8 ms·
Its stories (and personal experience) like this that make me laugh when people try and say that governments are inefficient and lacks accountability.
by madeofpalk 8y ago
Its stories (and personal experience) like this that make me laugh when people try and say that governments are inefficient and lacks accountability.
- antepodius 8y agoBig things are more likely to be inefficient and lack accountability. Governments are big, so are big corporations.
- JabavuAdams 8y agoYes, this. It's worth emphasizing whenever someone trots out the inefficient-government dogma.
- atoav 8y agoInterestingly enough there is also evidence, that a government structure with much smaller parts (decentralization) is even more inefficent, and especially prone to corruption.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- glennpratt 8y agoMy experience working my way up from small companies didn't really bear this out. Budgets at my bigish company are strict and audited; having a contractor results in regular check-ins from managers to see if it can be cut off. The smallest companies I worked for were family slush funds.
- loblollyboy 8y agoyeah, more like any 'large organizations' without a dictator
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- brokenkebab 8y agoGetting bigger any organization inevitably achieves a level of complexity where it becomes less, and less efficient by spending increasingly more resources on communication, and politics (in wider meaning of the word, not electoral). Do you think governments are small organizations? UPD: Apperently, I'm not the only one here who came to the same thought :-)
- sharkweek 8y agoRight - the government is the world's largest employer, with all the inefficiencies that come with that title.
- botverse 8y agoWhich government? Which world?
- sharkweek 8y agoI'd assume in almost every country, their federal government is the biggest employer, but that'd actually be interesting data to try and find.
- pjc50 8y agoThe world's three largest employers are apparently the US DOD, the PLA of China, and ... Walmart.
- imtringued 8y agoPretty much every government's budget is a significant fraction of a country's GDP. By significant I mean 30% or higher.
- lone_haxx0r 8y agoAt least private companies are losing their own earned money when they're inefficient, not someone else's.
- jld 8y agoHow are dollars I have paid to the government any more mine than dollars I have paid to a company?
- whowhatwhy 8y agoa company is accountable for the dollars you pay to it, and has to provide a commensurate value, or you take your business elsewhere. dollars paid to the government keep coming in no matter how wasteful their practices
- lazyasciiart 8y agoThat's not how people choose which health insurance policy is offered by their employer, or which private company won the contract to deliver their electricity.
- lone_haxx0r 8y agoYou're right, at least in the case of highly regulated markets and when the state creates artificial monopolies (e.g. electricity). I'll correct my original comment then: At least private companies that compete in a relatively free market are losing their own earned money when they're inefficient, not someone else's.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoIt’s still not right. Private companies are losing money on behalf of their owners or shareholders.
- 8y ago
- ibeckermayer 8y agoBig corporations are inefficient and lack accountability. Governments are like big corporations in that manner, but also can't be held accountable by the market. Corporate monstrosities can get away with being inefficient insofar as they can stay out of the red overall. Governments can get away with being inefficient insofar as we are forced to continue funding them via taxation. Note: giant, unaccountable, inefficient corporations usually became so large through monopolies created through government force (i.e. regulation).
- kortilla 8y agoGovernments lack accountability because there is no incentive to be sustainable. They just tax people more or run a higher deficit. If Whole Foods wastes their money and goes out of business, I don’t care. I’m not being forced to pay them to make up for it.