Chapter 72 Question 064

Why do bureaucrats like to use vague sentences? (Alfred Kahn) Alfred.Kahn (Alfred Kahn) is a former professor of economics at Cornell University. In 1977, Jimmy.President Carter elected him chairman of the Civil Aviation Commission.The Civil Aviation Commission (now defunct) was the federal agency that at the time regulated tariffs and routes for the civil aviation industry.Kahn's job was to deregulate the civil aviation industry and dissolve the agency. After arriving in Washington, he was surprised to find that most of the control orders issued by the judicial staff of the Civil Aviation Commission were incomprehensible.Similar sentences can be seen everywhere:

Holders of CAAC certificates are specially authorized to continue to regularly use the designated locations at the airport that the holders have used before the expiration date of the certificate.Under the premise of complying with the relevant procedures previously announced by the Commission, in addition to enjoying the services specified above, holders can also use designated locations at any airport when it is convenient. In Kahn's first memo to his judicial assistant, Kahn requested that he reject any documents that were not written in plain English.Please read the file you wrote to your partner and children. He told everyone that if they laughed, you had to rewrite it.But why are these files the way they are in the first place?

The task of the controller is to manage people.Often, this requires you to tell someone that there are things they would like to do but cannot.Most people are not happy to let other people's wishes come true.So it is understandable that bureaucrats want to diminish their negative role in the process.For example, regulators are reluctant to say: I ban United Airlines from operating between San Diego and San Antonio.They may feel more comfortable saying that, in our opinion, it is against the public interest for United Airlines to continue to provide air transportation between San Diego and San Antonio.

At that time, as soon as Kahn's order was promulgated, people all over the world who love to understand words applauded for this move.Soon, the language of the Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission's documents became clearer and more concise. Has this new mode of communication persisted?We have no way of knowing the real situation.But there is reason to suspect that, among bureaucrats, the use of plain language is not a stable equilibrium.If plain language becomes the norm, a bureaucrat may have a personal interest in writing a little more vaguely, thereby undermining his own responsibility to limit the behavior of others.If you change too much, you may get reprimanded by your boss, but if you make a small change, it will not attract attention.Other bureaucrats do the same for the same reason, so the standard of ambiguity changes.In this way, we can easily see that as time goes by, the completely incomprehensible bureaucratic language finally becomes the mainstream again.Unless there is another strong leader who demands plain language, the ominous language will persist.

The pursuit of personal interests in the market often benefits everyone. The pursuit of his own interest often enables him to promote the interest of the community more effectually than if he really intends to promote it. Individuals take action when the personal benefits outweigh the personal costs.