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> We need more people in government who actually have a plan, that are actually willing to take bets on people, to hire high-quality people, to see hard project
by maehwasu 7y ago
> We need more people in government who actually have a plan, that are actually willing to take bets on people, to hire high-quality people, to see hard projects through, not to punt everything off to consulting firms.
I share your frustration, but there are evolutionary pressures at work here. The people most likely to be in government are those most likely to survive in it.
Seeing hard projects through does not increase your "fitness" much.
Knowing how to manipulate bureaucracies, build up little fiefdoms, acquire the pull to bring in expensive consultants, manage the reciprocal relationships with those consultants, etc. -- all this stuff does increase your fitness in a bureaucracy.
The only two proven ways to cut this Gordian Knot are smaller sovereign jurisdictions (suddenly those bureaucrats have to answer to people who are many fewer degrees removed) or executives with more unilateral power (authoritarianism/CEO-style governance). For better or worse, the American system has evolved in the opposite direction on both those poles.
- protonfish 7y agoThat's not "evolutionary pressure", it's corruption.
- SkyBelow 7y agoThose are not contradictory. It is possible for corruption to thrive because of evolutionary pressure. It is even possible for it to do so despite the result not being obvious for the pressure applied and only a result of second, third, etc. order effects of the pressure.
- maehwasu 7y agoIf you're going to comment, make it substantiative. Arguing over the definitions of words, and not the underlying phenomenon, is the opposite of that. If "corruption", as you prefer to call it, leads to selection pressures and selects for those most "fit" in the arts of corruption, then "evolutionary pressure" is a perfectly adequate metaphor, and likely helpful for analyzing the situation. On a related note, the knee-jerk application of moral terminology rather than clear analysis to government issues is one of the principal hacks that corrupt bureaucracies use to perpetuate themselves.
- jrochkind1 7y agoWhat makes one more likely to survive in a consultancy?
- davemp 7y agoBelieving your own lies?
- pjc50 7y ago> smaller sovereign jurisdictions This limits what you can build to the size of a single jurisdiction, though. Devolve it to county level and you can never build any more rail at all.
- jtuente 7y agoNo, it means that sovereign jurisdictions must communicate with one another. ESA isn't limited by the budget of one European country.
- JamesBarney 7y ago> The only two proven ways to cut this Gordian Knot are smaller sovereign jurisdictions. I've heard this theory a lot but every time I hear of blatant corruption it seems to be in local politics.
- nairboon 7y agoOn the other hand, such corruption is locally contained in scope. Maybe the trade off is worth it, to have some small local corruption to avoid it at the larger, higher levels.
- i_am_proteus 7y agoWhat incentives are there for capable people to enter government service on any but the highest of levels?
- bobthepanda 7y agoThe Bay Area has small, downright balkanized jurisdictions and it doesn‘t seem to help them.
- wutbrodo 7y agoRight, smaller govt can be more efficient in general but in the specific case of transit, having political units much smaller than the area of interest of most ambitious transit projects seems to do more harm than good.
- CapitalistCartr 7y agoThat is known as Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy. Jerry also recommends transparency and subsidiarity. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle Subsidiarity: The principle that government power ought to reside at the lowest feasible level (i.e. at the local or regional level, instead of the national or supranational level, unless the latter presents clear advantages.