[bobby_9x]

I disagree. I worked in a few different government departments that depended on funding.

We always had a surplus at the end of the year and the boss would tell us to spend it on anything and everything because if we didn't, there would be less money in funding the next year.

The amount of waste was incredible and it made me angry. It's why I went into the private sector/started my own company.

You also almost could never get fired. We had so many bad employees that basically sat to get a paycheck and take up space. If you are really lazy, it's great.

Because of this game that is played, it's very difficult to tell if a department 'ran out of money' or just spent it to meet next year's budget.

[SteveLAnderson]

Ask yourself, honestly, what percentage of the entire budget was that end of year splurge? In my experience it's very small, much smaller then the year to year cost inflation.

There's tons of waste in any large organization. In my experience, private companies have more waste (resources and personnel) then public organizations as they have much less oversight.

[oldmanjay]

The goalposts are all over the place. The only reply I have for this is that private institutions only waste my money if I own them, the government wastes my money by force.