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> I look at most government jobs as a form of UBI. We're basically paying for people to do unnecessary work very slowly and inefficiently and we're taxing ever

> I look at most government jobs as a form of UBI. We're basically paying for people to do unnecessary work very slowly and inefficiently and we're taxing everyone to do it. There is no logic in this other than UBI. This is a vicious slander against an enormous number of hard-working, underpaid, and extremely conscientious people who work in government. It's nonsense and you should stop it. There is always a need to improve any system or organization and government agencies are no exception. We should constantly be learning how to make government systems work better to achieve policy aims. Because they are constrained to behave, for the most part, with moral and ethical concerns foremost rather than sociopath motivations celebrated in private business, they do operate under many constraints that can slow them down. But that's a feature, not a bug. The big-L Libertarian dogma that government is theft is complete nonsense and should not be endorsed by any reasonable person.

jillesvangurp 8y ago
I'm not a libertarian. If anything I'm an admirer of efficient governments in e.g. Estonia, Finland, or Sweden. Especially Estonia seems to really put other governments on the spot in terms of doing things swiftly, efficiently, and pragmatically while not compromising on quality of governance. Estonia is a well run country with an extensive social system. Most interaction with the government is digital. I live in a country (Germany) where the government refuses to automate such jobs as handing out a paper with a number to people that come into the building for the privilege of waiting for their turn of having another person push a button to cause a piece of paper to roll out of a printer such that they can rubber stamp it an give it back to me. If you need such a piece of paper, which seems to be a regular thing, you need to pre-book an appointment for this around two months in advance and book a time-slot of roughly one hour. I'm not making this up, I've gone through this process several times. It's annoying, it eats up time, and it only serves to prove a fact that they are supposed to administer to themselves. Sure, there are hard working people as well but they are outnumbered by people not doing a whole lot that are stuck in processes that actually don't make any sense other than to generate more work that also doesn't need doing.

jillesvangurp 8y ago

I'm not a libertarian. If anything I'm an admirer of efficient governments in e.g. Estonia, Finland, or Sweden. Especially Estonia seems to really put other governments on the spot in terms of doing things swiftly, efficiently, and pragmatically while not compromising on quality of governance. Estonia is a well run country with an extensive social system. Most interaction with the government is digital. I live in a country (Germany) where the government refuses to automate such jobs as handing out a paper with a number to people that come into the building for the privilege of waiting for their turn of having another person push a button to cause a piece of paper to roll out of a printer such that they can rubber stamp it an give it back to me. If you need such a piece of paper, which seems to be a regular thing, you need to pre-book an appointment for this around two months in advance and book a time-slot of roughly one hour. I'm not making this up, I've gone through this process several times. It's annoying, it eats up time, and it only serves to prove a fact that they are supposed to administer to themselves. Sure, there are hard working people as well but they are outnumbered by people not doing a whole lot that are stuck in processes that actually don't make any sense other than to generate more work that also doesn't need doing.