Quote:
Originally Posted by Rococo
I wasn't expecting to see a full throated defense of the spoils system. I don't think you would enjoy the politics of the 19th century as much as you imagine you would. The soft modern version of that system is how you ended up with a surgeon as the head of HUD and a person with no background in education as the Secretary of Education.
But start printing your Boss Tweed T-Shirts, I guess.
Couple it with a vast decrease in what the government should actually do though.
And keep in mind that the worst incompetent is far far far far preferable to a skilled person who doesn't share your values, because the power of the state will always be used against the people who don't share the values of the holder of the power. There is far less win-win in the state and far more win-lose.
In many cases the very best thing the state can do is absolutely nothign at all, that's the normality of life with exceptionally rare circumstances where doing something is better.
DoE should be eliminated. HUD shouldn't exist, it's incredible it actually exists. A puppet that does nothing in HUD is far better than someone who capably uses the resources and manages to ask for more succesfully, because the end game is killing all those garbage entities , and weakening them to the point people consider them a waste is part of the necessary process.
The threshold for having the state interfere in something is approximately "if you dont' societal collapse is guaranteed and no society in history ever managed without it". That's the end game goal.
You go step by step toward that, dismantling the state brick by brick, employee by employee, "istitutional knowledge holder" by institutional knowledge order.
Until you are left with contract enforcement, protection of property rights and safety from third party violence, domestic and international, and that's it.