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We choose to be Governed by a system that has a tendency to be inefficient at times. The solution is probably to try and fix it rather than abandon it altogethe

by pm90 9y ago

We choose to be Governed by a system that has a tendency to be inefficient at times. The solution is probably to try and fix it rather than abandon it altogether. It seems to have worked for the past 200+ years...

rayiner 9y ago
Our government isn't just inefficient at times. It's notably less efficient than other developed countries. E.g. even if you take military spending out of the equation, Canada provides more services to citizens while spending a couple of thousand dollars less per head than we do. Peoples' frustrations aren't unwarranted.
- nasredin 9y ago
  You can't really take out defense spending, because defense and healthcare are pretty much the federal budget. If you want to change things you gonna have to look at defense and healthcare. I can't remember the last time I've heard the phrase "the defense budget has been reduced this year...".
  - rayiner 9y ago
    You can take defense spending out of both budgets and compare the two. You also can't ignore state and local budgets. Defense spending is only about 10% of total combined government expenditures.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - civilitty 9y ago
      You can take defense spending out but you can't take out the distribution of Canada's population. According to [1] and [2], the top 30 municipalities of Canada make up 16 million people (across ~20,000 sq km) out of Canada's total population of 36 million while the top 30 cities in the US have a population of only about 40 million (out of 310+ million in the country) on roughly ~22,000 sq km. The scale and density of the United States is completely different to Canada, where a much larger percent of the population is within the same area as ~14% of the US population as measured by the biggest cities (the smallest autonomous entity that is still practical to analyze wrt spending relative to Canadian municipalities). We're talking 2-5x cost increases on infrastructure, services, and logistics for at least half the population compared to urban areas [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_municipalities_in_Canada_by_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_munici...
- pm90 9y ago
  Interesting. Do we know the cause of this inefficiency? (I'm looking more for a scientific, rather than an ideological cause)
- specialist 9y ago
  Interesting. I'm curious how the USA and Canada compare on privatization, outsourcing, cronyism, etc. The domain I know a lot about, election administration, the various US state, county, local governments are being fleeced by the vendors. From what little I know about education, all the standardized tests, text books, charter schools, etc. are just excuses to divert funds to cronies.

by pm90 9y ago

rayiner 9y ago

Our government isn't just inefficient at times. It's notably less efficient than other developed countries. E.g. even if you take military spending out of the equation, Canada provides more services to citizens while spending a couple of thousand dollars less per head than we do. Peoples' frustrations aren't unwarranted.

nasredin 9y ago
You can't really take out defense spending, because defense and healthcare are pretty much the federal budget. If you want to change things you gonna have to look at defense and healthcare. I can't remember the last time I've heard the phrase "the defense budget has been reduced this year...".
- rayiner 9y ago
  You can take defense spending out of both budgets and compare the two. You also can't ignore state and local budgets. Defense spending is only about 10% of total combined government expenditures.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - civilitty 9y ago
    You can take defense spending out but you can't take out the distribution of Canada's population. According to [1] and [2], the top 30 municipalities of Canada make up 16 million people (across ~20,000 sq km) out of Canada's total population of 36 million while the top 30 cities in the US have a population of only about 40 million (out of 310+ million in the country) on roughly ~22,000 sq km. The scale and density of the United States is completely different to Canada, where a much larger percent of the population is within the same area as ~14% of the US population as measured by the biggest cities (the smallest autonomous entity that is still practical to analyze wrt spending relative to Canadian municipalities). We're talking 2-5x cost increases on infrastructure, services, and logistics for at least half the population compared to urban areas [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_municipalities_in_Canada_by_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_munici...
pm90 9y ago
Interesting. Do we know the cause of this inefficiency? (I'm looking more for a scientific, rather than an ideological cause)
specialist 9y ago
Interesting. I'm curious how the USA and Canada compare on privatization, outsourcing, cronyism, etc. The domain I know a lot about, election administration, the various US state, county, local governments are being fleeced by the vendors. From what little I know about education, all the standardized tests, text books, charter schools, etc. are just excuses to divert funds to cronies.