mind it had never been used).

Things like that happen every year in almost every government department around the world.
And to the people working there (well, most of them) it's perfectly normal, the way things are supposed to work.

Interesting story jwenting, so what kind of government label should be attached to each government purchase order (or employee) to prevent this waste?

That sort of thing is quite bad i agree but usually spending all your budget so that they don't cut it is common practice in almost ever organisation. They tend to use the things they buy with this surplus. w

Goernment labels -hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm - how about one for each congressional person who has the golden fleece program???????? What would it say?

How about "Licensed to steal!"

Just like we should attach a label "Licensed to Kill!" to every Blackwater guard or one of those Australian guards.

What Australian Guards?