You can find an interesting examination of the push for less government and what it really costs by listening to "What kind of country" on This American Life. It includes interviews with Grover Norquist and government official and private citizens in Trenton NJ and Colorado Springs CO.
My sense is that the anti-government, anti-tax rhetoric has gotten so out of hand that people don't look at the true cost of some of the measures. Supposedly by privatizing city services you can cut costs because the private company pays less to its employees. But is anybody counting the profit that the private company expects. People will be willing to pay $350 per year to have street lights turned back on but are unwilling to pay $200 to keep all city services running. Because a hotel has a smaller percent of its expenses in wages and benefits, doesn't mean that a city should have the same percent of its expenses in wages and benefits. Maybe if we compared a city to a software company, we would find that the city had a smaller percentage of its expenses in wages and benefits.
If you have time, I recommend listening to "What kind of country" to the end. I used the time to finally clean my desk.
