Government is inefficient

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Government is inefficient. Compared to a private business, government is very inefficient in doing the things it does, whether administering social programs or whatever it does. Whether you are talking about here in the United States or some country in Eastern Europe or any country anywhere in the world, government is inefficient.

Bureaucracies are inefficient. Government rule is really rule through bureaucracy. And the fact that bureaucracies are inefficient is one reason that socialistic and Communistic governments work poorly.

bureaucracy. a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives.

The term bureaucracy literally means “rule by desks or offices,” a definition that highlights the often impersonal character of bureaucracies.

In the modern world, almost all organisations including universities and governments in both the public and private sector rely on bureaucracies for proper functioning. In a lot of countries, a company's centralised, hierarchical structure as well as public administration can be seen as examples of bureaucracy. sparknotes.com

There are very good reasons why government is inefficient compared to private business. The reasons are really all about incentives.

With a private business there is an incentive to keep the business as efficient as possible. Because of competition you need to keep your costs low in order to compete. You need to make a profit if you are going to stay in business and you are limited in how much you can charge due to competition. If your prices are too high you will lose all of your business. You need to watch for waste and avoid it.

In government there is no real incentive to save money. There is no penalty for wasting money. The money you are spending is someone else’s money, not your money. If there is waste it will be covered up and no one will know about it. You can get away with inefficiency. The work is office work and it may be difficult to measure efficiency.

Thomas Sowell was a Marxist when he was young. What caused him to change his mind about Marxism? A summer job working for the government in which he realized that a government worker’s main interest was not the public good above all. In a conflict between the public good and his good, his good would come first. For example, A government worker is never going to recommend that his organization be abolished since it is no longer needed or unable to do what it is supposed to do. He is not going to be receptive to any idea that might threaten his job. Self-preservation and self-interest trumps all else. He realized he had seen a big flaw in any bureaucratic oriented economic system such as Marxism when compared to the free enterprise system.

See Milton Friedman, Academy Class of 1971, Full Interview . It is an excellent video in which Milton Friedman makes many important points. I highly recommend it. He recommends minimizing what is done through the government and maximizing what is done by private enterprise.

The national debt of the US now stands at 33 trillion. Year after year the USA just keeps going deeper and deeper into debt. It just can’t control its spending. What happens to a family who can’t control their spending — who just keep spending more and more every year and keep borrowing to make up the shortfalls?

One of the biggest sources of government outgo is Medicare and Medicaid. Their yearly cost is many billions. Do you know how much government money goes out to Medicare and Medicaid scam artists every year? See the YouTube videos:

How Medicare And Medicaid Fraud Became A $100B Problem In The U.S. CNBC

Company accused of massive Medicare fraud CNN

The following video is from a 2009 60 Minutes program:

Billion-dollar fraud and Ponzi schemes | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

This last video contains several 60 Minute episodes on different frauds. The part on Medicare fraud starts around a quarter of the way into the video at 13.32 / 56.49 minutes.

How easy is it to bilk the government? Easy, easy, easy. It is like taking candy from a baby. The scam artists just send the government a bill and the government pays within two to four weeks.

Once we realize that government doesn't work, we will stop

dreaming that this or that social problem can be solved by

passing a law - or by creating a new government program - or by

electing someone who will make Washington more efficient or

cost-conscious.

Harry Browne

Government relief tends constantly to get out of hand. And

even when it is kept within bounds it tends to reduce the

incentives to work and to save, both of those who receive it and

of those who are forced to pay it. It may be said, in fact,

that practically every measure that governments take with the

ostensible object of "helping the poor" has the long-run effect

of doing the opposite.

Henry Hazlitt

Can anyone recall the last time a government bureaucracy declared

that it had fulfilled its mission and now should be abolished?

Michael D. Tanner

Most change in America doesn't come from politicians. It comes

from inventing things and creating. The telephone, the

telegraph, the computer, all those things didn't come from

government. Our world is going to get better and better, as

long as we keep the politicians from screwing it up.

David Boaz

A lot of people aren’t very sophisticated. They see government in a very positive way as a source of all kinds of good things. They see it as the source of all kinds of good programs that help mankind is so many great ways. And politicians just keep promising them more great programs. They don’t think about things like cost and waste. They don’t think very deeply about most things in general and don’t ask hard questions.

5 Sept 2023