Government at Work 
 
   A guy stopped at a local gas station and, after filling his tank, he 
paid the bill and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to drink his 
soda and watched a couple of men working along the roadside. One man 
would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on. The other man 
came along behind him and filled in the hole. While one was digging a 
new hole, the other was 25 feet behind filling in the hole. The men 
worked right past the guy with the soft drink and went on down the road. 
"I can't stand this! Hold it, hold it. Can you tell me what's going on 
here with all this digging and refilling?" "Well, we work for the 
government and we're just doing our job," one of the men said. "But one 
of you is digging a hole and the other fills it up you're not 
accomplishing anything. Aren't you wasting the taxpayers' money?" "You 
don't understand, mister," one of the men said, leaning on his shovel 
and wiping his brow. "Normally there are three of us: me, Elmer and 
Leroy. I dig the hole, Elmer sticks in the tree and Leroy, here, puts 
the dirt back. Elmer's job's been cut ... so now it's just me and 
Leroy."