I’ve worked for the US government, large NGOs, and large corporations. The difference in waste between government and corporations is qualitative, with much mor

I’ve worked for the US government, large NGOs, and large corporations. The difference in waste between government and corporations is qualitative, with much more waste occurring in government. NGOs sit somewhere in the middle in my experience. The entire structure of how government operates encourages and facilitates waste, it lacks the negative feedback loops that constrain corporate waste. Not only are there no consequences to waste in government as others have pointed out, the entire incentive structure around government spending actively incentivizes waste. This waste serves an organizational function in practice, but there are many ways to achieve those functions without lighting giant piles of money on fire. In corporations, waste tends to be the product of neglect; there are significant incentives to reduce waste once it rises beyond a certain level. Corporations may be less sensitive to the threshold conditions that cause them to reduce waste than may be optimal but they are always there.