2 ms·

The purpose of the waste management company is not to manage waste, it is to gain control of waste management. That's the difference. If you have a problem, of

The purpose of the waste management company is not to manage waste, it is to gain control of waste management. That's the difference. If you have a problem, often your solution just means you have the same problem but now lack the agency to control it. Once the waste management company has control, they can then extract the majority of surplus from the problem being solved so that if your cost if the problem is unsolved is x, your cost if the problem is solved becomes x-ε. The surplus ε shrinks as the waste management company gains more control of the process. With sufficient control, ε can even go negative. The net result is that you have not created surplus for yourself. You have just found someone to transfer the surplus to.

johnchristopher 3y ago
> The surplus ε shrinks as the waste management company gains more control of the process. With sufficient control, ε can even go negative. > The net result is that you have not created surplus for yourself. You have just found someone to transfer the surplus to. That's a good argument for bigger governments instead of a governments hiring private entities whose only goals are to capture surplus :).
- renewiltord 3y ago
  Government departments are not immune to this structure. It's a fundamental property of organizations. It's why you'll find empire building in private companies too.
wongarsu 3y ago
Interestingly, this happens even if you remove the profit motive, say by making it a government entity or a non-profit with fixed pay structure. The surplus just goes into diffuse inefficiencies instead of being efficiently channeled into someones pocket. Maybe it's just that people still profit from bigger organizations by means of prestige, influence, etc. Whatever the cause, most organizations seem to try to grow to the size equivalent to the value of the solution, not the cost of delivering the solution.
- renewiltord 3y ago
  Yes! Exactly! I think that's the insight there. It's not the specifics of the org structure that manifest the behavior.

johnchristopher 3y ago

> The surplus ε shrinks as the waste management company gains more control of the process. With sufficient control, ε can even go negative. > The net result is that you have not created surplus for yourself. You have just found someone to transfer the surplus to. That's a good argument for bigger governments instead of a governments hiring private entities whose only goals are to capture surplus :).

renewiltord 3y ago
Government departments are not immune to this structure. It's a fundamental property of organizations. It's why you'll find empire building in private companies too.

wongarsu 3y ago

Interestingly, this happens even if you remove the profit motive, say by making it a government entity or a non-profit with fixed pay structure. The surplus just goes into diffuse inefficiencies instead of being efficiently channeled into someones pocket. Maybe it's just that people still profit from bigger organizations by means of prestige, influence, etc. Whatever the cause, most organizations seem to try to grow to the size equivalent to the value of the solution, not the cost of delivering the solution.

renewiltord 3y ago
Yes! Exactly! I think that's the insight there. It's not the specifics of the org structure that manifest the behavior.