You apply to the White House for a staff job and you make it to the final interview. And the final interview is just one question: How much money would we have to pay you to put a puppy in the microwave and press start? post 
The White House is a place where impossible choices are made every day. Finite resources, time, money, manpower. Clean up an oil spill or block an oil pipeline? Money for rural schools or urban?
Someone will always get the short end of the stick, even when everyone working has the best of intentions. If you can't make peace with that go work for the Sierra Club.
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The author recalls a college class where the TA had been in the Clinton era White House. The whole story is illuminating, even with this spoiler.