Stupid, stupid US Government

[fredjacksonsan]

Perhaps this belongs in the rant section, but...

I just got mail from the US Census Bureau enclosing a letter telling me they would be sending me more mail next week.

Why, O why do they send a letter to tell you they're sending a letter? Imagine the savings in postage if they just sent out the damn census.

[MagicRat]

Small potatoes . In this country, the Census forms are handed out door - to door, by a government employee. I did this as a student job a few years ago, much more expensive than postage.
Still, IMO, accurate statistical gathering and compilation is a sign of an advanced civilization. Well-managed nations do this, everyone else does not.

[fredjacksonsan]

I'm not complaining about the census, far from it, and I'm aware that people are used in some areas.

Small potatos? If you take 42000000 households and pay twice the postage you would have paid, then you have over 18 million dollars in postage that didn't need to be paid. If you do it once, maybe it's no biggie. However if you do it on a consistent basis, you have a major hemorrhage of money. THIS is what I'm talking about; the level of waste in the US Government is probably greater than the GNP of some small nations.



"Death of 1000 cuts", anyone?

[MagicRat]

I was being sarcastic about the 'small potatoes'. My point is that it could be worse.

One concern about public spending stems from the public service budgeting process.
Government departments have an incentive to spend ALL the money they are awarded to complete a project. An unspent surplus one year often means that future fund allocations are smaller.
Therefore, civil servants want as much money and as big a department as they can possibly get. So, they make sure ALL their budgeted money gets spent, one way or another, regardless of whether it is truly necessary...... hence the excess letter printing, handling and postage costs.

[fredjacksonsan]

Originally Posted by MagicRat

I was being sarcastic about the 'small potatoes'. My point is that it could be worse.

One concern about public spending stems from the public service budgeting process.
Government departments have an incentive to spend ALL the money they are awarded to complete a project. An unspent surplus one year often means that future fund allocations are smaller.
Therefore, civil servants want as much money and as big a department as they can possibly get. So, they make sure ALL their budgeted money gets spent, one way or another, regardless of whether it is truly necessary...... hence the excess letter printing, handling and postage costs.

Oh, man, don't get me started on the idiotic budgeting system. "Let's spend everything by October 1 or our budget will shrink next year!!!!" BS. They should be looking to cut costs, not increase their already bloated budget.

I still maintain that if any of us ran our household finances like the US Gov does, we would be in jail.

[blazee]

Originally Posted by fredjacksonsan

I'm not complaining about the census, far from it, and I'm aware that people are used in some areas.

Small potatos? If you take 42000000 households and pay twice the postage you would have paid, then you have over 18 million dollars in postage that didn't need to be paid. If you do it once, maybe it's no biggie. However if you do it on a consistent basis, you have a major hemorrhage of money. THIS is what I'm talking about; the level of waste in the US Government is probably greater than the GNP of some small nations.



"Death of 1000 cuts", anyone?

The last that I heard (a couple years ago), it costs 42M to send a letter to every household.

[fredjacksonsan]

Durn it, I knew I'd get called out for using a conservative estimate!

So, yeah, 42 mil. How many letters has your home received this year so far from Unca Sam?

[YogsVR4]

Count on the government to do things to excess and with tons of waste.

Good thing they're taking over healthcare - they've done such a bang up job with everything else

[fredjacksonsan]

Originally Posted by YogsVR4

Count on the government to do things to excess and with tons of waste.

Good thing they're taking over healthcare - they've done such a bang up job with everything else

Hey Yogs.

Damn skippy on the healthcare, too.

Oh, btw I filled out my census form the same day I got it last week and it was in the mail the day after.

Yesterday, I got a card in the mail....."fill out your census form, it's important!".

Now I'm thinking that this level of irksome, repetitive mailings is due to the stupidity of the average American.