Not surprisingly, government productivity stinks relative to private-sector productivity.

Before getting into the numbers, let's go on a quick tour of some locales, starting with my hometown of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Scottsdale is the best-run city I've ever lived in, but my bases of comparison are St. Louis, Chicago, and various cities in New Jersey—locales where union featherbedding and political corruption are reflected in bloated government, high taxes, potholed roads, decrepit infrastructure, and huge unfunded liabilities for public pension plans.

Particularly telling is the stunning amount of trash and litter strewn alongside roadsides in the Garden State, a result of the lousy work ethic and poor productivity of the state's government workers.  If mobsters wanted to ditch a body where it would never be found, they could just put it in a trash bag and throw it on the side of a New Jersey road, amidst all the other bags of trash that are never picked up.  No doubt, Jimmy Hoffa's body has mummified alongside some road in the Garden State.