5 ms·

US debt is 124% of GDP. That's not as high as UK debt after WWII, 270%, which impoverished the country that had been at the top of the world. But combined with

US debt is 124% of GDP. That's not as high as UK debt after WWII, 270%, which impoverished the country that had been at the top of the world. But combined with an aging population that has more people than ever hailing from the historically low-achievement global south, you can expect some standard of living adjustment to occur. Your grandparents had a house by your age, and the economic ability to raise a family. You get to slave for an apartment and a wife who works for another man. Historically, there were names for that economic arrangement and the class of people who were condemned to it. That Trump I and Biden did not have an effort like DOGE (which does not have Congressional support and therefore should not yet be enough to give serious people hope) shows how fundamentally unserious both of those administrations were. I hope that Musk can find a way to make it successful somehow. But if he does, it will break 1000x the number of eggs that you've seen him breaking so far.

chillingeffect 2y ago
Almost every presidency has taken more or less responisble effors to minimize spending. But they werent aimed at people who had prosecuted those in power, targetted at regulation agencies for the president's oligarch cronies, racially targetted, or driven by outsiders with no experience: Initiated under President Jimmy Carter in 1977, Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) required agencies to justify their budgets from scratch rather than just adjusting from the previous year. President Ronald Reagan pushed for privatization, deregulation, and reduced federal spending. The Grace Commission (1982-1984), led by businessman J. Peter Grace, was tasked with identifying inefficiencies in government. In 1993, President Bill Clinton launched the National Performance Review (later renamed the National Partnership for Reinventing Government), led by Vice President Al Gore. The NPR aimed to make government "work better and cost less" by cutting red tape, streamlining bureaucracy, and increasing customer service. Key successes included shifting more government services online, consolidating purchasing, and reducing federal workforce size. Launched by President George W. Bush in 2001, the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) focused on: Strategic management of human capital Competitive sourcing (increasing private-sector competition for government contracts) Financial performance improvements E-Government expansion (improving federal websites and online services) Budget and performance integration 2010s: DATA Act & Digital Transformation President Barack Obama signed the DATA Act (2014), which aimed to improve transparency and accountability in government spending. Obama also created the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and 18F, teams dedicated to modernizing government technology. The Trump administration’s PMA (2018) emphasized IT modernization, data transparency, and a shift to "shared services", where multiple agencies use the same administrative systems. The Biden administration has continued these efforts, focusing on AI, cybersecurity, and digital transformation, as well as improving citizen-facing services like healthcare and tax processing.
turtlesdown11 2y ago
I love this reply. It's lots of serious words about the debt, and it ignores that Trump and the R party are currently trying to balloon the debt for their tax breaks.
- romaaeterna 2y ago
  In fact the reply specifically criticizes Trump I, the administration that passed those tax breaks. Whether you consider yourself either a Democrat or a Republican, this is not a problem that continued party politics can solve.
  - belter 2y ago
    > Whether you consider yourself either a Democrat or a Republican, Facts don't bend to party lines, and I pity those who let political loyalty eclipse objective reasoning.
    - dang 2y ago
      Could you please stop using HN primarily for political battle? You've been doing this a ton lately, as well as breaking the site guidelines in other ways. Regardless of how right you are or feel you are, this is not what HN is for, and we end up banning accounts that keep doing it (regardless of what their politics happen to be). https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=primarily%20test%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html p.s. see also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43141858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43141858
      - belter 2y ago
        > You've been doing this a ton lately, as well as breaking the site guidelines in other ways. You can't throw an accusation like this with further substantiation. I come to respect your difficult work, but this comment is a huge disappointment.

chillingeffect 2y ago

Almost every presidency has taken more or less responisble effors to minimize spending. But they werent aimed at people who had prosecuted those in power, targetted at regulation agencies for the president's oligarch cronies, racially targetted, or driven by outsiders with no experience: Initiated under President Jimmy Carter in 1977, Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) required agencies to justify their budgets from scratch rather than just adjusting from the previous year. President Ronald Reagan pushed for privatization, deregulation, and reduced federal spending. The Grace Commission (1982-1984), led by businessman J. Peter Grace, was tasked with identifying inefficiencies in government. In 1993, President Bill Clinton launched the National Performance Review (later renamed the National Partnership for Reinventing Government), led by Vice President Al Gore. The NPR aimed to make government "work better and cost less" by cutting red tape, streamlining bureaucracy, and increasing customer service. Key successes included shifting more government services online, consolidating purchasing, and reducing federal workforce size. Launched by President George W. Bush in 2001, the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) focused on: Strategic management of human capital Competitive sourcing (increasing private-sector competition for government contracts) Financial performance improvements E-Government expansion (improving federal websites and online services) Budget and performance integration 2010s: DATA Act & Digital Transformation President Barack Obama signed the DATA Act (2014), which aimed to improve transparency and accountability in government spending. Obama also created the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and 18F, teams dedicated to modernizing government technology. The Trump administration’s PMA (2018) emphasized IT modernization, data transparency, and a shift to "shared services", where multiple agencies use the same administrative systems. The Biden administration has continued these efforts, focusing on AI, cybersecurity, and digital transformation, as well as improving citizen-facing services like healthcare and tax processing.

turtlesdown11 2y ago

I love this reply. It's lots of serious words about the debt, and it ignores that Trump and the R party are currently trying to balloon the debt for their tax breaks.

romaaeterna 2y ago
In fact the reply specifically criticizes Trump I, the administration that passed those tax breaks. Whether you consider yourself either a Democrat or a Republican, this is not a problem that continued party politics can solve.
- belter 2y ago
  > Whether you consider yourself either a Democrat or a Republican, Facts don't bend to party lines, and I pity those who let political loyalty eclipse objective reasoning.
  - dang 2y ago
    Could you please stop using HN primarily for political battle? You've been doing this a ton lately, as well as breaking the site guidelines in other ways. Regardless of how right you are or feel you are, this is not what HN is for, and we end up banning accounts that keep doing it (regardless of what their politics happen to be). https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=primarily%20test%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html p.s. see also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43141858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43141858
    - belter 2y ago
      > You've been doing this a ton lately, as well as breaking the site guidelines in other ways. You can't throw an accusation like this with further substantiation. I come to respect your difficult work, but this comment is a huge disappointment.