Thank you for writing this. I was in the feral government for just shy of 30 years - in the military, but I have eyes and the military was supposed to be the "competent" ones. I observed the changes from within from 1985 to 2014 and am still very close to the beast. Our founders envisaged a very limited, weak and mainly incompetent central government, capable of only doing a few, enumerated things, leaving most "governance" to local and state (accountable to the people). What we have today at the national level is still grotesquely incompetent, but it is enormous and way outside of any constitutional bounds. This titanic sized feral government gives "running room" for incompetent, partisan bureaucrats to centrally direct their own utopian vision for all of society - and state/local governments sprinting to do the same. An incompetent, destructive, unaccountable Colossus. riding atop an increasingly sclerotic private sector that cannot keep up with the regulatory pace and is breaking under the strain.
There can be no visionary "architectural" solution to make it better - more of this, but less of that. It just needs to be smaller. A lot smaller. Start with a ten percent across the board reduction in funding annually. I don't care, let the best and brightest figure out how to get by on ten percent less each year. Maybe start with what the constitution says and work toward that. And I really liked Trump's EO that required two regulations rescinded for every new one imposed. Maybe voters in goofy states like NY will see the light. Less is better - but it has to be a LOT less.
“Dunder Mifflin with a 6 trillion budget.” That’s accurate - and clever!
Thank you for writing this. I was in the feral government for just shy of 30 years - in the military, but I have eyes and the military was supposed to be the "competent" ones. I observed the changes from within from 1985 to 2014 and am still very close to the beast. Our founders envisaged a very limited, weak and mainly incompetent central government, capable of only doing a few, enumerated things, leaving most "governance" to local and state (accountable to the people). What we have today at the national level is still grotesquely incompetent, but it is enormous and way outside of any constitutional bounds. This titanic sized feral government gives "running room" for incompetent, partisan bureaucrats to centrally direct their own utopian vision for all of society - and state/local governments sprinting to do the same. An incompetent, destructive, unaccountable Colossus. riding atop an increasingly sclerotic private sector that cannot keep up with the regulatory pace and is breaking under the strain.
There can be no visionary "architectural" solution to make it better - more of this, but less of that. It just needs to be smaller. A lot smaller. Start with a ten percent across the board reduction in funding annually. I don't care, let the best and brightest figure out how to get by on ten percent less each year. Maybe start with what the constitution says and work toward that. And I really liked Trump's EO that required two regulations rescinded for every new one imposed. Maybe voters in goofy states like NY will see the light. Less is better - but it has to be a LOT less.
Incompetence theories are far more provable.