Efficiency: government vs private sector...

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Peter Kropotkin
Posts: 1499
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2022 5:11 am

Efficiency: government vs private sector...

Post by Peter Kropotkin »

This topic has been on my mind for a while, but I haven't
gotten around to it... inefficiency I guess....and has been brought
home to me by my recent illness... On Tues night, Feb 28,
I came home from work feeling pretty good because the next day,
March 1, was my birthday....and then I had taken the next week and
half off, so I was a free man for 10 days... that night, I got sick and
have been sick every since... a stomach virus.. I was in the bathroom
the entire day of my birthday, getting sick... up and down, and then
spent the next few days in a similar state...I am finally able to keep
food and water in me yesterday... I am pretty much fine now, but I lost
several days of my birthday and vacation being sick.. I haven't even
celebrated my birthday yet... no cake, no going out to dinner, no
gifts, nothing...just being sick.. and this entire episode has reminded me
the point about efficiency in our lives.. we aren't very efficient beings...

science tells us that human beings are less than 30% efficient..
which means that between our intake of fuel, food/water
and our energy outtake, we are only about 25% efficient..
and for mechanical thing such as an automobile it is also
25%, and in fact, there is nothing on planet earth that
is even close to being 100% efficient... for example,
coal/gas fired stream, turbine power plants is only 47% efficient....
and solar panels are around 20% efficient...and what about
private industry efficiency vs government efficiency?

I would argue that they are roughly the same, around
30 or 40%...and anyone who has worked in private industry,
any length of time, would agree....the myth, and it is
a myth, that private industry can do anything the government
can do and more efficiently is simply wrong...

companies are wasteful to a remarkable degree in terms
of how they utilize their workers, utilize their money,
how they set out the who, what, when, how, why
and where of their companies...
and anyone who has worked in private industry has seen this,
time and time and time again... I have worked in companies that
have rolled out program after program that have been a spectacular
waste of time and money... after one such debacle, my company had
to hold company wide meetings at great cost to apologize for their
incredible waste of time and money in the roll out of one such
program....the only time in 15 years of working in this particular
company they have apologized for such actions... don't be fooled
by the false rhetoric of the efficacy of corporate America.....
it isn't true... so, where does that leave us?

with the knowledge that that private enterprise cannot do
what government does more efficiently...we cannot turn over
all/any aspects of our private existence, social security for example,
to private enterprise because of the lie that private enterprise is more
efficient...the conservative argument that depends
on the lie that the private enterprise is more efficient than the
government..... we have a basis for actions in terms of
what we have government do depends on our understanding of
the efficiency of the private enterprise and the government....
what we can expect from private enterprise and the government is
similar and thus we can make our decisions based on real/true
knowledge of the efficiency of private enterprise vs government...

Kropotkin
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Agent Smith
Posts: 1442
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:23 pm

Re: Efficiency: government vs private sector...

Post by Agent Smith »

The young know the secret of efficiency. The old know the secret of inefficiency. Between the two of 'em it's New Year, fireworks and all. Am I correct?
alan1000
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Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 10:03 am

Re: Efficiency: government vs private sector...

Post by alan1000 »

Ignoring Kropotkin's post, but replying to Agent Smith who, though so often fundamentally misguided in her/his thinking, is at least a real person.

Efficiency is a fairly straightforward conception which anybody of average intelligence ought to be able to understand... and thus appeals to the young, with their uncluttered minds. But inefficiency is actually a very complex phenomenon. Consider the Peter Principle. Every member of a bureaucracy is eventually promoted to her or his level of incompetence. Now there's a fine rich field for analysis! But there's also "functional inefficiency", meaning, we know this particular government subsidy is a waste of money, but if we abolish it, we will lose votes which could cost us the next election... such is life.
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Agent Smith
Posts: 1442
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:23 pm

Re: Efficiency: government vs private sector...

Post by Agent Smith »

Gracias kind person for makin' an effort to help me.
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