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I don't really subscribe to this idea that the US Government burns money as a rule. I'm sure there's many places that could be streamlined or made more efficien

I don't really subscribe to this idea that the US Government burns money as a rule. I'm sure there's many places that could be streamlined or made more efficient. But to blanket state that the US government as a whole is wasteful garbage seems naive, considering the immense scale and breadth of functions they carry out. The US Government employs 2.5 million people (3.8 million if you include the US Army, for which spending actually represents 61% [!] of the current US Budget) – the scale is personally hard for me to grok, at least. One thing that changed my mind about government spending is to look at the budget of a government program or facet of a program you're personally familiar with, and at least in my experience, it blows my mind what they can accomplish with what they're allocated. For example, the entire yearly operating budget of Big Bend, a national park bigger than the state of Rhode Island, is only $7 million, including employee salaries, maintenance and restoration, emergency services, special programming, on-site research, and educational outreach – and it brought in around more than $27 million in visitor spending last year. From a money-making standpoint (which I don't think is the purpose of a government so much as to serve the public interest), that represents an extremely good return on investment – not to mention all the positive externalities of such a venture.

tumba 7y ago
I believe you are incorrect about the US Army’s percent of the federal budget. Total defense spending (all branches) represents around 15% of the budget. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expenditures_in_the_United_States_federal_budget https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expenditures_in_the_United_Sta...
- rtkwe 7y ago
  That number might be based on it's portion of discretionary spending? It is a large portion of that type of spending for sure.
- thebradbain 7y ago
  Ah, great catch! I’m admittedly nowhere near an expert in this regard. I was looking at the US Discretionary spending budget, and mistakenly thought that was representative of the total budget I was looking at the discretionary budget breakdown: https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0070_discretionary_spending_categories https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0070_discretionary_spendi...
nwah1 7y ago
You make some good points, but there are areas where costs are outrageous... namely healthcare, education, pensions, and the military. Our pension system in the US is not funded in a way that is sustainable for the long term. Obviously, it was started by FDR on the assumption that we could just fund existing retirees who hadn't paid in because there's always more young people than old people. But that assumption is no longer true. And the federal level is where things are actually looking quite rosy. State and municipal pension systems are, in some areas, on the brink of insolvency. I expect some states, in the coming years, to ask the feds for a bailout. Most huge military technology purchases seem to have little justification at this moment... the F-22 and the Joint Strike Fighter are obvious examples. The number of military bases is astounding, but the return on investment for those isn't clear... particularly in regions where there are literally dozens of them. Huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons that can destroy the world multiple times over, which after some point doesn't seem to add any deterrent effect. Healthcare spending, even just from government programs alone, is high relative to other nations, and yet we don't even have universal health coverage. Very little is spent on useful preventative medicine, and enormous amounts are spent on last minute emergency procedures and end-of-life care. When we are able to make a difference, we don't, and precisely when little or nothing can be done, then we take out all stops and try our best to do something. Italy has the 2nd-longest lived population in the world, despite spending far less on healthcare. They aren't known for having a world-class healthcare system, because the truth is that they don't. What they have is world-class healthy lifestyle. Education spending, empirically speaking, seems to have little correlation with outcomes. Since 1970, adjusted for inflation per-student spending has roughly tripled, with some variation from state-to-state. But despite the overall large increases in funding, there are constant cries that not enough is being spent. But if we compare to world-class nations like Finland, who spend very little, we are left with a puzzle. If they are able to provide better education for cheaper, then obviously funding is not the deciding factor. Parks are trivial and have a great cost-benefit ratio compared to those big 4 areas of waste.
- Haga 7y ago
  The government pension funds are used as leverage by billionaires. The military spending is used to subsidize flailing billionairs companies . Government belongs by now to the 1%. If the rich are wasteful with your money.. Nothing you can do but mental escapism.

tumba 7y ago

I believe you are incorrect about the US Army’s percent of the federal budget. Total defense spending (all branches) represents around 15% of the budget. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expenditures_in_the_United_States_federal_budget https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expenditures_in_the_United_Sta...

rtkwe 7y ago
That number might be based on it's portion of discretionary spending? It is a large portion of that type of spending for sure.
thebradbain 7y ago
Ah, great catch! I’m admittedly nowhere near an expert in this regard. I was looking at the US Discretionary spending budget, and mistakenly thought that was representative of the total budget I was looking at the discretionary budget breakdown: https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0070_discretionary_spending_categories https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0070_discretionary_spendi...

nwah1 7y ago

You make some good points, but there are areas where costs are outrageous... namely healthcare, education, pensions, and the military. Our pension system in the US is not funded in a way that is sustainable for the long term. Obviously, it was started by FDR on the assumption that we could just fund existing retirees who hadn't paid in because there's always more young people than old people. But that assumption is no longer true. And the federal level is where things are actually looking quite rosy. State and municipal pension systems are, in some areas, on the brink of insolvency. I expect some states, in the coming years, to ask the feds for a bailout. Most huge military technology purchases seem to have little justification at this moment... the F-22 and the Joint Strike Fighter are obvious examples. The number of military bases is astounding, but the return on investment for those isn't clear... particularly in regions where there are literally dozens of them. Huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons that can destroy the world multiple times over, which after some point doesn't seem to add any deterrent effect. Healthcare spending, even just from government programs alone, is high relative to other nations, and yet we don't even have universal health coverage. Very little is spent on useful preventative medicine, and enormous amounts are spent on last minute emergency procedures and end-of-life care. When we are able to make a difference, we don't, and precisely when little or nothing can be done, then we take out all stops and try our best to do something. Italy has the 2nd-longest lived population in the world, despite spending far less on healthcare. They aren't known for having a world-class healthcare system, because the truth is that they don't. What they have is world-class healthy lifestyle. Education spending, empirically speaking, seems to have little correlation with outcomes. Since 1970, adjusted for inflation per-student spending has roughly tripled, with some variation from state-to-state. But despite the overall large increases in funding, there are constant cries that not enough is being spent. But if we compare to world-class nations like Finland, who spend very little, we are left with a puzzle. If they are able to provide better education for cheaper, then obviously funding is not the deciding factor. Parks are trivial and have a great cost-benefit ratio compared to those big 4 areas of waste.

Haga 7y ago
The government pension funds are used as leverage by billionaires. The military spending is used to subsidize flailing billionairs companies . Government belongs by now to the 1%. If the rich are wasteful with your money.. Nothing you can do but mental escapism.