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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: michael97123 who wrote (397659)7/10/2008 2:31:57 PM
From: Tenchusatsu  Read Replies (1) of 1574855
 
Michael, there's much more than just the obvious 10% "inefficiency premium" such as bipartisan pork-barrel spending.

The nature of bureaucracies is the preservation of budgets. If you don't spend all the money given to you, you will end up with less money to spend next year. The result is that every government agency finds some way to spend it all, whether they really need to or not. Results aren't judged by how much bang for the buck you're getting, but by how much noise the public is making over the quality of the services rendered. And complaints over high taxes can be minimized by taxing only the rich minority in the electorate.

One of my favorite examples is the CIA. How much money did it get before 9/11? How much money afterwards? How much money did it get before Iraq? How much money afterwards? And how well did the CIA perform in both instances? Very poorly, but that seems to reward well. Just ask George Tenet, who even after getting the Medal of Freedom jumped onto the bandwagon of book-writers stabbing Bush in the back.

Then there's the inefficiency of government handouts. You can claim that many people need it, but what percentage of the handouts actually go to people who need it? 50%? Where does the other 50% go? Is it any coincidence that the porn industry benefitted the most from the "stimulus check" this year (no pun intended)? Is it any coincidence that casinos get the most revenue on the day after SS checks arrive in the mail?

In the end, I'm afraid that government waste is a lot higher than you make it out to be. We can probably tolerate it, but I'd rather raise a generation that can rely more on themselves than on the government. Then when the government comes around and says, "We're here to help," the vast majority will say, "No thanks, we can handle it. Go help those people over there who hurt themselves or lost their homes in a disaster. They could probably use the help."

Tenchusatsu
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