Why do we need so much government? (Public Board)

by JoFrance, Wednesday, October 16, 2024, 20:34 (283 days ago)
edited by JoFrance, Wednesday, October 16, 2024, 20:42

I was shocked when I read this article about how many people work for the government.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/10/10/government-employees-exceed-population-of-florida/

"As of this September, federal, state, and local governments in this country employed a record total of 23,421,000 individuals, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

No wonder the country has so much debt. A lot of those jobs are probably useless jobs, sucking off the teat of government. Taxpayers have no control over where their money goes. The government has become a monster. We have to downsize.

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The IBM guy's anecdote about system overhead

by Cornpop Sutton ⌂, A bad bad dude who makes good shine., Thursday, October 17, 2024, 00:55 (283 days ago) @ JoFrance

I contracted at an IBM facility in Boca Raton about 35 years ago. (not the one that made PCs. A different division that developed automation for factory floors.)

The room I was parked in was also the access for one of their active mainframes.

A guy who maintained that system told one of my office mates the following:

The VM operating system (the standard for IBM big iron) consumed 90% of the CPU resources in order to manage and dole out the remainder 10% to processes that did actual useful work such as calculations.

Just a data point on system overhead. If an MMT person got hold of this information, 9 out of 10 US residents would work for the government.

The IBM guy's anecdote about system overhead

by JoFrance, Thursday, October 17, 2024, 19:36 (282 days ago) @ Cornpop Sutton

That's a great example of where we're headed if we don't reign in our blob of a government. IBM needed that power for critical operations wherever it was deployed. They were great systems. Our government is too big and unaffordable.

Lets start with the federal government. Why do they need 3 million people? That's a lot of people. Are they efficient? Nope. I'm sure there are lots of consultants not included in the headcounts that help them out too.

I love that Elon Musk wants to be in charge of cost cutting if Trump wins. This is just what we need. He did a great job when he gutted Twitter.

https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-announces-new-secretary-position-just-elon-musk-dying/

Why do we need so much government?

by FSK, Thursday, October 17, 2024, 01:29 (283 days ago) @ JoFrance

One example is the so-called Laffer Curve, which basically says that the optimal taxation rate is the one that maximizes the size of the government.

Government has a monopoly of all things it touches, so the natural tendency is for it to get bigger over time.

If someone has the ability to say "Pay us or we kill you.", wouldn't you expect their business to grow bigger and bigger without limits?

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