Red tape vs. Green Tape: "Public organizations are stereotyped for being purveyors of bad rules. A Washington Post cartoon from 2009 depicts dozens of tangled stoplights suspended over a street. Interspersed among the stoplights are signs that read 'Rules of the Road,' 'Wall Street,' and 'One Way.' Two men in hardhats look up at the stoplights. One comments, 'What we need here is more rules.' A lighted billboard to their left reads: 'Big Government at Work.'
The cartoon speaks volumes to how American society perceives public sector rules: voluminous, ineffective, excessively restrictive, and self-perpetuating. No doubt these adjectives accurately describe some public sector rules."