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It's a good article for those who are unfamiliar with these cautionary tales of second order effects and fraud. As someone who believes government is a solution
by unethical_ban 3y ago
It's a good article for those who are unfamiliar with these cautionary tales of second order effects and fraud. As someone who believes government is a solution to many problems, these lessons are critical.
I disagree with the universality of the statement "any institution made to solve a problem will preserve it". They back off this in the caveats section.
Two important things to prevent this is to consider the influence of money on a solution/organization, and what kind of oversight is needed for an organization. Also, when spinning up a program, asking "is the problem this org solves a permanent one?" Or can the problem be eradicated?
A group created to clean up trash in a city park system might need to be large one year, but practically non-existent 5 years later if goals are met. The planned decommissioning of such organizations should be considered.
- yukkuri 3y agoYes, sadly this is an easy way for people to dishonestly claim to themselves and others that any attempt to solve problems (other than the "problem" of how to generate ever greater wealth disparity which somehow never gets included in this) is completely worthless
- christkv 3y agoIf the mandarins salaries and livelihood depend on it they will move mountains to sustain the institution. This is human nature. The problem with public institutions is that they fase few external pressures. A company will eventually die and history is littered by the corpses of former industry titans. Public institutions on the other hand.
- yukkuri 3y agoYeah like all those external pressures that have kept private mega corps from polluting, monopolizing, pervasively surveiling, brutally exploiting labor, and generating false "science" that maintains their dominance even in the face of huge global negative effects... Oh, wait...
- christkv 3y agoIn comparison to what? The pristine environmental record of the soviet union, north korea, cuba, venezuela, communist east europe, cambodia, vietnam, china etc...
- yukkuri 3y agoAh yes someone always rolls out the false dilemma of "the only options are completely unregulated capitalism or completely top down command economy communism". It'd be shorter with the same meaning if you'd just scream "traitorous commie!!!!1111"
- felonynolef 3y ago[dead]
- felonynolef2 3y ago[dead]
- barbarum 3y agoSo, you don't like mega-corps, so we shouldn't have mega-corps at all?
- barbarum 3y agoYou don't solve problems by just talking about them you internet hero.
- jeroenhd 3y agoI think it's when there's no (need for an) exit strategy for the people working for institutions set up for solvable problems (i.e. reducing the inflated housing prices, restructuring other institutions) you get the self preservation effect. That's why for-profit, non-government/community anything is so terrible at solving problems. Charities spending 80% of the money you give them on marketing efforts. For-profit prisons in general. Self-regulation of most industries. The whole plastic recycling farce. Unless your institution is built with a real intent to solve a problem, and the people put in charge actually care, you get a self-serving institute. That doesn't just happen in private institutions either, corrupt governments accepting bribes and operating on nepotism also tend to set up useless institutions that just serve as job mills for friends or government officials. A group created to clean up trash in a city park will exist forever if the mayor hires their nephew to run it because he was too incompetent to find a job himself.