Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by s0uthPaw88 3821 days ago
Government run social welfare programs are actually pretty efficient since they have huge economies of scale [1].

[1]http://www.cbpp.org/research/romneys-charge-that-most-federa...

1 comments

I'd actually worry more about how efficiently the money is being used after it's been disbursed, not about how much government administrative costs eat up.

E.g. that chart says that ~96% of Medicare spending went to beneficiaries. That sounds good, but all it means is that 96% of the dollars were paid to hospitals/doctors/medical device manufacturers/etc. It says nothing about how efficiently those people are providing their services, i.e. how efficiently those 96% of Medicare dollars are being spent. A lot of those dollars get quickly chewed up by high prices (which I'd argue are themselves caused by the market distortions that these programs foster).