Dr. Dov S. Zakheim is a vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton where he is a leader in the firm’s global defense business, working with U.S. Combatant Commanders and allied[…]
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Zakheim talks about the difficulty of keeping qualified people interested in government.
Dov Zakheim: They get jaded. I’ve seen all too many come in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, 24, 25, 28, 30. And then they just get worn down. And so by the time they’re 40, they’re thinking about the pension that they could qualify for when they’re 55. You have a lot of dedicated public servants, but you have a lot of these others. And the trick is to give them something meaningful to do. It may . . . I personally think our government’s still too big. It may mean getting rid of maybe 25% of our bureaucrats; but the other 75% have to be given something meaningful. They don’t all have that.
Recorded on: 7/2/07
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