Discussing the correctness in the immoral use of public money is the wrong discussion to have. You don't try play chess with a parasite. You deparasitize a patient and then do any next thing you need to do.
Our system is based on laws, not morals.
DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
881–890 of 1001 posts
Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
#882Right in line with Umberto Eco's item 3 in his list of common features of fascism: "3. The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.” https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/umberto-ecos-list-of-the...
Ok, but while I disagree with Musks actions, more than half of the 14 items don’t fit what’s currently happening.
Which ones don’t fit? Seems to me they’re all happening now.
Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
#883Why aren’t people seeing through the facade?! The point of DOGE isn’t to save money, it’s to shut government programs that don’t align to Project 2025’s agenda.
Yep. Reward friends and punish enemies. At long last the right has learned to play the game that the left has played for decades
>the game that the left has played for decades
Can you give some examples, please?
Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
#884I think impartial observers have not spent time in actual government bureaucracy. Basically everything will seem like “they’re cutting something important!” Or “they’re stopping critical research!” because every government contract needs justification; so naturally they will all sound good. The data and accounting itself is such bad quality in all cases that it is impossible to be perfect at this; there are entire in…
USGS seemed like it was mostly worthwhile stuff when I was there, just operating on outdated technologies and under budget cycles and patterns that incentivized goofy behaviors because saving money in even the simplest of ways could only lead to budgets being cut in unconstructive ways. For example, imagine there's a budget of $5k and it's assuming that you'll replace a computer with part of it. But you don't actuall…
Yes, well documented phenomenon — the government spends more between July-September than the rest of the year combined. Conversely spends very little in December and January.
Not me but another contractor got a phone call the last day of the fiscal year and was told essentially “hey we have an extra 5M$ in the budget we need to spend, can you make something up and we will just give you the money for a random pilot.”
Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
#885Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no question this exists. But firing a bunch of government employees doesn't fix this problem. Where there is waste, it mostly comes in the form of contractors bilking the government, not the government employees themselves. Is DOGE going after the private sector and their bilking of the government?
Who do you think hires contractors and puts out contracts? The only way to get promoted at and above gs-12 is to amass reports and budget authority. The wasteful spending is not handed down mandatory by congress, it is conducted using budget authority afforded to federal employees. If you lay off 70% of federal employees especially those in gs-12 to 15 range, you could probably easily cut 70% of discretionary spendin…
Congress wants to _increase_ the defense budget by $150B instead of decreasing it. You could gut as many employees as you want, and that money is still going to be spent somehow.
The only way to reduce 70% of the discretionary spending is for Congress to reduce the discretionary budget by 70%.
Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
#886I think impartial observers have not spent time in actual government bureaucracy. Basically everything will seem like “they’re cutting something important!” Or “they’re stopping critical research!” because every government contract needs justification; so naturally they will all sound good. The data and accounting itself is such bad quality in all cases that it is impossible to be perfect at this; there are entire in…
> I’ll probably get skewered for saying this here but, let’s talk about the defense tech darling Palantir. Of all of Palantir’s contracts, only about 5% (~10) have more than 100 users. Average case is 10-20 total users, 1-2 weekly active users. Several contracts that have never had a single user. All expensive contracts (10M+), mostly building basic internal tools that replace Sharepoint. On paper all of these contra…
I think people would react viscerally if they knew Shyam blasphemed himself as Jesus, literally appointed 12 apostles, and held a last supper-like meeting with a long ass conference table.
Many such stories
Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
#887Earlier quoted context omitted.
> However bad your experience with corporate politics, know that government is 100x worse. Reading your comment I saw so many similarities to any large organisation which I worked for that I can't help but think it's simply on the same level. Hell, my first internship was 100% budget filler and, in line with my role, I was useless. Regarding inefficiency: I'm a contractor for a large organisation and have been for ov…
Makes you think that waste is a universally emergent issue which gets worse with the size of an entity. Not making any distinction between governmental or corporate structures. Everybody cries when the government raises taxes. Yet, when corporations increase prices despite not having higher cost, we just accept it as "business as usual". As corporations rival the power of nations more and more, some people should ret…
> As corporations rival the power of nations more and more
See: British East India Company. I don't really have a relevant point to make here but corporations being more powerful than countries actually seems to be the default state that has already been dealt with somewhat, rather than a novel growing problem.
Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
#888I think impartial observers have not spent time in actual government bureaucracy. Basically everything will seem like “they’re cutting something important!” Or “they’re stopping critical research!” because every government contract needs justification; so naturally they will all sound good. The data and accounting itself is such bad quality in all cases that it is impossible to be perfect at this; there are entire in…
All organizations are inefficient. My company would send people across the world in business class for a few meetings they could do remotely without problem. I'm pretty sure everyone could come with many anecdotes of waste in the private sector. I also worked in the public sector (not in the US) and frankly, I think it was pretty efficient. Most employees were competent and weren't paid very well. The problem with re…
>>All organizations are inefficient. My company would send people across the world in business class for a few meetings they could do remotely without problem.
The difference is that businesses that are inefficient are wasting revenue, and eventually go bust. There is no self-correcting mechanism for government.
Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
#889I'd be interested in whether they are fixing mistakes that are reported to them. If they won't then there is an issue. If they do then maybe this is just another nitpicking attack on DOGE.
Nitpicking?
They are in a role of "auditor". The most important requirement of an auditor -- a mandatory requirement -- is accuracy and correctness. It isn't nitpicking to point out that they are either intentionally lying, or are profoundly incompetent at the role they anointed themselves with.
Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
#890Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. I do not really care about any historical precedent, they take 40% of my money and there is clearly a ton of waste, if not grift. 2. All of those things can be done more efficiently. Drug prices, crappy mega defense contractors, welfare work traps, etc. 3. People eat themselves to death. RFK is going after this problem. 4. I'm in favor of simplifying the tax code and charging a flat tax to corporations, ending tax…
> I do not really care about any historical precedent, they take 40% of my money and there is clearly a ton of waste, if not grift. Er what? The top marginal tax bracket is only 37%, and no one will pay that percentage on all their income. Perhaps you misunderstand how marginal tax rates/brackets work? I was very tax-inefficent a few years ago, and my effective tax rate was still under 25%. Usually it's under 20%, ev…
>Er what? The top marginal tax bracket is only 37%, and no one will pay that percentage on all their income. Perhaps you misunderstand how marginal tax rates/brackets work?
Perhaps you forget that state taxes exist. Add in sales tax after that. Then, perhaps, recall that property taxes exist.