For Whom The Employee Works

We all pay taxes. The money goes to pay the salaries of government employees. It has been decided over time, by people that we and our parents have voted to represent us, that these federal jobs are needed to improve the common good. We are, in a sense, employers and every federal employee works for us. Their job is to seek the best solutions to maximize the common good.

Please present an argument if you disagree.

I read an article today from the NYTimes online. (You'll need to fill out a free registration form.)

Dozens of members of the Bush administration's domestic security team, assembled after the 2001 terrorist attacks, are now collecting bigger paychecks in different roles: working on behalf of companies that sell domestic security products, many directly to the federal agencies the officials once helped run.

At least 90 officials at the Department of Homeland Security or the White House Office of Homeland Security — including the department's former secretary, Tom Ridge; the former deputy secretary, Adm. James M. Loy; and the former under secretary, Asa Hutchinson — are executives, consultants or lobbyists for companies that collectively do billions of dollars' worth of domestic security business.

Are these people making decisions that are the best for the common good? The article makes a few points regarding the Department of Homeland Security:
1. The exodus of such a sizable share of an agency's senior management before the end of an administration has few modern parallels.
2. It is legal.
3. It is legal largely because of loopholes - "Perhaps the biggest loophole was created in late 2004 at the request of senior [DHS] officials, when the first big wave of departures began."

Who are these people in the Department of Homeland Security working for? "We, the people" or their own personal interests?

Employers should not accept this type of behavior from their employees.