Government Waste: The Bright Side
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James Joyner | Monday, January 26, 2009 |
Tom Smith answers the question, “How efficiently can the Government waste money?” with an uncharacteristic optimism.
I think alpha is greater than one. You may think that’s impossible, but I’ve seen it done. For example, you can tax productive people to pay other people to make sure still other people don’t do anything productive. If the government just taxes and borrows and then wastes it all, they are actually doing pretty well.
Some things in life are bad; they can really make you mad. Other things just make you swear and curse.
(In fairness, there’s the aquaducts. And the roads. And sanitation.)
Photo by Flickr user Clint JCL, used under Creative Commons license.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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"...[B]ut I've seen it done. For example, you can ..."
That's not much of an example of "I've seen it done" -- in fact, he doesn't provide an example, just a method for increasing inefficiency. Anybody can play that game to wonderful benefit. To wit:
I've seen planes fly in space. For example, you can launch a 747 with a solid rocket booster.
Which is not to say that the scenario he posits doesn't or can't exist, just that his statement is a bit, shall we say, unproductive.
(In fairness, there’s the aquaducts. And the roads. And sanitation.)
Yeah, and somebody owes us a definition of "productive".
"Yeah, and somebody owes us a definition of "productive"."
I blame the Judean People's Liberation Front.
PEOPL'S FRONT FOR LIBERATION OF JUDEA!!!
"Peace! SH*T!!"
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