[themagician]

A big part of what the government does is provide stability. It's supposed to be slow an inefficient. It provides a lot of jobs to people who are otherwise unemployable.

If we aim for 100% efficiency we end up with massive unemployment, because a lot of jobs and businesses are just not necessary. We all just got to experience that first hand, as when COVID hit something like 1/3rd of people either stop worked or worked massive reduced hours and the truth of the matter is the world kept spinning JUST FINE, save for a some inconveniences.

The more efficient things becomes, the more another mechanism is needed to control people, so you are going to eventually have to bring back some kind of formal class system or slavery.

[buerkle]

"It provides a lot of jobs to people who are otherwise unemployable.", what a ridiculous and condescending statement. If that was true, the number of federal employees would be much higher but in fact the number has stayed relatively flat for over 50 years at 2.8 million federal employees. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES9091000001

[gottorf]

I'm sure there are bright and talented government workers, but it's not a stretch of the imagination to say that a lot of factors make government employment cushier for some people than they might otherwise find in private employment. Or do you think the 60k employees of the TSA actually stop terrorist threats to commercial aviation?

And I'm not sure how your logic follows; there's no link between GP's claim that some government jobs effectively function as a form of welfare and your claim that the number of people eligible for this welfare must increase over time.

[rlpb]

> It provides a lot of jobs to people who are otherwise unemployable.

You seem to be implying that this is a desirable property of government. I don't think that's true, and I think that the Broken Window Fallacy applies to your argument.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

[joshbetz]

Perhaps inefficiency is not desirable, but it should be deliberative. These rash, uninformed actions will have consequences.

[codeguro]

> It's supposed to be slow an inefficient.

For creating new legislature. Because the relationship between the government and individuals is fundamentally that of force.

> It provides a lot of jobs to people who are otherwise unemployable.

I disagree. The purpose of the government is to secure individual liberties and provide national stability. ALL its programs must serve that strategic objective. Its purpose is not to provide handouts or employment; that is incidental. You don't want incompetent buffoons running the government anyway, or you'll get a bureaucratic inefficient mess.

> a lot of jobs and businesses are just not necessary

So what? There's nothing wrong with having people learn skills in the private sector. At least their relationship to the people around them isn't based on force like it is with the government. Who are you to proclaim what businesses and jobs are necessary anyway? If a business is successful, it must be serving someone, somewhere well enough for them to be paid anyway.

> when COVID hit something like 1/3rd of people either stop worked or worked massive reduced hours and the truth of the matter is the world kept spinning JUST FINE

A lot of people lost their jobs and livelihoods unnecessarily, because they were forced out by the new government regulations. Sure, they may have still lived, but I can promise you their quality of life has reduced. There was more unemployment. More people depended on government benefits provided by productive people still working, rather than depending on themselves and their own businesses. It takes a lot of mental gymnastics to make rhetoric that twists that into a good thing. It's only good if you want more and bigger government with more control, all at the taxpayers' expense.