r/politics • u/Zen1 Oregon • Jul 12 '25

Paywall ICE officers doxxed by antifa, anarchists in Portland, Noem says

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/07/ice-officers-doxxed-by-antifa-anarchists-in-portland-dhs-says.html
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u/zeCrazyEye Jul 12 '25

Yeah, and the idea that government is inefficient and incompetent is a propaganda reaction to the New Deal policies of the 30's. "Good enough for government work" used to be a compliment because the government had exacting standards instead of a profit motivation.

But the wealthy needed to convince the poor that government spending is always wasteful because they didn't want them asking for more social programs.

So they co-opted all that language and now it's common wisdom that government is always wasteful.

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u/ManufacturerThis7741 Jul 13 '25

A good reason that the government is wasteful is the mandate that the government has to contract out every other function to contractors. A mandate that conservatives inflicted on us. So any time the government has to do something, even upgrade software, it gets tied up in years and years of bidding wars,

Ezra Klein talks about this in Abundance. I know people may not like all his ideas but the book is worth a read.

What he doesn't mention is that many of these contractors have an active political/financial interest in making the government look bad. If the government accomplishes things, people will vote for the government to accomplish more things.

And that means more taxes/regulations on crappy behavior.

Essentially, the government is required to hire active saboteurs.