2014/03/06/Why Is Our Government So Incompetent
- when: 2014/03/06
- author: Tyler Durden
- source: Zero Hedge
- topics: anti-government bureaucracy
- keywords
- link: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-06/why-our-government-and-deep-state-so-incompetent
- title: Why Is Our Government (And Deep State) So Incompetent?
- summary: Though many may reckon the U.S. government (and its Deep State) are not so much incompetent as merely evil, I suggest incompetence sows the seeds of evil consequences.
Excerpt
It's easy to lay the responsibility for the state's incompetence on its staggering size and complexity, and there is much truth in the notion that no system of this scale and complexity can possibly be governable or accountable.
But I think we owe it to ourselves to dig a bit deeper than this to understand why our visible government (executive, Congress, regulatory agencies, the Federal Reserve, etc.) and the Deep State (everything that's decided and run behind closed doors) is so monumentally incompetent.
Comment
Woozle's comments from Google+:
Yes, large organizations have a tendency to become evil. The only way to prevent that is through democratic ownership, so that the "losers" have as much voice as the "winners", thus maintaining accountability.
This article describes the process, but doesn't really explain it -- and it unfairly focuses on government, as if only government were subject to this tendency, but the conclusion is true of any organization of sufficient size.
Also, some of the examples don't make sense. In what way can Obamacare be seen as a "purposeful loss of accountability"? The example of the Pentagon, which is certainly valid, also highlights the author's anti-government myopia, since the expansion of defense contracts is largely due to the undue (undemocratic) influence of powerful private contractors. The Pentagon has, on at least one occasion, asked for a program to be cut -- but Congress, at the direction of its electoral funders, refused to comply. Which system is to blame there -- private industry, which is responsible only to the profit-driven bottom line, or government, which is supposed to be (but currently isn't) accountable only to the voters? I'd say both of them -- and both therefore need systemic reform.
And finally: Note that the installation of incompetence at top bureaucratic positions (as a reward for political favors) was a hallmark of the Bush administration, not Obama's or Clinton's. Obama may at times install people who have corporate agendas, but that's not the same as incompetence.