[kumarvvr]

It is highly surprising that the narrative in the US has morphed the expenses on public institutions of enormous importance, into wastage, something that has to be cut or eliminated.

Why is it that no one is pointing out the contribution of these institutions to the US and the world?

The US, has a society, has grown so materialistic, that they fail to see anything beyond money.

Somethings cannot be measured by money. In fact, when it comes to public governance, money is the least useful thing.

[okanat]

Nothing surprising there. The US-led social media finally achived its biggest success. It made weaponized ignorance viable at an enormous scale.

Not just in the US but all over the world. The fight now is anybody with some critical thought ability vs willfully and violently ignorant. The former is getting fewer in the numbers and the latter is out for blood. We need to be very efficient to disarm and passivize the violent ignorants otherwise they will slowly kill us and the humanity.

[kumarvvr]

> all over the world

Not in India. Here, there is no concept of Big Govt. The concept is "What is this govt. going to give me for free for me to vote for it"

Its the other end of the complimentary spectrum.

[okanat]

I'm no American and I am from a country (Turkey, but I moved out) that has some similarities to both Asian and Western style corruption.

> "What is this govt. going to give me for free for me to vote for it"

The exact line of thinking has caused its own Trump case in Turkey. It is similar for the Eastern Europe. Many voted for Trump for petty small interests and very short term gains too. For all of them, social media was a huge boost to explode small gains into bigger narratives.

[sremani]

In India, The lower level bureaucracy lives off people and higher level bureaucracy lives off state.

In US, the bureaucracy lives off entirely on State. That is why it feels less corrupt.

$36 Trillion in debt but fights are on one million dollar budgets.

[Tadpole9181]

What? They didn't say big government or respect for it did this. In fact, they're arguing for a strong government and that violent ignorance is dismantling valuable public systems.

Are you being sarcastic? To say India doesn't have violent ignorance in the same breath of... The obscene wealth inequality, social castes, sexual inequality, etc of that country...

[dboreham]

> the narrative in the US

It isn't the narrative. It's what a small band of institutional hackers want to do to the country. If anything the narrative is to not care about anything.

[monkeyelite]

> The US, has a society, has grown so materialistic, that they fail to see anything beyond money.

And which society are you contrasting this with?

[kumarvvr]

Europe and many developing countries still have national programs in various important sectors like Health, Education and mental health.

A lot of the worlds govts spend a lot through public institutions.

[bravesoul2]

Expense of what... 10c per taxpayer?

I can only assume Trump administration is incompetent, corrupt and negligent.

[gottorf]

> public institutions of enormous importance

A case of the baby getting thrown out with the bathwater, I suppose. And make no mistake: there was enough dirty bathwater to go around.

[lumost]

Every organization is dysfunctional, the only question is whether its more functional than the alternative. This applies to private enterprises (metaverse anyone?) as well as the government.

After 50+ years of budget cuts, what makes us think that the solution is more budget cuts?

[gottorf]

> After 50+ years of budget cuts, what makes us think that the solution is more budget cuts?

What 50+ years of budget cuts? US federal expenditure per capita has been steadily rising for decades, with a gargantuan explosion during Covid and steeply climbing thereafter.

[no_wizard]

The US political establishment, particularly at rhetoric federal level, has become a “whims of the in charge” bureaucracy that can’t fulfill itself to the point that every day Americans feel their impact - positive or negative.

[sorcerer-mar]

Or, like good design, a decent bureaucracy is invisible.

[supplied_demand]

== And make no mistake: there was enough dirty bathwater to go around==

Any evidence to share?

[sorcerer-mar]

Okay, I won't make a mistake if you show me the evidence.

[gottorf]

No, when it comes to spending taxpayer money, the onus is on the one who wants to spend more to show that it would lead to better outcomes. Federal expenditure per capita is nearly $20k/yr now, more than triple what it was 50 years ago in real terms. And that's not counting state and local expenditure. I haven't seen any evidence that if we paid even more, life would be better.

[meepmorp]

obviously, we need to drain the swamp to get rid of the dirty bathwater that we're now dumping there

[kumarvvr]

Some waste is expected in govt. It happens even in private enterprises. That is down to human nature and other factors.

However, where is the critical thinking and debate on what actually the institution does, what can be improved and what can be changed?

Its all become X uses Y billion USD a year, so we have to make ti Y/2 to save the universe.