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Private companies can certainly hold their own when it comes to waste and incompetence. Government doesn’t have a monopoly on these things.
by mullingitover 3y ago
Private companies can certainly hold their own when it comes to waste and incompetence. Government doesn’t have a monopoly on these things.
- vladvasiliu 3y agoCompanies certainly can be wasteful and incompetent. But at least they won't put you in prison if you decide not to buy their product.
- M3L0NM4N 3y agoAgreed, but private companies also face competition (which incentivizes as little waste as possible) that the government does not.
- mullingitover 3y agoCompetition over the past couple decades is less and less of a factor for private companies, however[1]. [1] https://hbr.org/2018/03/is-lack-of-competition-strangling-the-u-s-economy https://hbr.org/2018/03/is-lack-of-competition-strangling-th...
- nickpp 3y agoThe harder it is to create a startup in an area, the less competition you’ll have there. Things like regulation and labor protection laws have the unfortunate side effect of discouraging founders to embark in the "startup adventure".
- dantheman 3y agoClearly you've never worked in the government.
- mullingitover 3y agoNo, but both my parents spent their careers working in the VA system, which routinely trounces private health care in measures of efficiency.
- pfannkuchen 3y agoIf they do that for long enough though they go out of business. There is not really an equivalent to going out of business in government, or at least the bar is much higher for it to happen (I.e. violent revolution).
- mullingitover 3y ago> There is not really an equivalent to going out of business in government, or at least the bar is much higher for it to happen (I.e. violent revolution) There's absolutely an equivalent, publicly elected officials lose re-election campaigns all the time.
- pfannkuchen 3y agoIs a failed government policy generally stopped and corrected by an electoral change in practice? In my experience this almost never happens. Whereas if a company goes under, whatever failed action it was taking just stops happening. Not equivalent IMO.
- prottog 3y agoAgreed. There is very rarely a sober look back on any government policy to see if it actually met the objectives it set out to achieve, and at what cost.
- missedthecue 3y agoIf a private company wastes too much, it eventually goes out of business. If a government entity wastes too much money, their budget is increased for the next fiscal year. There is no feedback loop to govern the waste.