I couldn't agree more! Similar waste goes on everywhere -- even in theoretically "private" (used advisedly) businesses. An example I see every time I go to my local branch of a grocery giant involves the locked up stuff -- liquor, toiletries, OTC meds and such. To buy them, you have to ring a bell, which triggers the eventual arrival of not one but two people. One is theoretically charged with unlocking the rack, but he can't do it alone because has to have a supervisor. I used to think this meant they didn't even trust their employees, but I think that's only part of it. The last time it happened, these two said they were bringing my stuff to "Register 7" so I should go there to pay. OK, whatever. LONG line at Register 7 with overwhelmed clerk. When I finally got to the front and asked where my stuff was, the clerk had to yell at other clerks, who conferenced until they found it at Register 3. This of course delayed the people behind me. So I thought I would tell the cashier that the man who unlocked the shelving unit clearly did not know what he was doing, and it wasn't the first time this had happened. She knew exactly what I was going to say and with an annoyed look replied, "Oh, he's SPECIAL!" As if that made everything OK (and if anyone is an idiot it's me). As if I'm just supposed to just learn to cooperate with the corporation's numbingly progressive employment practices. Sorry to rant, but I couldn't help wonder.... WHO PAYS??? Beyond that, who is subsidizing this nonsense?
How about this for a host killing parasite? The amount of federal funds misallocated by the states. It seems to get bigger each time someone actually checks on say, a day care center or hospice care facility in any large city. Fraud, waste and abuse is a common lament in all large national budgets, but only waste and abuse can be explained away by "the inefficient and poorly monitored system". Fraud dwarfs the other two and is actually deliberate, organized and criminal. It is also something that many of the non-native people committing it actually have no concept of when it comes to "defrauding" the government. Why? As someone who pointed this out noted, where they come from the governments themselves rip off the populace on an industrial scale. Come to the U.S., and the government hands out free money and doesn't even seem to care if it is used for its intended purpose. In their countries, stupid people get taken advantage of. I guess that makes us stupid. Have to wonder how many Republican politicians have been, and likely are still receiving some of this largesse. Certainly not seeing a lot of state level pursuit of the fraudsters commensurate with the massive and openly conducted activities. More perp walks, please.
I ran a small health care practice. It was more like a small family business with my wife running the front office and I labored in the productive back office. I found as time went on (I practiced from 1980-2023) as my practice (business ) grew I was able to do more with almost the same number of front office staff because of computer automation. Forms filled out with the press of one or two keys. Claims sent electronically rather than paper and mail. Many letters were form letters individualized and created with little effort on our computers. I expain the above because I was always disheartened to learn that the number of administrators in our school system and Town hall kept on increasing as computerization should have made the staff more efficient. I came to realize that the milliions spent was not to improve work but to improve votes. All those administrators and assistants and their families brough votes to a particular party. The results were an ever increasing amount of taxes and employees voting for more and more spending. I left that state as soon as I retired from my practice. As more and more productive people leave the parasites will have less hosts and finally, like always happens, the population will shrink and the parasites will either shrink, die or find new hosts.
We're not quite at the end stage of the American Empire, but some days it sure feels like it. We haven't had a constitutionally passed budget since before Obama. The Washington DC economic system of sucking the taxpayers dry to fund the politicians and their cronies will continue until it can't. You are most certainly correct that the parasites are driving the car. The old tree of Liberty is looking most thirsty.
In the sentence that begins "I’ve heard historians suggest that the main return for the British from the Empire wasn’t economic — colonialism was for the most part (India was an exception) particularly lucrative —" I believe you left out the word "not". Colonialism was not lucrative and in fact lost money in most countries, at least according to Thomas Sowell.
"I think there’s room to slash more if — and this is a big if — there are Republicans willing to do it."
That's a yes to the first part and a resounding no to the second. Not enough Republicans to matter.
It's becoming apparent the bulk of Congress - both parties - main focus is on keeping the money spigot on. They don't care what it's spent on as long as it's spent. Fraud and waste are of no consequence. They are terrified of upsetting the big dollar donors, 99% of whom expect a financial return on their investment. If cutting a billion dollars in waste jeopardizes a $20k earmark congress won't risk it.
There have been various proposals to hold congress accountable for fiscal performance, most of which require congress to implement (a non-starter). We have to find a way.
I would love to see a column on what legally feasible methods are available to hold congress accountable.
You mentioned Peter Turchin. A few years ago I read his book, "War and Peace and War" with its discussion of elite overproduction. And I've been concerned about that issue ever since. Through most of history, excess elites tended to be reduced during wartime--the Hundred Years' War between England and France, the English Civil War in the 1640s, the French Revolution, and even the American Civil War. But since WWII, most of our US elites no longer serve in the military. So now we have a lot of elites and what I have been calling "wannabe" elites. And the bills are going to come due.
My own roots are working-class. My father (born in 1919) was the first in his family to finish high school. I was the first to graduate from college. I was Salutatorian of my class, and some thought I would end up a professor. But my combination of autistic traits and Scots-Irish heritage made it harder for me to get along with the brass. I ended up first in a small business, then later fixing up a couple of houses for us to live in got me into the building trades in the late '80s--mostly remodeling, some new construction. It turned out I liked the work--making and fixing things is something I enjoy. Now that I'm retired, I still do some jobs for my family, and I now have another run-down house to fix up. But I always did and still have a good intellectual life.
I don't think there is any quick answer. It's going to take a while to work this stuff out. But the US spending deficits have to come down. I find it interesting that there seem to be two areas that are being dealt with--defunding NGOs and ending fraud on social programs.
To wait for a Republican majority that will act is to accept the eventual elimination of the final vestiges of a republic. The Grand Old Party is more aptly described as The Grand Old Pretense. The Progressives in general and the Democrats in particular are fully commited to the elimination of any restraint on government power and to keeping that power permanently in their hands. They are well down a road They have been traveling for more than a century. They will not be compromised, negotiated, or voted off that path. The Republicans are fully committed to pretending that is not so. At the end of the day the True Conservatives can only be counted on to conserve the pretense. The waste and fraud are not artifacts of a poorly managed system. They are the purpose of the system. When grotesque and easily seen levels of fraud were identified in Minnesota and Ohio Mike DeWine told us that it was the cost of doing business. He accidentally told the truth. But the business is money laundering. The cost is any incidental benefit to the people used as the excuse. One way or another we are on the way to a very rough financial reckoning. It won't be avoided by being nice, and it won't be avoided by playing hard. It's coming. The president should recognize that he has no working majority and won't be getting one any time soon. He should seek a reliable minority (1/3+1) in one or both houses of Congress and be prepared to veto spending bills that don't eliminate as much of the money laundering funded class as he can get. Will it produce good results? Maybe. Will the present GOP produce anything worthwhile? No. Majority or minority status is irrelevant.
Learn to code should be replaced by:
Learn to lift
Learn to fight
Learn to weld
The problem is most of these things require the effort and determination beyond "learning".
I couldn't agree more! Similar waste goes on everywhere -- even in theoretically "private" (used advisedly) businesses. An example I see every time I go to my local branch of a grocery giant involves the locked up stuff -- liquor, toiletries, OTC meds and such. To buy them, you have to ring a bell, which triggers the eventual arrival of not one but two people. One is theoretically charged with unlocking the rack, but he can't do it alone because has to have a supervisor. I used to think this meant they didn't even trust their employees, but I think that's only part of it. The last time it happened, these two said they were bringing my stuff to "Register 7" so I should go there to pay. OK, whatever. LONG line at Register 7 with overwhelmed clerk. When I finally got to the front and asked where my stuff was, the clerk had to yell at other clerks, who conferenced until they found it at Register 3. This of course delayed the people behind me. So I thought I would tell the cashier that the man who unlocked the shelving unit clearly did not know what he was doing, and it wasn't the first time this had happened. She knew exactly what I was going to say and with an annoyed look replied, "Oh, he's SPECIAL!" As if that made everything OK (and if anyone is an idiot it's me). As if I'm just supposed to just learn to cooperate with the corporation's numbingly progressive employment practices. Sorry to rant, but I couldn't help wonder.... WHO PAYS??? Beyond that, who is subsidizing this nonsense?
How about this for a host killing parasite? The amount of federal funds misallocated by the states. It seems to get bigger each time someone actually checks on say, a day care center or hospice care facility in any large city. Fraud, waste and abuse is a common lament in all large national budgets, but only waste and abuse can be explained away by "the inefficient and poorly monitored system". Fraud dwarfs the other two and is actually deliberate, organized and criminal. It is also something that many of the non-native people committing it actually have no concept of when it comes to "defrauding" the government. Why? As someone who pointed this out noted, where they come from the governments themselves rip off the populace on an industrial scale. Come to the U.S., and the government hands out free money and doesn't even seem to care if it is used for its intended purpose. In their countries, stupid people get taken advantage of. I guess that makes us stupid. Have to wonder how many Republican politicians have been, and likely are still receiving some of this largesse. Certainly not seeing a lot of state level pursuit of the fraudsters commensurate with the massive and openly conducted activities. More perp walks, please.
I ran a small health care practice. It was more like a small family business with my wife running the front office and I labored in the productive back office. I found as time went on (I practiced from 1980-2023) as my practice (business ) grew I was able to do more with almost the same number of front office staff because of computer automation. Forms filled out with the press of one or two keys. Claims sent electronically rather than paper and mail. Many letters were form letters individualized and created with little effort on our computers. I expain the above because I was always disheartened to learn that the number of administrators in our school system and Town hall kept on increasing as computerization should have made the staff more efficient. I came to realize that the milliions spent was not to improve work but to improve votes. All those administrators and assistants and their families brough votes to a particular party. The results were an ever increasing amount of taxes and employees voting for more and more spending. I left that state as soon as I retired from my practice. As more and more productive people leave the parasites will have less hosts and finally, like always happens, the population will shrink and the parasites will either shrink, die or find new hosts.
We're not quite at the end stage of the American Empire, but some days it sure feels like it. We haven't had a constitutionally passed budget since before Obama. The Washington DC economic system of sucking the taxpayers dry to fund the politicians and their cronies will continue until it can't. You are most certainly correct that the parasites are driving the car. The old tree of Liberty is looking most thirsty.
Did I read somewhere about voting, bread, and circuses?
In the sentence that begins "I’ve heard historians suggest that the main return for the British from the Empire wasn’t economic — colonialism was for the most part (India was an exception) particularly lucrative —" I believe you left out the word "not". Colonialism was not lucrative and in fact lost money in most countries, at least according to Thomas Sowell.
Fixed. Thanks!
"I think there’s room to slash more if — and this is a big if — there are Republicans willing to do it."
That's a yes to the first part and a resounding no to the second. Not enough Republicans to matter.
It's becoming apparent the bulk of Congress - both parties - main focus is on keeping the money spigot on. They don't care what it's spent on as long as it's spent. Fraud and waste are of no consequence. They are terrified of upsetting the big dollar donors, 99% of whom expect a financial return on their investment. If cutting a billion dollars in waste jeopardizes a $20k earmark congress won't risk it.
There have been various proposals to hold congress accountable for fiscal performance, most of which require congress to implement (a non-starter). We have to find a way.
I would love to see a column on what legally feasible methods are available to hold congress accountable.
If we don't clean our own house, then someone else will - enemies both foreign and domestic, I think is what our documents state.
You mentioned Peter Turchin. A few years ago I read his book, "War and Peace and War" with its discussion of elite overproduction. And I've been concerned about that issue ever since. Through most of history, excess elites tended to be reduced during wartime--the Hundred Years' War between England and France, the English Civil War in the 1640s, the French Revolution, and even the American Civil War. But since WWII, most of our US elites no longer serve in the military. So now we have a lot of elites and what I have been calling "wannabe" elites. And the bills are going to come due.
My own roots are working-class. My father (born in 1919) was the first in his family to finish high school. I was the first to graduate from college. I was Salutatorian of my class, and some thought I would end up a professor. But my combination of autistic traits and Scots-Irish heritage made it harder for me to get along with the brass. I ended up first in a small business, then later fixing up a couple of houses for us to live in got me into the building trades in the late '80s--mostly remodeling, some new construction. It turned out I liked the work--making and fixing things is something I enjoy. Now that I'm retired, I still do some jobs for my family, and I now have another run-down house to fix up. But I always did and still have a good intellectual life.
I don't think there is any quick answer. It's going to take a while to work this stuff out. But the US spending deficits have to come down. I find it interesting that there seem to be two areas that are being dealt with--defunding NGOs and ending fraud on social programs.
We have a crises of downwardly mobile elites. I have no idea as to what the cure might be. Colonize the Moon and appoint them barons and dukes there?
The Biden administration depended on controlling AI for just that reason.
https://youtu.be/eZ5tanQtTUw?si=kg2E7wgkYEFQhYtQ
In the face of the AI revolution, I'm still inclined to tell the former denizens of the USAID grift to "learn to code". Sauce for the goose...
To wait for a Republican majority that will act is to accept the eventual elimination of the final vestiges of a republic. The Grand Old Party is more aptly described as The Grand Old Pretense. The Progressives in general and the Democrats in particular are fully commited to the elimination of any restraint on government power and to keeping that power permanently in their hands. They are well down a road They have been traveling for more than a century. They will not be compromised, negotiated, or voted off that path. The Republicans are fully committed to pretending that is not so. At the end of the day the True Conservatives can only be counted on to conserve the pretense. The waste and fraud are not artifacts of a poorly managed system. They are the purpose of the system. When grotesque and easily seen levels of fraud were identified in Minnesota and Ohio Mike DeWine told us that it was the cost of doing business. He accidentally told the truth. But the business is money laundering. The cost is any incidental benefit to the people used as the excuse. One way or another we are on the way to a very rough financial reckoning. It won't be avoided by being nice, and it won't be avoided by playing hard. It's coming. The president should recognize that he has no working majority and won't be getting one any time soon. He should seek a reliable minority (1/3+1) in one or both houses of Congress and be prepared to veto spending bills that don't eliminate as much of the money laundering funded class as he can get. Will it produce good results? Maybe. Will the present GOP produce anything worthwhile? No. Majority or minority status is irrelevant.