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DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

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Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#51
post #2

I like that the focus is on the issues with the disruptors that have been running for a few weeks, not the egregious spending for decades.

don't get fooled by the disruptor narrative, it might very well be just pretentious immaturity

Always was.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#53

Two points that are often missed: 1. Perfectly tracking every dollar is more expensive than having some slack in the system. There's an optimal amount, at least from an overall value perspective. 2. We spend too much, and both sides of the aisle repeatedly blocked attempts to curb spending for literal decades while our debt got higher. That's how someone doing something coming in with a hatchet and no plan to build g…

The estimate should at least be within an order of magnitude; otherwise, the estimate is pointless.

Also, I am booing them because all of the doge line items on their website are in the millions, and our debt is trillions.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#56

destroying institutions is the plan. it's a cynical party. the only time "build" is mentioned is border walls. unfortunately "great" countries aren't BUILT on fear and cynicism.

If institutions can only be created and never destroyed, how many institutions per person would we end up with?

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#57
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.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#58
post #31
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally wouldn't want my government run by unchecked people who get the value of something off by three orders of magnitude. In a meritocracy private company someone confusing 8M with 8B is at best put in a closet job. More likely getting fired, and probably getting sued. When Jerome Kerviel was off by 5B he went to prison.

[flagged]

Unchecked means without oversight and without the checks and balances.

The various lawsuits against the actions in the last month alone show a blatant disregard for process and legal procedure.

The media coverage I have seen falls into these 2 categories. 1. Declaration of great success in short one liners. This comes without evidence every time. This comes as tweets or from the administration. 2. When evidence is looked into we see that the numbers fall short, the "alleged" corruption is not corruption at all or the entire claim is a falsehood.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still not sold on this. I can't yet distinguish if the plan is to get rid of institutions or to gut what's their and rebuild it how the want it. We may not end up with a smaller government, just a different one.

I can't recall when government was so enthusiastic about rooting out fraud. I kind of like this, and I want the government to actively pursue fraud and mismanagement. Feels like it always gets buried in some bureaucratic report.

Unless there's a detailed report about the specific fraud being stopped, there's nothing. So far it seems people are happy to stop "fraud" as in "things they don't like and won't justify". Tweets don't count.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#60

Two points that are often missed: 1. Perfectly tracking every dollar is more expensive than having some slack in the system. There's an optimal amount, at least from an overall value perspective. 2. We spend too much, and both sides of the aisle repeatedly blocked attempts to curb spending for literal decades while our debt got higher. That's how someone doing something coming in with a hatchet and no plan to build g…

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