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DOGE is DUMB [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-17
The whole concept of DOGE is ridiculous. It is an incredibly stupid way of evaluating government policies, programs, and spending.
First, it mistakes being efficient with being effective. It elevates “making the trains run on time,” to the ultimate good of government, when the whole aim should be how can the services only government can uniquely provide be delivered?
In times of disaster, we depend on FEMA to assist local governments in the rebuilding process, while providing aid to those who were affected. Cutting down paperwork would certainly make the process more efficient, but the costs would be that the connected could elbow their way to the front of the line and schemers would find ways to steal money. The result would be that many, who truly needed help, could be left out in the cold…quite literally.
Second, government is designed to be inefficient, so that it can be effective. We require that contracts, for example, be put up for bid, an inefficient process, in order to make the best deal in the most transparent way. Moreover, this slow process prevents corruption. Boss Tweed’s methods were probably efficient, but the corruption was enormous and the work was often shoddy.
The private sector is motivated by profit. Shedding redundancies often makes short-term sense. But like our electric grid, we need excess capacity and backup systems in our government to deal with new challenges. And, by definition, that means we need inefficiency to achieve effectiveness.
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