(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



We need an EFFECTIVE government. Not an EFFICIENT one. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-03-02

In economics, “efficiency” measures whether resources are fully utilized. In engineering,

“effectiveness” measures whether needs are fully met.

Economics looks at questions from a capitalist perspective — are one’s resources producing the largest return on investment they can? In order to maximize the return on resources, one doesn’t want resources to sit idle. But what that means is that whenever a resource becomes available, there is a need waiting ready to use it. What that means is that, for a system to be “efficient”, there must be unmet needs waiting around for the next resource.

Engineering looks at questions from a functionalist perspective — does the system achieve the goals set out for it? In order to maximize the ability to achieve those goals, one needs sufficient capacity to meet the needs, even in high throughput conditions. What that means is that when needs arise, resources need to be available for that need to be met. What that means is that, for a system to be “effective”, there must be unused resources waiting around for when needs pile up.

These insights have several implications.

1. Government is not a business. Government is supposed to be the backstop for unmet needs in crisis. Government must be there when the businesses fail.

2. Most efficiency analyses are based on incorrect assessments of costs in crisis. Because crises have large probability tails with larger that standard-model costs (Mandlebrot), building slack into a system (lower immediate efficiency, but higher effectiveness) often creates more long-term benefits because (2a) crises arise less often and (2b) crises are more easily mitigated when they do arise (Mullianathan and Shafir).

3. In fact, in practice, one consequence of point 2 is that government is often more efficient than modern corporate businesses because it has a longer-term goal perspective. (This is why we invest in science through government. This is why government stockpiles resources for crises.) Of course, business doesn’t have to be this way, businesses could take on a longer non-short-term shareholder perspective… if they wanted to (Stout).

4. Furthermore, by chasing the actual goals (deliver the mail, do science, treat patients) rather than achieving these goals as a consequence of capitalist pecuniary goals (make money by delivering enough), a well-run government doesn’t enshittify itself the way (even well-run) corporations do (Doctorow).

PS. Yes, I know that #ElonMusk‘s #DOGE is almost certainly a Die Hard Gruber heist plan (steal money while appearing to be a terrorist), designed to remove oversight of his own companies and to remove competitor’s government contracts. And I know that #Trump’s goals are almost certainly more straightforward “mafia don” (l’etat c’est moi, “I am the law”, demanding individual respect), which never works on a large scale (this is why large societies have bureaucracies).

However, we need a better counter to the whole “government as business”, “government is inefficient” discussion than “stop being evil”. We need to stop admitting that there are “inefficiencies in government.” That’s OK. That’s important. Government has inefficiencies because it’s goal is to be effective.

This is that answer. Perhaps it is the message we can get behind to change the narrative.

To the Kossack community — I’m thinking of doing a series on these issues. I’m a professor at a major research university with expertise at the boundary between neuropsychology and economics and have an engineering PhD. My work is primarily in the realm of individual decision making, but have recent work bringing in larger scale sociological questions. If the Kossack community finds this useful and interesting, I will expand on this conversation with follow-up posts about the implications of these insights. I’ve generally, not brought my expertise into the political arena much before, but I will if the community finds this useful.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/2/2306596/-We-need-an-EFFECTIVE-government-Not-an-EFFICIENT-one?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/