State of Emergency is the only option such that the public employees can be audited in whole which would necessarily involve treading on their civil liberties, accessing their private information, etc. Even then it's still difficult to root everything out, but the more overt bad actors can be revealed this way

We already have a pretense for this (Covid state of emergency) so I don't see it as an issue

This post was edited by El1te on Nov 23 2024 03:03pm

I think part of it is starting with defining the mission and purpose of some of these agencies and basically re-focusing the scope of their existence and not allow mission creep. For example, the department of education. They really should only exist to set some minimum curriculum criteria, in math, science, etc. for the entire country that's competitive with global leaders, then how that's accomplished is mostly on the states. Maybe update guidance on certain things every few years as new science comes out, rework standardized tests. Do we actually need 4,400 people working there though? What exactly do they actually do? We can probably cut 1/3 of that department and consolidate it and no one would notice a difference.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Nov 23 2024 04:03pm

There is a thing in bureaucracy: if they work more effective than previous term, their budget is cut That's why in every modern bureaucracy people try to expend all of the yearly budget as fast as possible before the yearly audit arrives. In privat profit driven companies, you have entities which can estimate the usage and output to counter that. In government, the bloat gets bloated every year with no real evidence as of why. The AI approach is the only right one to identify the hotspots first. I am also supervising application of the modern process mining algorithms in our company. You get to know stuff buried very deeply between countless regulations which costs lots of money with little return.

This post was edited by babun1024 on Nov 23 2024 04:36pm

Private entities also usually have shareholders or capital providers that will do something about management if the company is mismanaged over time. At my job there were a lot of cuts during the last year, a ton of middle management consolidation. They also froze business travel for vast majority of company. Sure, relationship managers that meet with clients and drive revenue directly, yeah those need to travel but everyone else? It was just a waste and more of a perk for employees to go to NYC, London, etc.

With government that mechanism doesn't exist. If you don't use up all of the funding, next year they will most likely cut it, so there is always an incentive to continuously use it all and even ask for more. I mean i've literally experienced this when working for fed. govt years back. Huge amount of waste.

You pretty much reworded what I said. To add, those bureaucrats are really creative in their "legal ways" of overspending to bypass regulations. You really need AI.

This post was edited by babun1024 on Nov 23 2024 05:02pm

This is why companies hire consultants.

That way the company doesn't have to get their hands dirty either.

I think Trump should do the same thing en masse.

Consultants can be useful for low hanging fruit, but it's hard to make serious change unless you understand the ins and outs of process. That takes someone who understands the businesses KPIs and how the workflow operates. I would think regulations and the associated paperwork are were DOGE is going to find 99% of any value they create.

There’s your first 15k downsize if true



https://x.com/collinrugg/status/1860830888600248324?s=46

This isn't even low hanging fruit, this is fruit that has long since fallen on the ground.

Declassified Pentagon F-35 Study Details Reliability, Security Woes for America’s Costliest Weapon
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2024/11/21/declassified-pentagon-f-35-study-details-reliability-security-woes-for-americas-costliest-weapon/

Elon Musk Shoots Down Lockheed Martin, Other F-35 Defense Stocks
https://www.investors.com/news/elon-musk-shoots-down-lockheed-martin-other-f-35-defense-stocks/

Id be VERY careful if i was elon. You dont get to mess with the MICs share prices and live to tell the tale. F35 (hangar queens) was still the biggest scam ever created though.