Summary
Elon Musk’s DOGE faces mounting pressure to show achievements amid criticism. Staffers, under pressure from Trump administration officials, seek public relations wins to counter negative headlines.
Cuts to federal offices led to mass layoffs, and efforts to modernize government services have been chaotic. DOGE prioritizes speed over security and protecting sensitive information.
Trump has distanced himself, stating agency chiefs, not Musk, control department cuts, preferring a “scalpel” over a “hatchet” approach. Public opinion has turned against DOGE, with 48% disapproving versus 34% approving, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll.
With limited time before their tenure ends, DOGE officials are desperate to show results.
I think it certainly can, since humans are involved, and humans are messy.
A lot of government stuff should be automated in software, but that takes an immense amount of time to develop. Like… why are taxes so hard when the IRS always has all my data?
Efficient? Not as much as it should be. But good luck wrangling that many people’s needs at once.
That’s the real problem… Human social norms can’t be codified. We can’t do it in legalese, we can’t do it in code, but we can do it naturally
It’s why I find anarchy appealing - if your being a dick head, you should have everyone turn their backs on you. If you’re hoarding resources, you should be made to watch as they pin you down and take it. If you’re sociopath who abuses power, you should fall to torches and pitchforks
We know what justice is in a way we can’t put into words. You know it when you see it, when you feel it… It just doesn’t translate into words exactly
Taxes are so hard because Tax Return Companies spend a lot of money to lobby the government to make it harder. The IRS could do it all in-house for “free” but there’s too much money in making us go through 3rd parties to file our taxes. Private business always finds a way to add more inefficiency to processes to make us pay more so they can nickel and dime us. “Want that efficient service? Well, you got to pay more.” It’s a scam.
There is a lot of stuff, sure, that could be automated in software, but that’s mostly admin work, like processing invoices and things like that. But then, no one ever wants to spend money on things. For instance, I work for a state DOT. It’s a battle to get the state legislature to properly fund maintenance. They’d rather spend their money on new shiny things they can show off to get elected.
The real inefficiency in government is almost always directly related to the elected official’s decisions. Take graffiti, they don’t want to spend money, and we don’t have the budget to keep up with graffiti and provide road maintenance. But then a big sports event or famous band comes to town for a huge event, and next thing you know graffiti is our number one priority.
Another thing, is if tax filing is too easy the IRS would have more time and money to go after rich people and corporations, they can’t have that.