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Welcome to America's permanent big government state. This is a prime example of excessive government bureaucracy, and it demonstrates how inefficient and wastef

by wallawe 14y ago

Welcome to America's permanent big government state. This is a prime example of excessive government bureaucracy, and it demonstrates how inefficient and wasteful many of these govt. programs are but exist anyway to keep politicians happy. The only reason TSA is getting called out for its unnecessary bloat is because the public despises what they do.

rayiner 14y ago
The size of the federal bureaucracy has hovered around 2m +/- 10% for the last 50 years, even as the U.S. population has increased by over 70%.
- wallawe 14y ago
  I highly doubt the employee headcount of the federal government is a good indicator of efficiency. I would say not at all. There could be 10 total government employees but that wouldn't signify more well-oiled machine. My initial assertion stands true. The government is bloated, inefficient, and wasteful (now more than ever). TSA is merely a good microcosm for the system as a whole. Side note: it's appreciated (expected?) to provide sources when throwing out stats.
  - rayiner 14y ago
    Re: source, see: http://www.opm.gov/feddata/html/ExecBranch.asp http://www.opm.gov/feddata/html/ExecBranch.asp I think the headcount of the bureaucracy, relative to the size of the country being managed, is a very relevant metric of the efficiency of the system. I mean after all, in a private company it would be pretty impressive if the company nearly doubled in size without adding substantially to the number of managers. The point isn't that the federal government isn't large, it's that it's a complete mispreception to assert that the TSA is a good microcosm of the federal government. The TSA is a traditional bloated bureaucracy, with tons of government employees doing not much of anything. That's not what most of the federal government looks like. I've worked in a federal agency and in the private sector, and if anything the federal agency was better run and more leanly staffed. In reality, 95% of federal expenditures are just checks to other people. Checks to farmers to subsidize agriculture, checks to states to subsidize highway construction, Social Security checks, Medicare reimbursement checks, etc. The fact is that people rant up and down about how bloated the federal government is, but nobody can ever point to non-trivial ways to reduce spending. And the reason is that it's not a matter of simply firing a bunch of bureaucrats that sit on their ass doing nothing--there just aren't very many of those people. Rather, it's all about not writing those checks. Writing a $20 billion check to subsidize suburban commuters instead of $40 billion, cutting grandma's social security check by 20%, etc. That's where all the money goes.

by wallawe 14y ago

rayiner 14y ago

The size of the federal bureaucracy has hovered around 2m +/- 10% for the last 50 years, even as the U.S. population has increased by over 70%.

wallawe 14y ago
I highly doubt the employee headcount of the federal government is a good indicator of efficiency. I would say not at all. There could be 10 total government employees but that wouldn't signify more well-oiled machine. My initial assertion stands true. The government is bloated, inefficient, and wasteful (now more than ever). TSA is merely a good microcosm for the system as a whole. Side note: it's appreciated (expected?) to provide sources when throwing out stats.
- rayiner 14y ago
  Re: source, see: http://www.opm.gov/feddata/html/ExecBranch.asp http://www.opm.gov/feddata/html/ExecBranch.asp I think the headcount of the bureaucracy, relative to the size of the country being managed, is a very relevant metric of the efficiency of the system. I mean after all, in a private company it would be pretty impressive if the company nearly doubled in size without adding substantially to the number of managers. The point isn't that the federal government isn't large, it's that it's a complete mispreception to assert that the TSA is a good microcosm of the federal government. The TSA is a traditional bloated bureaucracy, with tons of government employees doing not much of anything. That's not what most of the federal government looks like. I've worked in a federal agency and in the private sector, and if anything the federal agency was better run and more leanly staffed. In reality, 95% of federal expenditures are just checks to other people. Checks to farmers to subsidize agriculture, checks to states to subsidize highway construction, Social Security checks, Medicare reimbursement checks, etc. The fact is that people rant up and down about how bloated the federal government is, but nobody can ever point to non-trivial ways to reduce spending. And the reason is that it's not a matter of simply firing a bunch of bureaucrats that sit on their ass doing nothing--there just aren't very many of those people. Rather, it's all about not writing those checks. Writing a $20 billion check to subsidize suburban commuters instead of $40 billion, cutting grandma's social security check by 20%, etc. That's where all the money goes.