I have a thoughts about DOGE and "government efficiency." But a lot of it boils down to this idea: Fifty percent of government spending works. The problem is that no one knows which fifty percent. www.thebulwark.com/p/government... - ThreadSky

jvl.bsky.social • 13 days ago

I have a thoughts about DOGE and "government efficiency." But a lot of it boils down to this idea:

Fifty percent of government spending works. The problem is that no one knows which fifty percent.

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/government-efficiency-is-a-myth

Comments

sqsmith.bsky.social•13 days ago

DOGE is about clearing the way in the budget to get a tax cut cleared thru congress without not as much increase on the deficit.

tiggersdad.bsky.social•13 days ago

I look at it a little differently and think there are two specific areas where you can clearly see the government is inefficient, though one is via an externality. Specifically, healthcare in the US costs 50%-100% more per capita than in any other OECD country and the Federal Government spends…1/

tiggersdad.bsky.social•13 days ago

close to $2 trillion per year on healthcare. Bring down overall healthcare costs per capita, which is doable without affecting outcomes, and taxpayers will save money. Additionally, there are many government programs that benefit people and entities that don’t need them. Eliminate those.

avrilhowes.bsky.social•13 days ago

It comes down to: how much waste/inefficiency/fraud is acceptable for the level of service we receive? An inefficient hospital is better than no hospital. Inefficient government is better than corrupt government.

npbstuff.bsky.social•13 days ago

We are on our way to a full-on corrupt government now.

avrilhowes.bsky.social•13 days ago

Sad but true.

jvl.bsky.social•13 days ago

Basically: The ability to attain efficiency varies inversely with the complexity of a system.

The more complex the system, the more opaque it becomes, the harder to find effiencies.

And the US gov't is the most complex system ever designed by man.

jvl.bsky.social•13 days ago

You can't model the US gov't. You can't A-B test outcomes for killing vs. keeping USAID and then let the algo do its magic.

Why? Partly the size of the govt. But more than that, are the multiplicity of goals.

You literally cannot even enumerate *all* of the govt's objectives.

jvl.bsky.social•13 days ago

And that's because one of the objectives is: "Deal with the kind of unforeseen major crises that no other entity can address."

Efficiency seeks to remove slack from the system. The govt, by definition, needs slack in order to have the ability to handle black swan events.

jvl.bsky.social•13 days ago

Case in point: It was very efficient to prune the NSC's pandemic response section in 2018. That move saved real money.

Until 2020, when a pandemic hit for the first time in 100 years. 1.2m Americans died; it cost about $16 trillion.

Catastrophically inefficient.

jvl.bsky.social•13 days ago

This is what I mean when I say:

Fifty percent of government spending works. The problem is that no one knows which fifty percent.

The US govt is such a complex system that it's basically impossible to know what change will get you gains in efficiency. All you can really know is present state.

jvl.bsky.social•13 days ago

And in the present state, the machinery of the federal govt functions pretty damn well.

NOT perfectly. There is waste. There are inefficiencies. There is slack in the system.

But compared to, say, the machinery of our political system?

The feds are practically clockwork.

winterlance.bsky.social•13 days ago

Yeah and DOGE is about cutting the 50% that does work and redirecting the 50% that does not into the pockets of Elon and Friends

lettegall.bsky.social•13 days ago

Well, we are about to find out, I guess.

anav-77.bsky.social•13 days ago

Jonathan
You’re full of 💩

The waste in government AND CORPORATIONS.

To say is 50%
Show me the proof

And you saying nobody knows what 50% proves you’re full of 💩

jedimind.bsky.social•13 days ago

Yes, that was a very persuasive argument you made.

anav-77.bsky.social•13 days ago

Thank you. I don’t like people wasting my valuable time with nonsense.

martinstone.bsky.social•13 days ago

Great column!

edtesticles.bsky.social•13 days ago

It will be one disaster after the other once these cuts settle in. And I won’t stop laughing while they all turn into radioactive pumpkins.

teamrocket1.bsky.social•13 days ago

department of government elon

grimmilestone.bsky.social•13 days ago

Good article, man.

danieldunnjr.bsky.social•13 days ago

I hope that someone from the Bulwark sees this but I was wondering if there is any means to share gifted versions of paywalled Bulwark articles to your social media feeds. BTW this is a great article and I would like to share it with my family and friend groups who aren’t all as politically active.

thegoodword.bsky.social•13 days ago

Sorry "the JVL" but this is not true. I worked a career in government and it was more efficient than the corporations I worked for. Many corporations are led by incompetent CEOs who think they know everything - Tesla is a good example.

markfsu.bsky.social•13 days ago

Same with those that think there are government conspiracies. When I worked in government we could conspire to put together a proper lunch order for the office, let alone anything else.

some-marc-guy.bsky.social•13 days ago

you're wrong @jvl.bsky.social Elon knows what works, obviously, he's a very smart, successful businessman. Why else would Don Don put him in charge of such an important task?

avendarien.bsky.social•13 days ago

Very excellent summary.

tacoscott.bsky.social•13 days ago

The problem is billionaires/grifters who siphon money from federal programs for personal gain. The solution by Trump's billionaires/grifters is to take away the livelihoods/jobs of federal workers so that the siphoning of federal funds by the billionaires/grifters makes the budget look less bad.

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