The government is a huge and complex machine. It is also necessary for a whole lot of reasons.
The government we have has strayed so far for so long that it may be unrepairable.
Remember the story of the guy who went to jail for selling air mattresses to the government for $900. They ran a picture of his Bentley above the article about the scam and his arrest. The much bigger problem that was never discussed is that this went on for over 10 years! Someone "responsible" produced, approved and signed a contract with this guy to buy $900 air mattresses. Over the ensuing decade, many people received, reviewed and approved his invoices for payment. In so doing they printed, signed and mailed checks to this guy for 10 years for air mattresses, regular old air mattresses, at $900 a pop! Those guys need to be in jail too for being too lazy to do their jobs. Don't get me started on the FEMA trailer fiasco!
As a business owner who writes contracts, receives invoices and checks everything against the contract and the fair market value of the good or service I find it incomprehensible that something like this can happen for a decade! When I worked for a nation builder they checked invoices three times before the check went into the mail. 3 times and if there was a mistake someone was spoken to. If the mistakes continued, someone got fired. I also realize that the establishment is fully riddled with this kind of waste. The government is way way way too big to handle it's own affairs much less effectively govern.
GM is a good example of the shocking redundancy in our current government. Keep in mind I am not pointing to this administration, this has been building for generations. GM produces the same Trailblazer SUV under GMC, Chevy, Saab, Izusu and Buick. WTF? How much money do they waste producing the same truck with 5 different front ends for badging, probably 15 different interior finishes to establish each brand and the personnel to slap it all together under their individual union contracts as different car makers? This is effin stupid! A chevy version for middle America and a nicer Buick version for the rich folks. 2 trucks costs a bajillion dollars less to produce.
The government has become a bloated pig of inefficiency employing probably 6 times as many people as it should need to do the job. I do understand that part of the job is to create jobs but that parameter has gotten skewed way out of whack.
They need to take cues from private industry with regard to staffing. I know of employment contractors who staff jobs to fill government positions and it's incredibly lucrative because the government says they need 15 people to staff a project but the contractor knows it can be done with 5 people so he provides 5 people and charges for 15. This is the kind of shit that costs us all so much money and then they still can't get anything done and, as we have learned the very hard way, what we thought worked actually failed catastrophically and will continue to do so. Just think what that money could do for our serving military and our veterans or our schools.
On the flip side, it is the best in the world and I feel fortunate I was not born a little south of Texas and that I get to partake of the opportunities afforded us all in America. Most notably free speech, for now anyway
I'm going to lay down now.
PS: Smokin' hot chicks at the Eastern Motors area at the car show