Efficiency in government is a lie told by people who want government to serve the smallest number of (rich) people possible and no one else.
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Efficiency in government is a lie told by people who want government to serve the smallest number of (rich) people possible and no one else.
You cannot have efficient government because eventually service efficiency always boils down to a triage process: who have you decided is hopeless/undeserving and therefore not worth serving?
But any government that does that is fascist and illegitimate. Government serves *all* the people, or it is radioactive poisonous garbage.
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Efficiency in government is a lie told by people who want government to serve the smallest number of (rich) people possible and no one else.
You cannot have efficient government because eventually service efficiency always boils down to a triage process: who have you decided is hopeless/undeserving and therefore not worth serving?
But any government that does that is fascist and illegitimate. Government serves *all* the people, or it is radioactive poisonous garbage.
Efficiency is a ratio between undesired inputs (costs) and desired outputs.
You don't want to have to buy fuel but you do want to get somewhere quickly.
Same with government.
But what is the desired outcome? Is it a healthy, housed, well-nourished, educated, safe, happy population doing satisfying, useful work?
If so, you don't improve efficiency by cutting costs unless you at least maintain all those things.
Since we're nowhere near meeting those criteria, the best way to become more efficient may include having *more* government workers, if their work is useful and satisfying.
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Efficiency is a ratio between undesired inputs (costs) and desired outputs.
You don't want to have to buy fuel but you do want to get somewhere quickly.
Same with government.
But what is the desired outcome? Is it a healthy, housed, well-nourished, educated, safe, happy population doing satisfying, useful work?
If so, you don't improve efficiency by cutting costs unless you at least maintain all those things.
Since we're nowhere near meeting those criteria, the best way to become more efficient may include having *more* government workers, if their work is useful and satisfying.
So, efficiency itself - as an outcome of good process - is not a bad thing. Obviously! Waste, especially in a warming world, is to be avoided.
It's efficiency as a primary *goal* - a particularly deranged symptom of capitalist, neoliberal ideology - that leads to the kind of collapsed services, enshittified businesses and hollowed out society we see today.
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So, efficiency itself - as an outcome of good process - is not a bad thing. Obviously! Waste, especially in a warming world, is to be avoided.
It's efficiency as a primary *goal* - a particularly deranged symptom of capitalist, neoliberal ideology - that leads to the kind of collapsed services, enshittified businesses and hollowed out society we see today.
@johnzajac @EricLawton @bonaventuresoft
Because in business, efficiency per se is used to refer to lowest cost without regard to actually creating a good product. The goal is to create a minimally acceptable product to create profit for shareholders.
But that's not the goal in government, despite the current/regressive fad. Many of us (people on Earth) have forgotten that the government's goal is to protect its citizens. From each other, penury, exploitation, external aggression, all that.
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Efficiency in government is a lie told by people who want government to serve the smallest number of (rich) people possible and no one else.
You cannot have efficient government because eventually service efficiency always boils down to a triage process: who have you decided is hopeless/undeserving and therefore not worth serving?
But any government that does that is fascist and illegitimate. Government serves *all* the people, or it is radioactive poisonous garbage.
@johnzajac Efficiency can be good, but all too often it's a cover for an unsavory strategy.
Efficiency that's worth doing is exactly the stuff that local councils were invented for: a way to invest in central resource and specialization, to do the best job for the most people, on a service-focused not-for-profit basis.
Its also worth automating repetitive stuff, so people can do more.
But "the free market makes it cost-effective" is a lobbyist lie.
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