4 ms·

So basically... government could be as efficient as the private sector if it wasn't government?

mjevans 6y ago
It could be a lot more efficient if they stopped trying to be subtle and instead spent more time thinking. Openly admit NASA is a basic infrastructure assurance program, much like the Interstate highway system is. (Yes, it's Military capable infrastructure, for moving troops and stuff around. It turns out that useful infrastructure improves overall economic fitness and activity as well.) Then group up all of the infrastructure spending and make sure it gives every citizen roughly equal value. Sometimes this can be justified in lower shipping costs for produced items from farms and backbone redundancy across the country. Other times it's connecting land and sea ports to the cross country grid. Evaluating a fair share of the commons and of resources to maintain the commons is a hard problem. NASA also falls under various civic services the government proves because it makes sense for just one place to do the work; or at least for a baseline that private entities can compete against. The distribution of these programs also forms part of the weight to balance government improvements programs among areas.
jbay808 6y ago
I don't think that's a charitable reading of the GP. More like "the government is aiming for something other than efficiency, and it gets what it's aiming for". If the government were aiming for efficiency, we might see NASA taking a different path.
- beerandt 6y ago
  I agree that it isn't the goal, but that's part of the point. And I don't necessarily think it's always a bad thing for government to government, especially for a program that ultimately has so much of an impact on military capabilities and national security. But it's also disingenuous to say "We could if we wanted to."
beowulfey 6y ago
It’s not the fact that they are government, it’s that the incentive structure is wrong. Companies are incentivized to make money. In this case, the government is incentivized to provide lucrative contracts to contracted corporations. In the 60s, when a different incentive existed, the government (i.e. NASA) was incredibly efficient.
mbrodersen 6y ago
The private sector fails all the time. The problem is not government/private. The problem is large organisations with wrong incentives.
- beerandt 6y ago
  My point isn't so much that private sector can do things efficiently (certainly not always), so much as government generally can't, especially starting from a point of inefficiency. Yes it's a matter of incentives. The problem is saying incentives for government work could change, is very different than them actually changing. Some of those incentives are inherently rooted as part of what makes government... government.

It could be a lot more efficient if they stopped trying to be subtle and instead spent more time thinking. Openly admit NASA is a basic infrastructure assurance program, much like the Interstate highway system is. (Yes, it's Military capable infrastructure, for moving troops and stuff around. It turns out that useful infrastructure improves overall economic fitness and activity as well.) Then group up all of the infrastructure spending and make sure it gives every citizen roughly equal value. Sometimes this can be justified in lower shipping costs for produced items from farms and backbone redundancy across the country. Other times it's connecting land and sea ports to the cross country grid. Evaluating a fair share of the commons and of resources to maintain the commons is a hard problem. NASA also falls under various civic services the government proves because it makes sense for just one place to do the work; or at least for a baseline that private entities can compete against. The distribution of these programs also forms part of the weight to balance government improvements programs among areas.

jbay808 6y ago

I don't think that's a charitable reading of the GP. More like "the government is aiming for something other than efficiency, and it gets what it's aiming for". If the government were aiming for efficiency, we might see NASA taking a different path.

beerandt 6y ago
I agree that it isn't the goal, but that's part of the point. And I don't necessarily think it's always a bad thing for government to government, especially for a program that ultimately has so much of an impact on military capabilities and national security. But it's also disingenuous to say "We could if we wanted to."

beowulfey 6y ago

It’s not the fact that they are government, it’s that the incentive structure is wrong. Companies are incentivized to make money. In this case, the government is incentivized to provide lucrative contracts to contracted corporations. In the 60s, when a different incentive existed, the government (i.e. NASA) was incredibly efficient.

mbrodersen 6y ago

The private sector fails all the time. The problem is not government/private. The problem is large organisations with wrong incentives.

beerandt 6y ago
My point isn't so much that private sector can do things efficiently (certainly not always), so much as government generally can't, especially starting from a point of inefficiency. Yes it's a matter of incentives. The problem is saying incentives for government work could change, is very different than them actually changing. Some of those incentives are inherently rooted as part of what makes government... government.