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Why Is Our Government (And Deep State) So Incompetent?
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Why is our government so incompetent? Short answer: because incompetence has been fully institutionalized in every branch, every agency and every nook and cranny of the state.
Though many may reckon the U.S. government (and its Deep State) are not so much incompetent as merely evil, I suggest incompetence sows the seeds of evil consequences.
It's easy to lay the responsibility for the state's incompetence on its staggering size and complexity, and there is much truth in the notion that no system of this scale and complexity can possibly be governable or accountable.
But I think we owe it to ourselves to dig a bit deeper than this to understand why our visible government (executive, Congress, regulatory agencies, the Federal Reserve, etc.) and the Deep State (everything that's decided and run behind closed doors) is so monumentally incompetent.
The policies and decisions of the past 15 years can be reduced to three catastrophic blunders: the discretionary war in Iraq and "nation-building" in Afghanistan; allowing those responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown to become even more invulnerable and predatory, i.e. enabling a "too big to fail" banking sector, and Obamacare, the Orwellian-named Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Each of these policy decisions has been enormously destructive to the nation, and the opportunities lost in their wake are irreversible.
I have covered the systemic reasons for incompetence and failure many times.These boil down to the accumulating sclerosis of bureaucracy and the ratchet effect.
I have addressed The Lifecycle of Bureaucracy on a number of occasions:

Our Legacy Systems: Dysfunctional, Unreformable (July 1, 2013)
The Way Forward (April 25, 2013)
When Escape from a Previously Successful Model Is Impossible (November 29, 2012)
Complexity: Bureaucratic (Death Spiral) and Self-Organizing (Sustainable) (February 17, 2011)
The ratchet effect can also be visualized as a rising wedge, in which costs and inefficiencies continue rising until any slight decrease in funding collapses the organization.
Dislocations Ahead: The Ratchet Effect, Stick-Slip and QE3 (February 14, 2011)
The Ratchet Effect: Fiefdom Bloat and Resistance to Declining Incomes (August 23, 2010)

I think we can add a few other factors:
1. That which is cheap and abundant will be squandered until it is no longer cheap or abundant. Our default programming is to squander what is easily available and abundant. This is true not just of resources such as food and energy but of health, trust, power and all sorts of other intangibles.
For example, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the U.S. was left with an abundance of soft and hard power on the global stage. The natural response was to squander it on misadventures instead of investing it wisely.
When we're young and healthy, we squander this reservoir of vitality rather than invest it wisely in habits that will maintain our health as we age.
There are countless examples of this dynamic. The irony of this dynamic is tragic: by the time we realize we've squandered an irreplaceable resource, it's too late.
2. The prime directive of any bureaucracy is to eliminate all accountability. The raison d'etre of bureaucracy, the very reason for its existence, is not to manage complex affairs but to dissipate accountability into a formless cloud so that no member of the bureaucracy will ever face any consequences for his/her actions.
In other words, the prime directive of any bureaucracy is to enforce the perfection of moral hazard, i.e. those making decisions suffer no consequences when the decisions are disastrous.
The entire structure of a bureaucracy boils down to this: we followed the rules, and therefore we are blameless.
Obamacare and the Pentagon are both perfections of this purposeful loss of accountability. I recently saw a video clip of a journalist who had asked 12 different government functionaries who was in charge of implementing the Obamacare website before its flawed launch and he'd received 12 different answers.
In other words, accountability had already been extinguished well before the site was even launched.
3. Bureaucracies are intrinsically prone to group-think. The more closed the bureaucracy, the greater this tendency to eliminate skeptics, heretics, independent thinkers, etc.: Who Gets Thrown Under the Bus in the Next Financial Crisis? (March 3, 2014).
The foundational group-think concepts behind each of the three policy disasters listed above have all been discredited, but only after group-think insured the destruction of vital national interests: for example, the neo-conservative "failed-state" concept that guided a decade of foreign policy misadventures: The Rise and Fall of the Failed-State Paradigm: Requiem for a Decade of Distraction (Foreign Affairs).
4. As correspondent Lew G. has pointed out, bureaucracies are not designed to be fail-safe; their complexity and lack of accountability lead not to resilience but to fragility and vulnerability.
5. One systems-level consequence of tightly connected, interactive complex systems is that they generate routinely failures known as "normal accidents," catastrophes that result from seemingly small miscalculations and miscues that cascade into systemic crises. When accountability has been lost, there are no feedback loops left to correct these "normal accidents," so the damage piles up within the organization until it collapses in a supernova model of accumulated incompetence.
6. The moral-hazard-riddled leadership of bureaucracies will choose whatever short-term politically expedient fix reduces the immediate political pain (also known as "kicking the can down the road") rather than risk shaking up the organization by imposing accountability and clearing out the deadwood. This dependence on short-term politically expedient "fixes" that ignore the real problems piles up more moral hazard, failed policies, ineffective deadwood and cost, increasing the system's fragility and vulnerability to any shock that cannot be dissolved with another short-term can-kicking "fix."
Why is our government so incompetent? Short answer: because incompetence has been fully institutionalized in every branch, every agency and every nook and cranny of both the visible state and the Deep State.
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I alway thought that Acorn org. did good work...
You forgot the sarc tag. Please tell me you forgot the sarc tag.
No one's head ever rolls, no matter how big the fuck up is. That's it in a nutshell.
Well George did say they were going to hear from us, but he didn't say how much it would cost us.
chicken---->egg
The only reason why the US government is in its current state is because if its people. Its the People that are responsible. "Look at what the US people are letting their government do... so its up to them to change it." should be a headline from now on.
The larger the group of people, the lower the collective intelligence becomes.
In other words, a group of people is only as smart as the dumbest person in the room. When you talk about the United States you get ten steps below Forest Gump or one point above zero brain function. The idea of group think is really to destroy the ability of a single person to succeed. To force the competent to carry the incompetent to the point they can no longer move.
hubris has been culturally institutionalized into every facet of american life. the typical american thinks the sun rises and sets out of their own particular asshole. when you're walking around all day like a zombie thinking you're almost christ-like in omnipitence then it's easy to be fucked over by those in real control......in a nutshell
Plus estrogen(-like compounds) in the food, fluoride in the water, anti-depressants for all, and a media and education system that teaches you to 'trust the expert' and 'if you can't beat em, join 'em'.
Public choice theory: government seeks its own goals, not those of the governed. Those goals are very often diametrically opposed to the goals of the governed.
Enabling this behavior is the general ignorance of the electorate, which is itself fed by government propaganda in a viscious circle.
So "governmental incompetence" isn't exactly correct. They're very competent at getting what they want.
"In a democracy, you get the Government you deserve". And that should be the case even more so in a Constitutional Republic.
There is only one explanation, its all by design to make this Govt look bad and be hated around the world. What we really need is a global Govt. to solve all the problems.
Just Sayin
Yes. There has been a plan for a long time. They have been chipping away at it slowly but surely.
One only needs to read "The Grand Chessboard" to understand the larger plan and it's implications.
“Another threat, less overt but no less basic, confronts liberal democracy. More directly linked to the impact of technology, it involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled and directed society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite whose claim to political power would rest on allegedly superior scientific knowhow. Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Under such circumstances, the scientific and technological momentum of the country would not be reversed but would actually feed on the situation it exploits.
… Persisting social crisis, the emergence of a charismatic personality, and the exploitation of mass media to obtain public confidence would be the steppingstones in the piecemeal transformation of the United States into a highly controlled society.”
Zbigniew Brzezinski
I always wondered whether Zbig wrote that as a warning or as a recommendation.
I call it the New Feudal World Order. Kings/Queens dictate everything, Lords enforce the dictates and control the masses. Masses are serfs (debt slaves) to the state. Same as it ever was. The great democracy experiment is just about finished.
"Such a society would be dominated by an elite whose claim to political power would rest on allegedly superior scientific knowhow."
AGW, FED, Markets, PM manipulation, geopolitcal games...sums up all their actions right there
This essay would have been better if it had made a clear distinction that our government is a government of two parts: politicians, and bureaucrats.
Our BUREAUCRACY is indeed sclerotic and incompetent; our POLITICIANS have proven to be breathtakingly competent at looting the country for their own gain.
I think the most terrifying outcome is not even addressed in this article: when corrupt politicians begin to re-form and redirect the bureaucracies to the business of pure corruption. Arguably, the IRS and the ATF are already there, along with the procurement function of the DOD. Once the DHS becomes the modern-day Gestapo (which is rapidly ensuing; the FBI's mission was recently changed from "law enforcement" to "internal security") the transformation will reach a tipping point.
FBI Mission creep, got to love it...
Its like they finally realized, "Hey, we're not involved in enforcing laws, wtf are we calling law enforcement our mission for?"
All burrocrats have had rising wedges up their arses as children. Only that can explain their ....their...them-ness, if you get my drift.
It means a cupboard, at the root. Cube, edgy, locked, musty, cobwebbed... that is what I see when I think of a burrocrat.
ori
Bureaucracy = Adult Daycare.
"Why is our government so incompetent?"
Because our government is a good representation of the electorate.
Bullshit. The ruling class, best typified in "This Town" by Mark Leibovich (book form) and the "Hunger Games" (cinematic form) is in control.
Just wait until things get really hairy and the country turns to them for serious "leadership".
Who was responsible for educating the electorate?
Use of the term electorate presumes that voting actually works, and that the electorate actually has a voice.
That's a very Western (or at least American) perspective on bureaucracy. The way it works in a lot places is somewhat different - and the bureaucrats can actually face severe repercussions for poor decisions (the Hollywierd analogy would be a James Bond Spectre board meeting, without the overpriced dramatic death theatrics, since these governments cannot print with impunity). CHS doesn't suffer American Exceptionalism but he does suffer from American Projectionism, and it renders his analysis basically meaningless.
Ironically they seem to roll in China, but not the US.
The purpose of an entrepreneur is to build a company that will last forever.
The purpose of a politician is to get re-elected.
The purpose of a bureaucrat is to spend the last five years of their career in the highest salary grade for the best pension benefits.
Everyone is driven by the need for security except you and I.
What could go wrong with Acorn in charge?
"From the smallest acorn the great oak tree grows".....and eventually dies and rots.
it is simple,,
The US$ global financial debt ponzi is the systemic imperative, it must expand or collapse. Everything follows that paradigm, all others are false.
And ObamaCare was the ultimate Canary-in-the-Coal mine.
Pretty much any government website is about the worst thing you can imagine. From DMV, to Fish and Game, Schools, etc. They all are using tech from 10 years ago and are utterly maddening about what they want you to fill in. Bureaucracy at work. Why is it every other company on the web that wants money makes it as easy as possible, but government is brutally inefficient and inflexible?
I am long past the idea that government is workable.
Thoreau had it right:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_politics
It took the Roman empire centuries to die, let's hope for a better outcome here.
Things move a lot faster in the modern world. Ability to move quickly around the globe and communicate instantaneously with those who may be on the other side of the planet will do that.
Centuries limited by by the canter speed of a horse.
Coms work a little faster nowadays.
From the point of view of the turkey, the farmer is incompetent, since living conditions are so poor and the food is terrible. Also life expectancy seems very short. Oh well what are going to do? The depressing thing is that this is the best the nation can do with Democracy. God didn't like the cooperation demonstrated by people building the tower of Babel so he broke up the party by giving people different languages and sending them to distant places. We have special interest groups to do the same thing. And we encourage them by buying into it. Democracy is a cybernetic organism that shuts itself down when it becomes too successful.
Democracy failed because the people allowed the abandonment of the rule of law that held all people equal. When you allow your representatives to write laws to favor separate classes, or worse, separate laws for themselves versus the people they govern, you enable sociopaths to take over, and sociopaths will dominate everything and everyone to even their own destruction. When you allow no accountability, you forgo justice and allow tyrants to rule. The people have been turned into sheeple, placated by "freedom" which in reality was just a bribe to trick you into dependency. The majority are now enablers of their own slavery. Time to start over.
In other words, the prime directive of any bureaucracy is to enforce the perfection of moral hazard, i.e. those making decisions suffer no consequences when the decisions are disastrous.
As a former member of a government bureaucracy, I say the real prime directive of any bureaucracy is to increase its own size and influence.
Yes the red bullseye in the center demonstrates that very well. At least we know where to aim.
Ms lerner of IRS to congress : fuck off the most recent example of this:
"the prime directive of any bureaucracy is to enforce the perfection of moral hazard, i.e. those making decisions suffer no consequences when the decisions are disastrous."
I'd go with: the prime directive of any bureaucrat is to enforce the perfection of moral hazard, i.e. those making decisions suffer no consequences when the decisions are disastrous.
Bureaucracies operate like hives, and will sacrifice individuals when ever necessary to preserve the hive. Or think of a lizard shedding its tail when escaping a predator.
I spent a long time in the hive and left of my own accord. I'm considered an insane bee by my former hive mates.
Insanity is in the eyes of the beholder.
My hive thinks a lot like me, and I like them, these days. Outside hives, not so much.
In many of our viewpoints there has been nothing like the changes taking place in the past 3 years. The outcome is inevitable.
Keep the faith.
I too have spent a lot of time working for a govt agency, and I don't think it's quite as bad as you put it. When you work for the government, you are free to work hard and be productive. So, it's not that everyone who works for the government is incompetent. It's that the bureaucracy protects the incompetent much more so than in private industry. They protect them because as was stated as a govt manager the more headcount you have and the larger your budget is the more successful you are.
So, there are hard-working, productive govt workers, but they have to be self-motivating. There is no "produce or be fired" dynamic that you see in the private sector.
I don't think it's quite as bad as you put it
I'm not sure if you're referring to me, or the article. My contention is that the behavior of bureaucracies is emergent from the simple behavior of individual members. Individual members seek to limit their own responsibility for failure. Individual members seek patronage.
And yes, some bees work harder than others. However, a bee better be working to further the interests of the hive.
When you work for the government, you are free to work hard and be productive
There are scant incentives to do so. Often, there are no bonuses and all pay raises are layed out on a predefined scheduled that only trigger as time goes on and you simply stay on the job.
Of course, they tell us they don't need those incentives to keep being motivated. I beg to differ in most cases.
Why would they need incentives? Some are paid to sit in lazyboys watching television, go grocery shopping, and go running. It's like summer camp with big red trucks.
Others are paid for watching porn, or shopping online at Vitoria's Secret. Most just close the door to their office, and take naps.
as long as most americans have a roof over head, 3 meals, heat, light, entertainment yes yes entertainment, the promise of healthcare, and retirement on SS, no matter the loss of liberty, the tyranny, high taxation, lack of private property rights, most will willingly accept the states control over life...the roman elite knew it, I am sure egypts pharos knew it, the sheep will be calm the shearing easy. it takes hard times to act against the armed power of the state, and obuma keeps free stuff coming to keep things calm calm, more drugs of all types (legal illegal as long as psychoactive) are always promoted (war on drugs LOL)
BREAD AND CIRCUSES.
Whew, I am done for the day. That took a lot out of me.
Absolutely....an agency is created to tackle a specific problem and once it is born, it becomes like anyother life form....it multiplies itself. With no predatory constraints it eventually reaches a point at which it has totally devoured and destroyed its own food supply causing a mass die off of its members....
The flesh eating bacteria makes for an interesting comparison to our current government. Amputation is the only solution.
I would think it depends entirely on the people running the bureaucracy. If they're ambitious, then yes, they'll want to increase the size and influence of the beast they're running. If they're not, then they'll be looking to simply maintain or increase budget while staying as invisible as possible and marking time.
The second type you outline above is eliminated by natural selection; those bureaucracies that desire to grow out-compete.
My hive analogy only goes so far, particularly since a particular bureaucracy, or hive, often exists in a larger context, as part of a larger unit. We have meta-hives whose behavior emerges from the constituent behavior of smaller units.
I don't believe that bureaucracies are limited to government, either.
Just go to a Drivers License office to see this in effect...when no one ever gets fired....you get this...
Why has incompetency been institutionalized?
Because bumbling fools follow orders. Because it's easier to direct a bunch of idiots and zombies, especially when you're directing them to hurt their fellow Man. Independent, free thinking, intelligent humans (read: not braindamaged ala today's toxic education system and natural environment) would not play this game.
Fuck the big city. Why the hell did anyone even go there in the first place.
Tell Vlad I'll have more flexibility after the election.
-Barry the Russian mole at the Chuckle Hut open-mic night. Incompetent?
"Tell Vlad I'll have more flexibility after the election."
Hear that reggie!
Incompetence is being rewarded and promoted..
Example : Chairsatan-emeritus Bernank pockets $ 6250 per minute for a 40 minute speech
With 49.2% of the population already receiving government assistance, and likely more will in the coming years, the liberal progressives have essentially bought themselves elections in perpetuity. All they need to do to keep power is pledge more government support along with taxing the rich, and the leeches/low information voter will never vote against them.
Exactly.
Fewer Americans are working for a living.
More Americans are voting for a living.
"With 49.2% of the population already receiving government assistance, and likely more will in the coming years, the liberal progressives have essentially bought themselves elections in perpetuity. All they need to do to keep power is pledge more government support along with ( delete: taxing the rich) promising to tax the rich but actually borrowing more, and the leeches/low information voter will never vote against them. "
FIFY.
"With 49.2% of the population already receiving government assistance, and likely more will in the coming years, the liberal progressives have essentially bought themselves elections in perpetuity. All they need to do to keep power is pledge more government support along with ( delete: taxing the rich) promising to tax the rich but actually (delete: borrowing more), trading worthless government paper promises for worthless scrip / electronic cyphrages recorded on plastic cards, manipulated accounts and strategically dispersed / produced by a privately owned, monoplistic brood of vipers and the leeches/low information voter will never vote against them. "
And by the way, I'm still a fan of the term "adult day care" to describe what passes for most government activity.
When push comes to shove, politicians have NO moral conviction. Fear and greed rule the day. That's why banksters are in charge. Simple.
Correct. That's what makes all of the charges of "communism" and "socialism" all the more laughable.
It may not even be corporatism. It may even be something newer - financialism.
Our government is so screwed up, because that's the way those who own it want it to be.
I do this all the time at work. If I want to run over a department, then just sow chaos in that department.
Such is the relationship with banking and government.
While the lower and mid levels of government are certainty rife with incompetence, the very top levels simply use this as a smoke screen.
This man speaks truth!
Maintaining power and control, nothing more.
same as it ever was, until people actully do something to take the power back.
it's not about competence anymore, it's about connections! (no, I don't mean shitbook and flitter...)
The question is: how do I join the Deep State? F**k the Presidency, I want real power...
Because affirmative action doesn't work?
Please, once the moral hazard has been unleashed and there is no longer any rule of law, the oligarchs will do whatever it takes to maintain power and control. Period.
Just ask John Corzine or Hank "tanks in the streets" Paulson.
LawsofPhysics: "the oligarchs will do whatever it takes to maintain power and control. Period."
True. - - - Its always ultimately been that way, throughout history. Today more people are aware of that fact than at any other time in history due to global communications. The real question isn't if the psychopath controllers will act as they have always done . . . but if enough of humanity will lift the veil and see reality. Will they continue to cling to 'leaders' as a surrogate "Mommy" & "Daddy" ? Will they continue to beg for the product of their own labors and for rights which they were already born with ?
In that first chart, the "Failure/Implosion" circle should be the obama logo.
Why? Well from my experience people who work for Gov can't hack it in private business. It's a dark pool of incompetence. Like a septic tank, the runny floaters all bob to the top positions and the lower strata is comprised of human sludge.
Since there is rarely any accountability, or recourse for fucking up, Gov attracts those hires. Gov's prime focus is to Govern...and to make more Government. It's a cancer on the productive people in society. It may have been argued at some earlier point in time that the relationship was nearly symbiotic, but now it is purely parasitic. Add the fact that for Gov, all money is "free"....and you wind up with the completely dysfunctional and largely useless behemoth we lovingly call Government. Their primary job now is to pick the bones of private business and individuals clean.
govt and deep state incompetent? they are successfully engaged in widening the wealth gap to banana republic levels. they are siphoning off wealth at unprecedented speed, buying up real assets with their paper wealth, and creating an orwellian/police/stasi state to control dissention. what incompetence do you speak of???!?!!!!
Correct, it is working exactly as designed.
We have moved far beyond mere incompetence. Reagan put 1,000 bankers in jail for savings and loan fraud. Today, financial and economic crimes go unpunished. The well-connected are above the law.
The taint has permeated into the Federal Judiciary. I knew that Congress has been bought when Glass-Steagall was gutted. But I retained faith in the judiciary to right wrongs. But, that faith was misplaced, as evidenced by the Supreme Court's decision to allow corporations to make unlimited election campaign contributions.
Absent total reformed, we are doomed.
In short, the incompetence is by design as it facilitates the transfer of real wealth, power and control.
< shocker >.
The entire Federal Gubmint is on big welfare agency. We have all heard it throughout our lives.
We know why people want government jobs. It sits there before our very eyes. Yet, we are almost powerless to change it.
None of this is truly fixable until the resources are gone.
STARVE THE BEAST
Fonestar Finds Satoshi in Obama's Vagina
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10680492/Has-Bitcoin-creator-...
nah if Los Angeles is Obama's vagina then you are correct
Sure seems like a fine tuned machine of cronyism, corporatism and monopoly of force.
I believe it was Mises who wrote the book the problems with socicialism. It has been a while since I read it. Maybe someone could correct the title.
It fully explains why government must always be inefficient, wasteful, and misallocate capital.
Only the owners of capital are incented to use it efficiently.
....and I would just add..
Dept of Energy. How's that working' out for us? We're still running around after nearly 100 years with the IC engines powering our transportation.
Dept of Education? Kids come out of high school now dumber than a bag of dicks (by design).
Dept of Defense? Needs to be renamed dept of Offense. How'd "defense" work on 911?
Dept of Transportation? Fucking joke...
You could add another dozen unconstitutional Cabinets to the above list.....
Charles,
By labeling a systematic plundering of the productive people in America as the result of "incompetence," you give a pass to the perpetrators. This is the narrative they desire. Blame the bureaucrats, not the architects. These bumbling fools have caused our benevolent plans to fail.
The elected officials can fairly be blamed as they could stand up, be honest, and rally the people to force positive change, but this will not happen. For some reason I do not understand, the American people, while having only a 15% or so approval rating of Congress, seem to think the problem lies with everyone else's congressman and senators and continue to send their pork winner back to the hill time and time again.
The people fail to understand that it is primarily psychopaths and the lazy who are drawn to power and making a living by political means as opposed to work.
Your articles have taken a decidedly forgiving turn when discussing the state of late and I hope you will examine this trend objectively.
Incompetent?
The wealth flows upward, and wealth and power are being concentrated as never before.
Government programs are deliberately thwarted and twisted to serve that end.
Secrecy and deceit are employed to make the worst possible seem the best possible,
and to make the causes of failures appear to be in the execution, not the designed purpose.
Similary, the flaw in foreign policy is pretended to be weak leaders and an unenthusiastic public,
not the designs of expansion, domination, and control done by invasions, bribery, and assassinations.
Inside gov agencies, too many feeding from gov teat, will do what they're told, good-for-country or not.
is it insane to accept a life that has comforts no hunger entertainment vs risk of death or jail to change a system run by sociopath elite reptiles, as long as you keep your heads down and your anti gov emotions in control, in modern america, you will live better than the wealthy in much of the past centuries of pre industrial man. my sin is sellingout for cheap. but the worm in the brain is unlike the sleeping I and many posting here see below the curtain, the sleeping wisely choose to avoid looking.
the socipaths see it as god's work, giving so many the pleasures of modern american life, why, to the reptiles they see us as all benefiting from their largess. basking in their greatness. and damn ungreatful of us too.
About 50% are on welfare of some sort, so everyting AOK for them. When majority vote only for their own good, the country is toast.
Shit... I smell something burning!
Anyone old enough to remember a humorous book (a la Why Cats Paint) by the Brit, "C. Northcoat Parkinson," about the "Parkinson Effect" where he said, "work expands to fill the time available for its completion"?
The Brits are way ahead of us Yanks in management science. Check out how it's the LAW in the U.K. that all public works projects must include planning to mitigate the effects of Optimism Bias, which is the well-known tendency of projects to inevitably deliver substandard product, behind schedule, and over budget. No lie!
Please stop using the word "Deep" state, we all know what the state is, adding the word deep to it makes you sound like an asshat. Thanks
And please stop implying that the mistakes made were "blunders". What part of "fundimentally transform America" is not clear?
This is not a series of unfortunate events.
Not believing the farce that America never defaulted is a good place to start. Believing the narrative about JP Morgan arranging things with Europe and removing denial of default as a possilbility we find bankers still controlling the loans or I care not about laws because I own the money markets infamy comment ringing truth. It would only take 15 minutes of research to destroy decades of public school education about who runs this monstrosity. Believing in democratic rule at this point is cute and dangerous just look at Crimea thinking it was independent from its history. We still bare the scares of our past "mistakes" and still haul the burden with us THE FEDERAL RESERVE!
so good I had to say it twice
Incompetence isn't only institutionalised, it's rewarded. I witnessed this first hand back in 1993 when I was an Embassy Guard in New Delhi, India. There was an old State Dept employee that was a pain in the ass to every single person in the Embassy. She was promoted to her (then fairly) high position because nobody wanted to keep her around. When I was there, she was promoted to a position just under the Charge de Affairs (We didn't have an Ambassador at the time). He couldn't deal with, so he managed to get her promoted back to D.C. The problem with this promotion was that she was now the official spokesperson for US policy regarding India. Well, you'd expect somebody in that position to have a very thorough understanding of Indian politics, culture, etc. This lady never left the Embassy compound. She didn't speak a lick of Hindi, or any other language in India. She sent her servant out to shop, and never went herself. To my knowledge, she didn't leave the compound at all except to go to the airport and depart for DC. In other words, she had virtually no interaction with India, or Indians.
So, what is the price for promoting incompetence? Within one week, I shit you not----one fucking week, she damn near started a riot by stating something to the effect that "Kashmir is a bilateral dispute between India and Pakistan." From the Indian perspective, Kashmir is s state within the sovereign boundaries of India. The Indian military was monkey-hammering the islamo-fascist seperatist movement, and stacking those (Paki-funded)goat-fuckers like cordwood in the state of Kasmir at the time. Within an hour of the AP report, the Indian media began screaming from the rooftops, and we had 10,000+ Indian protestors looking for a riot. 10,000 rioters against 11 Marines is stretch, but I was willing to throw down. Gotta go to Valhalla sometime. A few hundred protestors broke through police lines and made it to the Embassy walls, only to get beaten down by the second, special police line weilding lathis with lead collars on the ends. They laid the protestors out flat. We didn't even get to deploy tear gas.
So, there you go. The government will promote incompetence merely to get rid of problem people. It happens every single day. Yay big government......
To bad for India. Thanks for the item.
TSTM is correct. The Deep State model is confused and you don't understand the psychology at all. There is no default to squander.
People are junkies. People want their fears suppressed, assuaged at all costs. The fear merchants make promises to do just that. They often create fear first, but always with the promise of a fix. People want their egos propped up, puffed up. People don't want to feel insignificant, meaningless. People want the promises, they want fantasy and the panderers give it to them. Suspension of disbelief? That's the normal conscious state.
Humility? It isn't in you. Courage? It isn't in you. Which inevitably lead to failures of imagination, of conscience, being oblivious to the obvious.
Look at ZeroHeroes. They've managed to admit that hollowed out shells of formal structures, like say constitutional republic or two party system, can be kept alive in the public mind in spite of almost any amount of corruption and subversion. But they fall for the same old blame game distractions. The alternative leads to well organized, heavily armed men.
the discovery of cheap energy led to a population boom with ample resources (food/energy) to dull the edge of the blade that is survival of the fittest, therefore we grew a large percentage of the population which can not and will not fend for itself. this bubble is beginning to deflate. the bacteria have reached the edge of the petrie dish. continous exponenntial growth is no longer possible. the trends will revert back to the means.
More excuses
I'll take my Viking organic tribal-kinship-clan structure of governance over this shit. If you aren't at bare minimum my 5th or 6th cousin by blood, I don't care about you. Enjoy your cardboard box, 7th cousin thrice removed.
They are not incompetent. Their thefts and machinations convert the economy from a nonzero-sum (trade) to zero-sum (theft). Over time there is less and less produced and less and less available for them to steal while there are more and more of them. That is, their "weight" causes more and more producers to "drop-out" from lack of returns or just sheer exhaustion.
To keep "eating" the government, including their bankster masters, must ramp up their evil to extract more from less each cycle. This is on full display in a lot of ways, but look no further than at your federalized local gun and badge for evidence. Most, nearly all, of his time is spent extracting wealth from those that he ostensibly is supposed to "serve and protect." That is because those that he really serves and protects, government and their bankster masters, are so bankrupt and desperate for cash.
Never incompetent, stupid or mistaken, always evil.
"My guillotine eats evil. Incompetent or not."
Incompetents are attracted to jobs with no challenge and from which they cannot be fired.
Psycopaths are attracted to the banking industry since by that means they can damage the greatest number of other people.
Why even try to be competent when you can tax [STEAL] all the money you need?....
"Why is our government so incompetent? Short answer: because incompetence has been fully institutionalized in every branch, every agency and every nook and cranny of both the visible state and the Deep State."
Exactly, and when things like 9/11 happen, people find it so hard to believe that fact that they come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories that say it must have been planned. Individual huge government bureaucracies couldn't typically plan their way out out of a f'ing wet paper bag, an entire multi-trillion dollar government full of them that have to operate with each other is far worse.
Outliers. You're talking about outliers.
Government/Politics no longer represents the individual, but groups. Each group in order "to get their wants granted" will give government a pass on all other issues. Constitutional balance no longer applies as lawyers in every branch of government and the private sector have through presedent erosition, circumvented the intent of legal protections that citizens once enjoyed.
Politics/Government no longer wishes to and is no longer capable of fixing the major problems that need to be fixed, ie; fiscal balance, labor and open markets competition, immigration, race relations, resource conservation and utilization, financial accountability, reliance on the FED for funding rather than an equitable tax system, reform of the UN system for nations, Accountability and Competence at each level of of the Executive Branch, Term limits and Reduced money influence on Congress, review for repeal of laws no longer necessary for governance.
The Deep State, Global in Nature has captured the power of the US Government and the political system. Short of catastrophic events, it is no longer possible to take corrective action on even one of these major problems. The majority of the electorate is clueless and think only in terms of blue team/red team rhetoric. Untill we see ourselves as Americans first again, and take control on our Legislative process, there will be no change.
The text you've written is excellent. Your last paragraph captures the most vital step. No Blue or Red just logic and Constitutional grounding and base. WE are Capitalists with the world's best Constitution. We must remake our government to a size and efficiency necessary to reach the real possibilities of our country.
Project to Neutralize the American Constitution
Yes.
The top 10% (the Elysium class) know - for a fact - they are NOT incompetent.
The state exists to enrich the elite. How could they possibly do a BETTER job?
Because they don't want to really look at what's right in front of them?
Fiscal Sustainability
Laurence Kotlikoff | Dec 12, 2013
http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/Kotlikoff_FiscalSustainability_v2.pdf
The table’s next to last row shows the absolute lifetime net tax payment facing
those born next year under this scenario. The birthday present Uncle Sam will hand
those born next year is a $420,600 net lifetime tax bill, which is $479,900 more than
the net lifetime tax bill today’s newborn is facing under current policy. These figures
indicate an absolutely massive imbalance in the implied treatment of those now
Mercatus Center at George Mason University
15
alive and our unborn children
if
the entire fiscal gap is spread over everyone coming
in the future in proportion to their earnings capacity; that is, the $420,600 would
grow with labor productivity. Expecting future generations to pay vastly more than
those now alive is not just generationally immoral, it’s also economically infeasible.
It would require hitting up future generations for, on average, roughly 60 cents of
every dollar they earn in taxes net of transfers received.
Table 3. 2013 US Generational Accounts
Age Lifetime net tax burden, in thousands of dollars
0 ?$59.2
5 ?$41.9
10 ?$26.6
15 ?$6.2
20 $14.7
25 $25.8
30 $12.4
35 ?$14.4
40 ?$49.4
45 ?$87.3
50 ?$138.1
55 ?$209.3
60 ?$282.9
65 ?$327.4
70 ?$302.3
75 ?$268.0
80 ?$236.3
85 ?$205.5
90 ?$166.5
95 ?$115.8
100 ?$30.3
Future generations $420.6
Difference between future generations
and current newborns
$479.9
Source: Calculations by the author and Giovanni Callegari.
Re: immoral
Well, this is Merica, politics, so morals don't matter and never did.
The willingness of the government servant to bend rules to benefit his personal gain in the goodtimes manifests itself in a willingness to continue the paractice in the bad times. Out of self awareness the servant will protect himself first at the risk of losing everything. Except his gain
I believe that the bureaucracy is exactly as the owners of this country want it to be. There are no accidents in big politics. This is a multigenerational plan.
Conspiracy BS aside, how many here would actually want to work for the government? Not many I would suspect and you'd find most competent people share the same attitude.
Have you ever worked for a large TBTF Financial Institution (say that last word with a low respectful voice, please: Innn-stit-tu-SHUNNN) pumping debt serfs with debt?
Can you tell me what the difference would be except that the worker-bees get better pensions at the government?
Why so incompetent? Because incompetence breeds the need for more government jobs to clean up the mess.
How about we outlaw lobbists, Community organizers, mega-bank casinos and the Fed? Term limits (2 terms, max), all welfare and food stampers go into a new CCC/TVA work camp, Flat tax, deport all illegals and muslims, heavy tariffs on all goods mfg ourside of the USA, right to work laws in all 50 states, repeal NAFTA and china's most favored nation status. Whew!! I need a brew.
Just move and help occupy Texas and its borderlands.
Nice. Mandate "Pick a Country and Go There" ie. no more dual citizens, specifically none in advisory, staff, contractee, temporary hire, or infrastructure. More importantly, none of these consultants for election campaigns. Hard limits on spending. Re-regulate and breakup media conglomerates. Make corporations pay taxes. Stop off-shoring wealth 100%. Bring it home, pay taxes, or lose it.
Corporations are not "people" and don't have the right of free speech.
BEWARE TPP (trans pacific partnership is a sandpaper coated dildo mega nafta)
because parasitic morons outnumber intelligent voters
"The policies and decisions of the past 15 years can be reduced to three catastrophic blunders: the discretionary war in Iraq and "nation-building" in Afghanistan; allowing those responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown to become even more invulnerable and predatory, i.e. enabling a "too big to fail" banking sector, and Obamacare, the Orwellian-named Affordable Care Act (ACA)."
WTF! No mention of 911? Come to think of it CHS never touches on it. And how can you even look at 911 and not consider the Kennedy assasination. It makes this entire article a waste of time.
Too many assholes from the same handful of "top schools" whose own prestige has eaten away at their ability to impart genuinely rigorous critical and creative thinking skills in addition to the rote memory and regurgitation of ideological spin that comes from the personality cult and psychological quirks of both many of the professors and many of the students.
In short, if the deep state took from Amherst and Williams rather than Harvard and Yale, it would do a tremendous amount of good. But this won't happen, because the deep state significantly overlaps with the Ivies, as well as patrician Jewish and WASP networks that are embedded like ticks in government, diplomacy, intelligence.
Also, clinging to the past. No one should be listening to Zbig right now. No one. And the neocons should have been chased entirely out of Washington for their stupidity and their primary loyalty to a foreign state.
But the U.S. is too far gone to muster the T-cells required to attack old cells and infectious agents.
I think the better question is why are so many citizens in america incompetent? Why do people think that when things aren't fair the solution is to hand over money and power to the politicians?
Read 'Political Ponerology' and you will know. Like a moth to a flame, the psychopaths move in, take over and try to acclimitize society into their way of thinking, thereby making us sociopaths and willing victims through ignorance.
In my latest article I suggested an alternative explanation for the monumental incompetence and corruption not only of the Deep State but of the whole US in general. You may find it quite plausible - it my view, it matches up factually to a "t".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuogpUbhNHQ
I agreed with that, as long as one qualifies it to recognize that "Marxist ideology" was actually a tool promoted by the funding of the international banksters. It is too superficial to regard "Marxism" being the enemy unless one looks deeper into real history to recognize who paid for promoting that ideology to become politically significant.
Most of what is done is done "by Americans to Americans" was because the international banksters were able to covertly take over control of the American government more and more for over a Century. America's domestic enemies are many orders of magnitude worse than any foreign enemies. Therefore, that little YouTube clip is more about what those domestic forces were doing, rather than what anybody else is doing.
More union bashing of the NGO thinktank Long Conspiricy. Read everything and you will soon see the repeated poison pill. They know that if you read something subliminally 36 times you will think its your own thought. Then, like a caveman with a bone, you will hold on to it defending it to the death. If by chance somebody points out there are maggots and corruption on your bone, and you have a skin infection....
Governments came to exist due to the history of warfare. It is the inherent consequences of success based on backing up lies with violence which paradoxically drive that whole system to become crazier! The paradox is that being competent at backing up lies with violence drives through it own eventual mad self-destruction.
"The policies and decisions of the past 15 years" BIGGEST "catastrophic blunders" were due to the inside job, false flag attack on 9/11/2001, being successful at achieving its real objectives. 9/11 was the most spectacular symbol of the history of warfare being based on backing up deceits with destruction. I REPEAT: THE "SUCCESS" OF BACKING UP LIES WITH VIOLENCE IS THE SOURCE OF THE APPARENT "INCOMPETENCE."
Human civilization suffers from its long history of being controlled by the people who were the best at being dishonest, and backing that up with violence. That "success" requires that the government, and the vast majority of people, operate as apparently incompetent idiots, because they are forced to behave as if frauds were true. That social insanity automatically gets worse and worse, faster and faster, since society as a whole becomes terminally sick and insane, due to being dominated by HUGE LIES throughout its combined money/murder systems.
The DEEP STATE is NOT "incompetent."
It is criminally insane!
the deep state is not incompetent - it is purely rapacious and wicked.....incompetence is the mantle of plausible deniability which their enablers and defenders wrap around the evil doers.
This size of goverment leads to the lack of accountability. I propose that to reduce the size of our government we start with the IRS. To do that we should have a flat tax of some sort.
G R E E D
Because it is legal to bribe govt officials in America?
Because govt officials can legally insider trade?