Efficiency is better left to business

Friday, February 26, 2010

To the Editor:

Jim Bender’s letter of Feb. 19 carried the usual New Hampshire nostrums, but one little tidbit struck me: “...principles of ... highly efficient public institutions.” Sounds good.

In business, efficiency is good.

But government is not business. This reminded me of what my first boss, Martin Deutsch (b. 1917, Vienna – d. 2002, Cambridge) said in the 1960s: “You don’t want an efficient government. The Nazis were efficient.”

Robert DiGrazia

Hollis