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Elon Musk’s DOGE is growing desperate for a “win”
(newrepublic.com)
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this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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politics
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Turns out the federal government is actually pretty efficient. Who would've thought!
Every time there's a World War, a bunch of industries are put under the control of the government in a process called Nationalization, or a "War Economy"...
...this is because it's highly efficient. This is an excellent argument against free market libertarian types. They don't put business in charge of government (like is being done now, eg. Privatization) they put the government in charge of business/industry.
My societal dream is that the government would nationalize industries once they reach the monopoly or oligopoly stage. Like, congratulations Comcast/Verizon, you won the game of capitalism. Now move over and let the government actually provide services to the people at a reasonable cost.
But I know this is just a dream.
Honestly I'd prefer that the government set up government corporations to provide basic needs. The private corporations could still operate but they would control the higher end market. The gov. corps. would just make sure basics were affordable, not high quality.
Need a car? The gov corp car is $15,000 brand new and is basic as hell, but it gets the job done.
Need Internet? The gov corp fiber network is mid range speed and connects to everyone. As a bonus for profit corps and but rights to the dumb pipe fiber network that the gov corp set up and off higher speed at a higher price.
Basic clothes, basic toiletries, basic food, etc. you want designer or high end stuff, get it from the for profit corps. But basic necessities should be made at cost by the government for the citizens. It is the job of the government to care for it's citizens after all.
I mean, the poison is already in your pitch - "private sector gets the high end". What happens when the government fiber turns out to be faster? What happens when the government cheese is actually better? What happens when the government clothes turn out to be higher quality than the shit we wear today?
What is Verizon going to do? Cry to Congress that they need to go out of their way and pay more to artificially slow down gov fiber. Kellogg will cry free healthy food is ruining demand for overprocessed corn syrup products. If they don't kill it in the cradle they're all going to chip away at it, one bit at a time
How about the government produces the basics and the infrastructure, and corporations get fucked? Let small local business take over, and use the infrastructure at cost. Let competition thrive, and we use antitrust like the pro-active protection against oligarchy it was meant to be
I get what you're saying, but government fiber speeds could be capped, products wouldn't be high end, ect.
I am by no means an economist, or an expert in these matters, and I apologize if I was presenting as those I was. I just feel like you should put those kind of ideas out there for others to iterate on.
There is no point in capping fiber speeds. Either that capacity is in use or it isn't. It isn't like water, where a resource is depleted from usage.
Aside from that, I agree with your concept of the government providing all the essentials. Capitalism is great for providing products that suit a person's individuality, but it sucks at ensuring the survival and wellbeing of people.
Ok, now that I've had a bit of sleep (,3rd shifter here) how about the government owns the fiber a sells access to the for profit companies. But there is no monopolies so there is competition and every company is required to offer a basic package that is low cost and has enough bandwidth for the average work from home video meeting. Oh yeah, and no data caps.
After that they can increase prices and offer more services. And if somewhere like farm country isn't being served by any of the for profit companies, then the government corporation could set up an ISP and serve those citizens.
That is local loop unbundling. Anyhow, as I said, no point in capping data speed. Society benefits from faster internet - less congestion, transactions like stocks, purchasing goods, and Zoom meetings are all faster or more reliable. It is a type of infrastructure that benefits civilization, in ways far more beneficial than raw money itself. Time is the most valuable thing for every human, since you can't buy more and it is always depleting. The less time people spend on slow internet, the more they can use it for other things.
Money should not, must not, be the purpose of civilization. That is just enslaving humans to it. We invented it to save time, and shouldn't lose sight of that.
It is the job of the government to care for it's citizens after all.
This is where some people would have a difference of opinion.
While I disagree with those that feel differently, that's what this country is supposed to be about, finding a middle ground in differing opinions. Sadly we seem to have largely lost that mentality.
Like they do for snail mail? The government gets an envelope through in one or two days for a dollar or two, the corporations do it in two or four days for ten or fifteen... Because they're high end?
This is how I assumed things would work when I was a child.
Efficient and complicated. Not that these dipshits would understand that.
And super fucking important
I wouldn’t call it “efficient” but I would call it optimal given the complexity.
"Optimal given the complexity" fits the definition of efficient.
I think it certainly can, since humans are involved, and humans are messy.
A lot of government stuff should be automated in software, but that takes an immense amount of time to develop. Like… why are taxes so hard when the IRS always has all my data?
Efficient? Not as much as it should be. But good luck wrangling that many people’s needs at once.
I mean, simple file should already be a thing, and the IRS would prefer it be easier for everyone to file. But h&r block and turbotax have lobbied heavily against it because they'd lose money with easier filing. One way to make things more streamlined and efficient would be to get rid of middle men and focus on making internal systems better.
But this administration wants the internal systems to be broken and needlessly complex so that they can outsource it to their preferred middle men so that they all make a lot more money.
Yeah a lot of government inefficiencies can be explained by the private sector blocking their abilities and influencing sellout politicians. If lawmakers truly worked for the interests of the masses you'd see a lot better systems/procedures. You think long voting lines are because the government can't run elections properly? Nah it's from lawmakers purposefully making things worse to better themselves
Taxes are so hard because Tax Return Companies spend a lot of money to lobby the government to make it harder. The IRS could do it all in-house for "free" but there's too much money in making us go through 3rd parties to file our taxes. Private business always finds a way to add more inefficiency to processes to make us pay more so they can nickel and dime us. "Want that efficient service? Well, you got to pay more." It's a scam.
There is a lot of stuff, sure, that could be automated in software, but that's mostly admin work, like processing invoices and things like that. But then, no one ever wants to spend money on things. For instance, I work for a state DOT. It's a battle to get the state legislature to properly fund maintenance. They'd rather spend their money on new shiny things they can show off to get elected.
The real inefficiency in government is almost always directly related to the elected official's decisions. Take graffiti, they don't want to spend money, and we don't have the budget to keep up with graffiti and provide road maintenance. But then a big sports event or famous band comes to town for a huge event, and next thing you know graffiti is our number one priority.
Shit's so silly. Especially with taxes. It's an example of exactly what's wrong with this country.
As far as graffiti goes, I think we should just let people go at it. The city belongs to the people, let them paint it. If someone scrawls "I floss my teeth with ass hair" across a wall, a better artist will come put something cool over it.
In some European countries, the government automatically does the taxes and just sends a letter showing the result of the calculation so you have a chance to review the result.
They have all the numbers already...
A lot of government 'redundancy' is the auditing/oversight process where people check other people's work. Plus ensuring there is adequate staffing for the busy times, like tax season!
But a lot of the things like not having taxes automatically calculated for the vast majority of the population or similar complex systems is the fault of the legislature. They wrote the laws that kept the IRS from building the system that lets people confirm their taxes are right and add exemptions.