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Think about what you're saying for a second. You're advocating for the same government that has had the ability to regulate nursing homes for the last few deca

Think about what you're saying for a second. You're advocating for the same government that has had the ability to regulate nursing homes for the last few decades, and failed to do so, instead be given full control over nursing homes? You're suggesting that the politicians who had the power to fix the problem and did nothing instead be given more power? That's such a self-obviously bad and self-contradictory idea.

throwawaysugar 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_proble...
nothercastle 3y ago
It would still be bad and a failure but it would be cheaper so why not
- throw10920 3y ago
  Because it would not necessarily be cheaper. The government can be incredibly wasteful and inefficient, especially when corruption is involved - and the money still comes from you! The fact that the costs are coming from your taxes and in the form of more expensive goods and services and decreases wages due to inflation makes the costs hidden, not lower.
  - avs733 3y ago
    >Because it would not necessarily be cheaper. The government can be incredibly wasteful and inefficient, especially when corruption is involved - and the money still comes from you! Personally, I've come to the following conclusion after dealing with the American health care system far to much in the last three years and several encounters with corporate America throughout my adult life: There is no difference in the potential for waste, inefficiency, fraud, corruption, laziness, and outright stupidity between government and private systems. There is a difference in (1) my (and my fellow citizens) ability to influence between that two and (2) not having to pay for profit and the costs to me resulting from necessary profit on top of the rest of the shit sundae.
    - dylan48203 3y ago
      As someone who has actually worked for both the US government and the private sector - this isn't true: > There is no difference in the potential for waste, inefficiency, fraud, corruption, laziness, and outright stupidity between government and private systems. The inefficiency that I saw in the government was far greater than that of the private sector. To some extent, it had to be - the government has to be extremely reliable and accessible (while most companies content themselves with 99.99% website uptime, or only serving people with a mailing address, or whatever - the government has to serve everyone and be available as much as possible), and that's a good thing. But beyond that, factors such as extreme risk aversion (which generally grows with the size of an organization), gross incompetence, and outright corruption made the government far less efficient than what I experienced in industry - to the point where it was an old-and-not-funny-anymore running joke among my government colleagues. Moreover, the government also holds massive influence over your life that corporations do not and cannot: taxes, monopoly on violence, control of the legal system, ability to enact and enforce regulation, and many more. It should be pretty clear that separation of powers is a good thing, and only an idiot would decide that it's better to consolidate as many things as possible into a single central entity that also uniquely holds all of those powers. > There is a difference in (1) my (and my fellow citizens) ability to influence between that two Ability to influence? Yes, you have ability - but the amount of actual influence exerted on government in the US is minimal. Public opinion in the US has almost zero correlation on the law[1]. The political process is overwhelmingly dominated by a small amount of wealthy and powerful individuals and special interest groups. It's absolute insanity to take this mess and put more things in control of it. > (2) not having to pay for profit and the costs to me resulting from necessary profit on top of the rest of the shit sundae Well, as we've already established, the government is significantly less efficient than industry - and even if it wasn't, the extra margin that you have to pay is a trivial price to the utterly insane alternative of the government controlling all private industry. [1] https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba
    - IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago
      there's no private healthcare system in the US, except for maybe the individual mom & pop doctor's offices. Every other player is - getting handouts from govt (hospital non-profit statuses from all taxes incl property taxes, payouts for invented"losses"; payor premium subsidies), - protections from competition (PBM "discounts", Pharma IP evergreening rules, hospital requirements to approve new local competitors, payor lobbying for regs to prevent "lite" plans ) - and are very much flirting with antitrust action (payor & pharmacy vertical integration, cutting off contracts of any remaining independent doctor/vendor holdouts etc).
dools 3y ago
The solution to bad government is better government not less government
- koolba 3y ago
  The vast majority of the time less government is better government. If it’s not going to be less, it’s better when it’s local. Block grants federate and localize solutions, limit the damage of poor choices, and force answers to tough choices. Federal programs with centralized oversight end up spending too much for too little results and will never be able to efficiently solve these problems.
- berkes 3y ago
  And also: the solution to bad government is better government, not more government.
- downWidOutaFite 3y ago
  Yes. I wish we'd move on from the tired more/less government debate and focused on better government. But neither party seems to care.
  - 2devnull 3y ago
    Does better government imply current government employees losing or having to change jobs? That’s sort of not possible at scale.
    - downWidOutaFite 3y ago
      Not sure what you're implying but in my mind getting rid of government unions would be priority #1.
      - 2devnull 3y ago
        The government is controlled by the government, not voters. The government has incentives to stay the course. Every single government employee wants to keep their job, managers want to keep their teams/projects/products. The government downsizing itself amounts to hundreds of thousands of individuals collectively deciding to act against their own interests on behalf of some abstract notion of what’s best for hypothesized future citizens. Not going to happen. Workers are workers. The government is first and foremost a workforce.

throwawaysugar 3y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_proble...

nothercastle 3y ago

It would still be bad and a failure but it would be cheaper so why not

throw10920 3y ago
Because it would not necessarily be cheaper. The government can be incredibly wasteful and inefficient, especially when corruption is involved - and the money still comes from you! The fact that the costs are coming from your taxes and in the form of more expensive goods and services and decreases wages due to inflation makes the costs hidden, not lower.
- avs733 3y ago
  >Because it would not necessarily be cheaper. The government can be incredibly wasteful and inefficient, especially when corruption is involved - and the money still comes from you! Personally, I've come to the following conclusion after dealing with the American health care system far to much in the last three years and several encounters with corporate America throughout my adult life: There is no difference in the potential for waste, inefficiency, fraud, corruption, laziness, and outright stupidity between government and private systems. There is a difference in (1) my (and my fellow citizens) ability to influence between that two and (2) not having to pay for profit and the costs to me resulting from necessary profit on top of the rest of the shit sundae.
  - dylan48203 3y ago
    As someone who has actually worked for both the US government and the private sector - this isn't true: > There is no difference in the potential for waste, inefficiency, fraud, corruption, laziness, and outright stupidity between government and private systems. The inefficiency that I saw in the government was far greater than that of the private sector. To some extent, it had to be - the government has to be extremely reliable and accessible (while most companies content themselves with 99.99% website uptime, or only serving people with a mailing address, or whatever - the government has to serve everyone and be available as much as possible), and that's a good thing. But beyond that, factors such as extreme risk aversion (which generally grows with the size of an organization), gross incompetence, and outright corruption made the government far less efficient than what I experienced in industry - to the point where it was an old-and-not-funny-anymore running joke among my government colleagues. Moreover, the government also holds massive influence over your life that corporations do not and cannot: taxes, monopoly on violence, control of the legal system, ability to enact and enforce regulation, and many more. It should be pretty clear that separation of powers is a good thing, and only an idiot would decide that it's better to consolidate as many things as possible into a single central entity that also uniquely holds all of those powers. > There is a difference in (1) my (and my fellow citizens) ability to influence between that two Ability to influence? Yes, you have ability - but the amount of actual influence exerted on government in the US is minimal. Public opinion in the US has almost zero correlation on the law[1]. The political process is overwhelmingly dominated by a small amount of wealthy and powerful individuals and special interest groups. It's absolute insanity to take this mess and put more things in control of it. > (2) not having to pay for profit and the costs to me resulting from necessary profit on top of the rest of the shit sundae Well, as we've already established, the government is significantly less efficient than industry - and even if it wasn't, the extra margin that you have to pay is a trivial price to the utterly insane alternative of the government controlling all private industry. [1] https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba
  - IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago
    there's no private healthcare system in the US, except for maybe the individual mom & pop doctor's offices. Every other player is - getting handouts from govt (hospital non-profit statuses from all taxes incl property taxes, payouts for invented"losses"; payor premium subsidies), - protections from competition (PBM "discounts", Pharma IP evergreening rules, hospital requirements to approve new local competitors, payor lobbying for regs to prevent "lite" plans ) - and are very much flirting with antitrust action (payor & pharmacy vertical integration, cutting off contracts of any remaining independent doctor/vendor holdouts etc).

dools 3y ago

The solution to bad government is better government not less government

koolba 3y ago
The vast majority of the time less government is better government. If it’s not going to be less, it’s better when it’s local. Block grants federate and localize solutions, limit the damage of poor choices, and force answers to tough choices. Federal programs with centralized oversight end up spending too much for too little results and will never be able to efficiently solve these problems.
berkes 3y ago
And also: the solution to bad government is better government, not more government.
downWidOutaFite 3y ago
Yes. I wish we'd move on from the tired more/less government debate and focused on better government. But neither party seems to care.
- 2devnull 3y ago
  Does better government imply current government employees losing or having to change jobs? That’s sort of not possible at scale.
  - downWidOutaFite 3y ago
    Not sure what you're implying but in my mind getting rid of government unions would be priority #1.
    - 2devnull 3y ago
      The government is controlled by the government, not voters. The government has incentives to stay the course. Every single government employee wants to keep their job, managers want to keep their teams/projects/products. The government downsizing itself amounts to hundreds of thousands of individuals collectively deciding to act against their own interests on behalf of some abstract notion of what’s best for hypothesized future citizens. Not going to happen. Workers are workers. The government is first and foremost a workforce.