In light of the Madison City Commission and LAIC's action Monday night, I'm working on a post about downtown and retail development. But in my reading, I find this gem of a quote in Nathan Johnson's extended article from Yankton City Commissioner David Knoff. Yankton's leaders were discussing whether the city should hire an events coordinator. Commissioner Charlie Gross noted that when the local Chamber of Commerce had trouble fielding volunteers to run the Fourth of July celebration, the city took over the fireworks display. Commissioner Gross suggested that the lack of volunteers signaled that the community wasn't really interested in having a big Fourth of July event.
Commissioner David Knoff responded that dropping Fourth of July fireworks from the city's plate would lead to mass chaos:
If you don't think it's that important of a deal to the community because the Chamber doesn't want to do it, then let's quit doing it. Then (the public will) come in here, set us all on fire, shoot us and do everything else. They want the event. They just don't want to step up to it. They want to go to it [Commissioner David Knoff, quoted by Nathan Johnson, "Does Yankton Need An Events Coordinator Or A Retail Development Position? Or Both???" An Inland Voyage, August 15, 2012].
Conservatives should be pleased to have a government official like Knoff who views the public with the proper level of respect... or mortal terror.
Knoff then proceeded to make the point that, for better or worse, paying taxes and asking government to handle a project is easier than volunteering:
People volunteer their time, but it's easy to get burned out because nine people end up carrying the load.... I don't think it's a function of people not wanting the events. I think ... taxpayers are willing to let their tax dollars go toward making the events happen. They would rather pay taxes and have the city do the event than do it themselves ... Volunteers do wonderful things, but to take it to another level to actually get quality concerts and events, I think Riverboat Days is the exception to the rule. I think most of the time, you're going to have to provide assistance to make that happen [Knoff, in Johnson, 2012.08.15]
I'm curious to hear my comment section sociologists analyze this question: does increased government action cause a decline in volunteerism? Or is increased government action a natural response of a community seeking a more efficient way of producing community goods?
Update 11:52 MDT: The Displaced Plainsman reads Commissioner Knoff and hears Bill Murray. Excellent!
--does increased government action cause a decline in volunteerism?
Yes. We see it all the time. We don't need food pantries because of gov't programs. We don't need CRS doing adoptions because state gov't will do it. On and on.
Helping others is being replaced by "let the gov't do it", and Obama is the cheerleader for this radical chnage.
CRS = CSS
South Dakota leads the nation with women working jobs outside the home. We also lead the nation with people working more than two jobs. Perhaps another cause is that people are too busy working to then spend 20 hours a week at church, coaching or running a fireworks show.
Also, volunteering doen't pay well. LOL
Do a fundraiser for a child's athletic team and raise $600 for 24 children to share or have every parent pre-fund the team at $100 per kid thus raising $2400? I would prefer to write a check.
The esteemed counciler makes an excellent point.
Jeff, you're right on the money: in the 50's, women were the primary volunteers for everything. Now we all work outside the home and then come home and go on the night shift. Hubby's working overtime or two jobs. The retirees are all working part-time to full-time at McDonald's or Wal-Mart, and what volunteer time they have goes mostly to church. Anything else - write a check. And the cash amount of that gets smaller every year.
Jeff, Thad, and Eve all make a good point: with more people working more hours, the spare time for volunteering is shrinking. Is a shift from volunteerism to simpler monetary support harmful to community?