3 ms·

I’d be curious what stuff you feel works well, in the federal government? (I’m not being snarky, just genuinely curious)

gumby 4y ago
Do you not live in the USA? It's not as bad as is portrayed. I have lived in other countries with superior quality of life but every place has its tradeoffs. Transport is quite safe -- federal regulation of road construction, air traffic control etc is quite good. Food and drug safety (though I could write a book full of complaints) is quite high -- you can't imagine what it looked like before the pure food and drug act and all the work that's happened. Food stamps and welfare get paid out, and despite rhetoric otherwise, will continue to be indefinitely. Yes, farm subsidies are a rat's nest of petty corruption but that's a thermodynamic loss in exchange for which there hasn't been a famine in the US in almost a century; and widespread malnutrition, which was true when I was born was solved before I came to the States. NASA has made some amazing satellites; NASA, NOAA USGS, NIST etc generate and publish enormous amounts of earth and other data. DOE means the military doesn't control the nuke tech, and is why we were able to stop doing physical nuke tests; despite visible homelessness HUD has ensured a roof over the heads of people who in living memory would have not had access to one. The court system is generally non-corrupt and by international standards quite fast and effective. OSHA saves lives. The fed is probably the best central bank in the world. I remember what the US looked like before the EPA was formed (by a republican government no less) and all the consumer product safety rules the dept of commerce has promulgated mean you can take much for granted when you go to the shops. Financial regulation means nobody remembers a run on the banks or all the "widows and orphans" fraud that was rampant a year ago. I believe it was just discussed on HN in the past couple of days how the US process for insuring and rolling up bad banks is unique in the world. I could go on. People form governments for a reason and the fact is most of what we "hire" the government to is stuff we don't have expertise for ourselves (nukes? radio interference? Bank controls? road safety standards?) or for which it's simply easier to have a convention defined (speed limits). But since it works who bothers to pay attention?

gumby 4y ago

Do you not live in the USA? It's not as bad as is portrayed. I have lived in other countries with superior quality of life but every place has its tradeoffs. Transport is quite safe -- federal regulation of road construction, air traffic control etc is quite good. Food and drug safety (though I could write a book full of complaints) is quite high -- you can't imagine what it looked like before the pure food and drug act and all the work that's happened. Food stamps and welfare get paid out, and despite rhetoric otherwise, will continue to be indefinitely. Yes, farm subsidies are a rat's nest of petty corruption but that's a thermodynamic loss in exchange for which there hasn't been a famine in the US in almost a century; and widespread malnutrition, which was true when I was born was solved before I came to the States. NASA has made some amazing satellites; NASA, NOAA USGS, NIST etc generate and publish enormous amounts of earth and other data. DOE means the military doesn't control the nuke tech, and is why we were able to stop doing physical nuke tests; despite visible homelessness HUD has ensured a roof over the heads of people who in living memory would have not had access to one. The court system is generally non-corrupt and by international standards quite fast and effective. OSHA saves lives. The fed is probably the best central bank in the world. I remember what the US looked like before the EPA was formed (by a republican government no less) and all the consumer product safety rules the dept of commerce has promulgated mean you can take much for granted when you go to the shops. Financial regulation means nobody remembers a run on the banks or all the "widows and orphans" fraud that was rampant a year ago. I believe it was just discussed on HN in the past couple of days how the US process for insuring and rolling up bad banks is unique in the world. I could go on. People form governments for a reason and the fact is most of what we "hire" the government to is stuff we don't have expertise for ourselves (nukes? radio interference? Bank controls? road safety standards?) or for which it's simply easier to have a convention defined (speed limits). But since it works who bothers to pay attention?