Honestly, I used to say the same thing when my background was mostly large multinationals, banks etc. But I’ve seen things in government contracts that are way beyond anything I came across in the private sector. If I extrapolate my experience across the rest of the government, it’s easy to imagine just how much money is being wasted, and most of it goes straight into the hands of huge consultancy firms.
And it makes sense right? The government is held to way more account than the private sector. Ass covering twinned with lack of accountability is rife. Huge amounts of money are thrown into projects that simply cannot fail or some aspect of the country risks complete shut down.
I’ve no idea what the fix is, but I believe there is an issue here that is unique to the government. Of course though, it’s so sad to think that people would turn to hate and fascism as any kind of solution.
That’s the thing – governments have a lot more requirements than corporations. They’ve also got a whole lot more riding on them, so the stakes are higher.
You have to pay for consultants since you need to get the best talent, but you can’t afford (and don’t need) them to be on the payroll forever.
You have to pay for auditors because you’re under more financial scrutiny.
You have to take things more slowly because you can’t make risky decisions and there are layers upon layers of bureaucracy regarding decisions.
So what do we cut out?
Get rid of the consultants? Well, you either hire them (whose salaries you can’t afford – top talent will leave), or you don’t bring on consultants at all (which means you can’t do the things you need to do). Or you pay your staff for training, which might work, but then those staff might leave and the investment is gone before anything new is built. And it might cost as much as the consultants, plus take longer.
Get rid of the auditors? But we want more financial scrutiny.
Get rid of the bureaucracy? Sure, everyone would love that. Except when the reason for each strip of red tape is revealed when something goes wrong.
Like you said, there are no easy answers. And when these costs have justifications for existing, I think that’s when they turn from “waste” to “necessary (yet unfortunate) expenses”.
Organizational waste in general seems like an inevitability. Corporations have waste too – this isn’t unique to governments
And what Musk is doing has nothing to do with efficiency
Honestly, I used to say the same thing when my background was mostly large multinationals, banks etc. But I’ve seen things in government contracts that are way beyond anything I came across in the private sector. If I extrapolate my experience across the rest of the government, it’s easy to imagine just how much money is being wasted, and most of it goes straight into the hands of huge consultancy firms.
And it makes sense right? The government is held to way more account than the private sector. Ass covering twinned with lack of accountability is rife. Huge amounts of money are thrown into projects that simply cannot fail or some aspect of the country risks complete shut down.
I’ve no idea what the fix is, but I believe there is an issue here that is unique to the government. Of course though, it’s so sad to think that people would turn to hate and fascism as any kind of solution.
That’s the thing – governments have a lot more requirements than corporations. They’ve also got a whole lot more riding on them, so the stakes are higher.
You have to pay for consultants since you need to get the best talent, but you can’t afford (and don’t need) them to be on the payroll forever.
You have to pay for auditors because you’re under more financial scrutiny.
You have to take things more slowly because you can’t make risky decisions and there are layers upon layers of bureaucracy regarding decisions.
So what do we cut out?
Get rid of the consultants? Well, you either hire them (whose salaries you can’t afford – top talent will leave), or you don’t bring on consultants at all (which means you can’t do the things you need to do). Or you pay your staff for training, which might work, but then those staff might leave and the investment is gone before anything new is built. And it might cost as much as the consultants, plus take longer.
Get rid of the auditors? But we want more financial scrutiny.
Get rid of the bureaucracy? Sure, everyone would love that. Except when the reason for each strip of red tape is revealed when something goes wrong.
Like you said, there are no easy answers. And when these costs have justifications for existing, I think that’s when they turn from “waste” to “necessary (yet unfortunate) expenses”.