Quote:
Originally Posted by steelhouse
Sometimes you have to build flood control structures, roads, telephones lines, electrical grid, and sewer/water lines. But, you try to hire low bid contractors in that case.
Aside from the obvious problems of corruption, there is simply no way for government officials to decide the best allocation of resources in building these things. The incentive is for those in charge of each project to simply spend the highest amount that they can possibly justify to their superiors. Without a profit and loss test, it is very difficult to determine if the end users of the project in question value the final outcome as much as it cost to build. Combine these two and it's not hard to see that the taxpayers are going to overpay for all of these projects.
Sure its great to have flood control structures, roads, telephones lines, electrical grid, and sewer/water lines. That is what people see. What they don't see how much of their money went to building these things, and how they could have gotten more or better of the same for less money.