4 ms·

Doesn’t it stand to reason that the taxation authority should scale or become more efficient like any business when there is an increased demand for services?

bsanr2 7y ago
The government is not a business and should not be run like one.
bigiain 7y ago
No. We have here in Australia a perfect example of why this is an awful idea. Our social security department equivalent is issuing "robo-debts" to people who've previously received various forms of social security payments, based of flawed algorithms using data of insufficient resolution to actually determine what somebody owed (or did not owe). They were matching tax office records of annual income, and foolishly assuming that figure could be accurately just divided by 26 to get an accurate fortnightly figure - then claiming people who'd been paid social security which would have been incorrect based on that flawed average owed the money back. And forcing the recipient to proved that debt was incorrect. Even when the recipients had provided fortnightly earnings reports already. And with the obvious-to-just-about-anyone reality that people on welfare do not in general have regular and secure salaries over the timeframe of years. If you are out of work for 3 months and claiming welfare, then stop claiming it when you get a job again - it's insane to send you a debt notice for the 3 months worth of welfare you claimed and were perfectly entitled to, just because the other 9 month of the year you were gainfully employed. But here we are. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/06/centrelink-inquiry-told-income-averaging-creating-incorrect-welfare-debts https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/06/centr... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-27/centrelink-seizes-tax-return-of-robodebt-recipient/11450196 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-27/centrelink-seizes-tax... To me, this is exactly what I expect to happen when government "scales or becomes more efficient like any business". You get MBAs running projects like this, you get consultants bidding on the work, you get underpaid and over burdened developers writing code with poorly written requirements just deciding "I don't have a list of fortnightly income figures. Fuck it, I'll just divide this yearly figure by 26 and close this ticket." This is the awful reality of the sort of perverse incentives that result from trying to run welafare or taxation "like any business". We (as society) need to be better than this.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

bsanr2 7y ago

The government is not a business and should not be run like one.

bigiain 7y ago

No. We have here in Australia a perfect example of why this is an awful idea. Our social security department equivalent is issuing "robo-debts" to people who've previously received various forms of social security payments, based of flawed algorithms using data of insufficient resolution to actually determine what somebody owed (or did not owe). They were matching tax office records of annual income, and foolishly assuming that figure could be accurately just divided by 26 to get an accurate fortnightly figure - then claiming people who'd been paid social security which would have been incorrect based on that flawed average owed the money back. And forcing the recipient to proved that debt was incorrect. Even when the recipients had provided fortnightly earnings reports already. And with the obvious-to-just-about-anyone reality that people on welfare do not in general have regular and secure salaries over the timeframe of years. If you are out of work for 3 months and claiming welfare, then stop claiming it when you get a job again - it's insane to send you a debt notice for the 3 months worth of welfare you claimed and were perfectly entitled to, just because the other 9 month of the year you were gainfully employed. But here we are. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/06/centrelink-inquiry-told-income-averaging-creating-incorrect-welfare-debts https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/06/centr... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-27/centrelink-seizes-tax-return-of-robodebt-recipient/11450196 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-27/centrelink-seizes-tax... To me, this is exactly what I expect to happen when government "scales or becomes more efficient like any business". You get MBAs running projects like this, you get consultants bidding on the work, you get underpaid and over burdened developers writing code with poorly written requirements just deciding "I don't have a list of fortnightly income figures. Fuck it, I'll just divide this yearly figure by 26 and close this ticket." This is the awful reality of the sort of perverse incentives that result from trying to run welafare or taxation "like any business". We (as society) need to be better than this.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]