Posted 6:56 PM by Floyd

The Mercury News is always trying to help -- brainwash us into being liberals, that is. Here is a recent blurb on the editorial web page:

BIG GOVERNMENT?

• In 2001, California ranked 44th in the nation in numbers of government workers, both state and local, per 10,000 people.
  
• For state workers alone, California ranked 49th, with 107 employees per 10,000 people.
  

Sources: Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto and the Legislative Analyst's Office

Now as a citizen that is the exactly the sort of statistic that I am interested in. Not, say, the tax revenue per capita, which is the sixth highest in the nation. Or the tax climate, ranked 49th worst in the nation by the Tax Foundation. It's the number of government workers that is important because if that number is too high, California might start sticking workers in my closet.

Here's some other statistics that the Merc could publish to show us how lucky we are to live in a small-government state:

• Number of employees per mile of Pacific ocean coastline.
  
• Total monies budgeted for snowplows.
  
• State spending per capita (counting only citizens who have had plastic surgery).
  

(What would it be like, I wonder, to read a newspaper that explained the news rather than obscuring it?)