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The sad part is the trust got moved to the least trustworthy actors. At least the gov workers are beholden to their job and maybe their office People are for

The sad part is the trust got moved to the least trustworthy actors. At least the gov workers are beholden to their job and maybe their office People are for whatever reason terrified to allow gov workers to just do their job. Instead they allow them to contract out millions and billions of dollars to companies that are beholden only to themselves and maybe a contract that will take 10 years to dispute in court. The saddest part is honest companies want nothing to do with these huge gov contracts. The only way to navigate the minefield of regulations is to lie which honest people dont want to do. This results in nefarious companies that specialize in ripping of the government. And just to get my mandated downvotes. Trump has been beating the drum of their being too many regulations since he got in office. I'm guessing HN won't want to hear that though.

kevincox 6y ago
> Trump has been beating the drum of their being too many regulations since he got in office You're right, but he is also the type of person that make the corruption-prevention regulations look like a good idea from my point of view. But he was elected and I'm not from the US so maybe my point of view isn't the important one here.
- vangelis 6y ago
  When it comes to regulations, we should have both less and the same; the same requirements in less paper.
LanceH 6y ago
I don't see how anyone sees the government as more trustworthy in this process. The people paying these companies outrageous sums are the ones taking campaign donations from those companies. The people that decide that the high speed rail which needs to stop at every town along the route (and that the route needs to include all their towns) are -- again -- the politicians. At every turn politicians stick their noses into the workings of infrastructure projects. Quality and cost finish well behind kickbacks to the politician and largesse to their supporters.
notabee 6y ago
There's a big difference between just running a bulldozer through a building (regulations bad because regulations!) versus fixing bad building work (audit regulations for effectiveness and loopholes). I'm not going to hire an electrician who thinks electicity is made by evil spirits haunting wires and wants to rip them all out, I'm going to hire someone that will methodically find wiring faults and fix them. Many regulations are written in blood. There is no shortcut to fixing problems, no matter how loud someone is shouting simplistic answers.

kevincox 6y ago

> Trump has been beating the drum of their being too many regulations since he got in office You're right, but he is also the type of person that make the corruption-prevention regulations look like a good idea from my point of view. But he was elected and I'm not from the US so maybe my point of view isn't the important one here.

vangelis 6y ago
When it comes to regulations, we should have both less and the same; the same requirements in less paper.

LanceH 6y ago

I don't see how anyone sees the government as more trustworthy in this process. The people paying these companies outrageous sums are the ones taking campaign donations from those companies. The people that decide that the high speed rail which needs to stop at every town along the route (and that the route needs to include all their towns) are -- again -- the politicians. At every turn politicians stick their noses into the workings of infrastructure projects. Quality and cost finish well behind kickbacks to the politician and largesse to their supporters.

notabee 6y ago

There's a big difference between just running a bulldozer through a building (regulations bad because regulations!) versus fixing bad building work (audit regulations for effectiveness and loopholes). I'm not going to hire an electrician who thinks electicity is made by evil spirits haunting wires and wants to rip them all out, I'm going to hire someone that will methodically find wiring faults and fix them. Many regulations are written in blood. There is no shortcut to fixing problems, no matter how loud someone is shouting simplistic answers.