The Tungsten Triangle

There's an old Greek proverb, “Φασούλι το φασούλι γεμίζει το σακούλι,” that translates as "the bag gets filled one bean at a time." Another version, coined by Scottish poet Robert Green back in 1587, goes "many a little makes a mickle." A more widely known version, popularly attributed to Benjamin Franklin, goes "A penny saved is a penny earned."

All offer the same advice.

Most of us, however, are more apt to cleave to punster Shelby Friedman's more modern version, "a penny saved is ridiculous."

Especially when it comes to Other People's Money, and double-especially when it comes to government spending.

Every time I see a report about DOGE finding some ridiculous program being funded by taxpayers, or some waste or duplication or fraud uncovered, I inevitably see someone snark that "it's peanuts, it's a trivial amount of money, they're not going after the real problems."

I usually reply "every dollar wasted is an insult to taxpayers," but it's hard to get people who are not already inclined to be outraged by the spectacular abuses to crank up over a few hundred thousand here and a few million there.