Government Waste

Government putting the burden of waste on the taxpayers back. Good intentions aren't good outcomes. Government putting the burden of waste on the taxpayers back. Good intentions aren't good outcomes: Affordable Housing, Bay Bridge Boondoggle, California Water Crisis, Costs of Defensive Medicine, Government R&D Spending, Green Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Military Acquisition Costs: why do things cost so much?, Military industrial complex, Net Neutrality, Prop D, Shanty Town, Solar Power, The Last Shuttle Launch is a new beginning, When is there too much Government? ℹ️ Info           ~ Aristotle Sabouni Created: 2019-01-31

Government, Waste • [15 items]

Affordable Housing
The first thing to remember about affordable housing, is that it isn't. What affordable housing does is that it decreases supply and increases costs for the many, in order to cherry pick a few that it helps. I'm happy for the few, but I'm not usually willing to hurt the many to do it.

Bay Bridge Boondoggle
The bay bridge is a metaphor for San Francisco. The Golden Gate was built privately and under budget for $35M ($1.2B in today's dollars), one span of the Bay Bridge needed a retrofit. It was run by the city and came in late, and over budget at $6.4B, has metallurgy issues. All show, but we could have built 4 other bridges for the price.

California Water Crisis

California's water drought has nothing to do with rain, and everything to do with the failure of government. Cal captures 1% of the water, then since 2007 flushes 46% of that into the ocean for "environmental purposes" (a baitfish the delta smelt), 43% goes to farming, 11% goes to urban areas. When there's a problem they raise the cost of water and punish the 11%: because that's where the money is.

Costs of Defensive Medicine
There are often unexpected consequences for everything we do. I had a minor epiphany for improving a medical device/process, that heads my company (Baxter) agreed would save lives... but they could never use it because of medical liability. When they say, "Defensive medicine"... it is about protecting the company from lawsuits, thanks to overlitigation.

Government R&D Spending
If you only look at the government wins in R&D, things look great. If you look at the bigger picture, you'll understand why government R&D usually has huge costs and small payouts. Politicians playing technologists, using our money, may be fun for them, or earn them votes for caring by the gullible, but it's not fair to taxpayers.

Green Energy
Green Energy: doesn't exist, isn't cheaper, and can't provide all our power needs. Solar and Wind is unreliable, space inefficient and is expensive if you remember to add in the costs of over-capacity, backup plants, and storage. Cheap and reliable forms of Green Energy are: Nuclear, Hydroelectric and Geothermal: the left opposes adoption of these greener energy solutions.

Housing and Urban Development
HUD (Housing and urban development) has various programs that are meant to help low income and first time buyers into their own homes. Sounds great, right? Too many people can’t afford a house, so a little wealth redistribution ought to help them out? Yet, in many cases the opposite has happened. Here's my story about some of the negative and unintended consequences of HUD.

Military Acquisition Costs: why do things cost so much?
If you hear someone claim "that military screwdriver cost $500", or something like that, then you know that person is gullible, or a polemic. The truth is far more nuanced. When politicians get involved, bureaucracy will increase -- and those costs will be absorbed and passed on to the consumer. So you get what you pay for, and we're paying for political waste.

Military industrial complex
Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about iron triangles (government conspiring with politicians and special interests to work against the public), and coined the term "the Military Industrial Complex". The military has fallen to 1/4th the spending while Poverty Industrial Complex has grown 8x (far larger that military spending). The warning still applies, the biggest threat has changed.

Net Neutrality
We had no net neutrality for the first 60+ years of networking, the Obama admin invented a few "regulations" in 2015 to protect us from liberty (imaginary demons under the bed and non-problems that weren't happening), and the left/media acts like repeal of that (liberty) will be going back to the slavery of 2015.

Prop D
This is a vacancy tax that penalizes landlords for the inability to find tenants for their storefronts after the city has made it harder to find tenants for their storefronts. If you want to know why businesses flee the state, and why the rest of the nation thinks that SF is a city of fascist morons, look no further than the Prop D.

Shanty Town
I have no problems with social experiments. I just want honest accounting of them. San Jose Mayor (Sam Liccardo) got people to sponsor "tiny homes" (garden sheds) for the homeless on public lands, at about about 5x the cost per unit (≈$70K each) as it would cost an individual. Which I find compassionate to the homeless, and cruel to the taxpayers.

Solar Power
Different "Solar Power" has different issues: centralized (big plant) or distributed (residential) solar power. But there's a lot of flim-flam in what the cost/benefits are. It is not as green as the proponents pretend, it wouldn't need subsidies if it was cheaper, and it has no reliability unless it has backup plants that aren't "Green". So I debunk some of the lies (exaggerations).

The Last Shuttle Launch is a new beginning
The last Shuttle Launch has happened today. The end of an era. Hopefully the beginning of a new one. Now that the government monopoly on space is weakened, the rate of progress can increase.

When is there too much Government?
When is there too much Government? That depends on which side of the law you're on: the oppressor or the oppressed. If Government is stopping your neighbor from woodworking at 3:00 am, then it's great... if it's stopping you from finishing your hobby at that time, then it sucks. For leftist oppressors? More, please.

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