I've heard it discussed quite seriously in an Economics 101 lecture (can't remember which. It was on a "Great Courses" audiobook). It was discussed in the sam

I've heard it discussed quite seriously in an Economics 101 lecture (can't remember which. It was on a "Great Courses" audiobook). It was discussed in the same category of economics problems as reducing wasteful government spending, because fighting government waste can itself be costly, and oftentimes it can cost more in administration overhead to reduce government waste than the government waste itself would actually amount to if you didn't fight it and just let it happen. It seems to me like a quite coherent mental model for thinking about certain things.