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Under this logic every agency deserves to have a bigger budget until the budget is equal to the amount of money it brings in -- i.e. bloat up to maximum size. I

by jblow 8y ago

Under this logic every agency deserves to have a bigger budget until the budget is equal to the amount of money it brings in -- i.e. bloat up to maximum size. I don't think anyone wants that. It makes sense to try to keep government agencies operating efficiently. Unfortunately I don't trust today's journalism to give me an accurate picture of whether what's going on falls into that category or not.

dooglius 8y ago
No, it means the budget should increase until the marginal ROI becomes zero; the idea is to maximize profit rather than revenue.
- jessermeyer 8y ago
  I apologize if my question is leading : why should the government be considering with the concept of profit at all? It's not a business.
  - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
    Because resources in a society don't just grow on trees. The government using resources means that those resources are not available for other uses. We therefore care (at least somewhat) about the efficiency of government use of resources. That's not the same as "concern for profit". And yet, the question of cost-benefit is pretty much the same question, but in terms of society as a whole.
    - nybble41 8y ago
      The key problem is this insidious idea that money brought in by the IRS is "profit", or even just "revenue". That's only the case if you're looking at the IRS in isolation. The government, and by extension the IRS, is supposedly working for society. Money moving from the private sector to the public sector is not "revenue" from society's point of view; it's more like shifting money between two different bank accounts within the same organization. Money which the IRS doesn't collect is still part of society, and still doing good—just not under the auspices of the government. So the question is, for every dollar spent on the IRS, how much money is shifted from the private sector to the public sector; but more importantly, per dollar spent on the IRS, how much benefit is there to having the government spend that money instead of the private party that earned it? (Some would suggest that this "benefit" is negative even if the IRS could achieve perfect enforcement of the tax code for free...)
tareqak 8y ago
In your opinion, are there government agencies that spend there budget well? If so, then please share some examples.

by jblow 8y ago

dooglius 8y ago

No, it means the budget should increase until the marginal ROI becomes zero; the idea is to maximize profit rather than revenue.

jessermeyer 8y ago
I apologize if my question is leading : why should the government be considering with the concept of profit at all? It's not a business.
- AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  Because resources in a society don't just grow on trees. The government using resources means that those resources are not available for other uses. We therefore care (at least somewhat) about the efficiency of government use of resources. That's not the same as "concern for profit". And yet, the question of cost-benefit is pretty much the same question, but in terms of society as a whole.
  - nybble41 8y ago
    The key problem is this insidious idea that money brought in by the IRS is "profit", or even just "revenue". That's only the case if you're looking at the IRS in isolation. The government, and by extension the IRS, is supposedly working for society. Money moving from the private sector to the public sector is not "revenue" from society's point of view; it's more like shifting money between two different bank accounts within the same organization. Money which the IRS doesn't collect is still part of society, and still doing good—just not under the auspices of the government. So the question is, for every dollar spent on the IRS, how much money is shifted from the private sector to the public sector; but more importantly, per dollar spent on the IRS, how much benefit is there to having the government spend that money instead of the private party that earned it? (Some would suggest that this "benefit" is negative even if the IRS could achieve perfect enforcement of the tax code for free...)

tareqak 8y ago

In your opinion, are there government agencies that spend there budget well? If so, then please share some examples.