re: #747 Obdicut

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Bad executives move from one corporation to another— it’s really not a meritocracy up there. There are some great executives, but there are also simply people who know how best to exploit a system for their own benefit. Look at how many CEOs leave a company in near-ruins and go on to another CEO job. Carly Fiona comes to mind.

So yes, it is worrisome for government programs to expand because of their permanence, there can be enormous problems with private industry’s handling of any market at any time, too. Efficiency is not defined by a platonic ideal, but by the actual shape of the market; and if you have massive coercive force, you distort the market. Wal-mart is the largest current example of this— anyone selling anything at retail wants it in Wal-Mart. Target is challenging them now, but for the past decade, Wal-mart could make or break you— and they used that to extort the shit out of industries.

Government and private industry, Scylla and Charybdis. Good people are the answer. How do we get the best people to rise, and the assholes to fail?

That’s the holy grail.

I actually read the whole thing, thank you.

Bad governmental executives also get moved around.

As to getting good people - heck, they need to hire you and me, eh?
It’s a quandary.