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That's not what that phrase means at all. "good enough for government work" is akin to "close enough", a reference to the half-assed nature of most government w

• Retric 11y ago
  That's what we take it to mean today. And sure it was used in a negative context as early as 1960, but was first used in 1906. Remember historically most people where poor by our standards. Yes, the things that survive where of high quality, but a lot of junk did not make it. Consider what a 'sod' roof meant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sod_roof#/media/File:Norskfolkemuseum_1.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sod_roof#/media/File:Norskfolk... Now picture such a thing without modern materials to keep dirt from falling on you. Granted, the floor is often hard pack dirt anyway and done well it's ok. But, again poor and minimally trained. PS: Sure, if you where rich or competent you could go beyond that standard and there was plenty of high quality stuff made. But, the average farm house, private trail, foot bridge etc... was crap.