I think that, at the cognitive end, it is slightly worse than you represent.
I applaud your clear narration that for efficiency to mean anything useful it assesses aims, outputs and processes to achieve those goals, and the cost of inputs to produce the outputs/processes to achieve the ends. (In an ideal opportunity cost— the value produced through the best alternative use— would also be addressed.)
Unfortunately, so far as I can tell, Trump/Musk and MAGA are implicitly using and promoting a model in which all the government does is pass around— redistribute— funds, and passing those funds to employees or suppliers is waste.
I get no sense that this ridiculous paradigm is being noticed, so I am peculiarly glad to have read you here. Thank you!
Thank you for mentioning opportunity costs. In this case they're high, even for the president himself. A well-worked out plan to reduce waste would be welcomed by almost everyone. He has forfeited that chance for support. I'm going to continue exploring the reasons this frenzy still seems reasonable to some people.
I don't know your background even within philosophy, so please forgive me if this is coals to Newcastle: if you aren't familiar with the economic concept of public goods and services, or weren't thinking about it in the context of what governments produce and are supposed to produce, and what it's worth please consider it. Unfortunately public goods and services have been first repudiated, then ignored, to some extent by purposeful organization, by the right.
"Bill Clinton was the best Republican president we ever had" --- Yes, a like a Republican in the 1950s-60s style. He was like the "red Tories" in Canada: for example, Joe Clark, former prime minister of Canada, and Bill Davis, a long-serving premier of Ontario.
I like the clarity: eficiency would require measuring inputs and outputs, which is not what is happening. I also like the introspection; Americans tend to have greater (unquestioned) faith in private business than in government. Why is that? What is the source of the trust/distrust? Private healthcare, for example, delivers care that costs more and achieves less, on average, than publicly run systems, like those in Canada or France.
I think that, at the cognitive end, it is slightly worse than you represent.
I applaud your clear narration that for efficiency to mean anything useful it assesses aims, outputs and processes to achieve those goals, and the cost of inputs to produce the outputs/processes to achieve the ends. (In an ideal opportunity cost— the value produced through the best alternative use— would also be addressed.)
Unfortunately, so far as I can tell, Trump/Musk and MAGA are implicitly using and promoting a model in which all the government does is pass around— redistribute— funds, and passing those funds to employees or suppliers is waste.
I get no sense that this ridiculous paradigm is being noticed, so I am peculiarly glad to have read you here. Thank you!
Thank you for mentioning opportunity costs. In this case they're high, even for the president himself. A well-worked out plan to reduce waste would be welcomed by almost everyone. He has forfeited that chance for support. I'm going to continue exploring the reasons this frenzy still seems reasonable to some people.
At this point I would welcome a plan to define and specify waste.
I don't know your background even within philosophy, so please forgive me if this is coals to Newcastle: if you aren't familiar with the economic concept of public goods and services, or weren't thinking about it in the context of what governments produce and are supposed to produce, and what it's worth please consider it. Unfortunately public goods and services have been first repudiated, then ignored, to some extent by purposeful organization, by the right.
"Bill Clinton was the best Republican president we ever had" --- Yes, a like a Republican in the 1950s-60s style. He was like the "red Tories" in Canada: for example, Joe Clark, former prime minister of Canada, and Bill Davis, a long-serving premier of Ontario.
I like the clarity: eficiency would require measuring inputs and outputs, which is not what is happening. I also like the introspection; Americans tend to have greater (unquestioned) faith in private business than in government. Why is that? What is the source of the trust/distrust? Private healthcare, for example, delivers care that costs more and achieves less, on average, than publicly run systems, like those in Canada or France.
I’m going to look at those assumptions about business soon.
Great article! Absolutely hit the nail on the head. Wonderful work Judy.