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Government does not have the influence of market forces to make it smart. It substitutes that for the whims of bureaucrats who are not concerned (or even understand the concept of) efficiency and being a good steward of taxpayers' money. I've worked in government acquisitions for nearly 18 years. I see the retardation daily.
Two points on this:
Several years ago, Mrs. Basket Case and I visited Scandinavia -- Denmark and Sweden. Both have big government bennies funded by high tax rates. So why does that work there, but not here? Two reasons: First, the populace has faith that the government will be a generally good steward of the money. Second, they still have a cultural bias against laziness. You can't just sit at home, watch TV and collect disability benefits.
Obviously, we don't have (1) faith in the stewardship of our elected leaders (with good grounds!), and (2) as evidenced by the low workforce participation rates, a significant part of our population has bought into the disability benefits and other bennies instead of working.
Second, governmental whims that have real impact on real people. One example I'm dealing with right now. Our upstairs AC has a refrigerant leak. It's been isolated to the evaporator coil (the part of a split unit that's inside the house -- usually in the attic). The unit is only 8 years old, so I talked to the tech about that.
My current unit uses 410 refrigerant. Which, when it was installed only 8 years ago, was a new federally-mandated requirement to reduce CFCs. At least part of the reason the components don't last as long as they used to is that 410 requires higher compression to work properly. Higher compression = more stress on the components. After a few years of being under high compression, on and off every time the system cycles, they tend to spring a leak.
Here's the kicker -- only a few years after being mandated, 410 refrigerant isn't allowed in new systems anymore. So unless we can find a 410 evaporator coil, I'm going to have to replace the condenser as well -- the outside part of the split system. Even though there's nothing wrong with it.
The requirement for the newest refrigerant is fairly recent, so I'm optimistic we can find a 410 evaporator. But it'll cost about double what it would have because (1) demand, and (2) they aren't allowed to make new ones anymore. So pretty soon, you won't be able to find one at any price.
So a $1,500 repair that would have been about 5 years later under 410's predecessor will cost about $2.5K - $3K today. And that's a bargain because a year from now, will be about $5K - $6K because of having to replace the whole danged system.
All because the government changed the requirements for refrigerant twice in a relatively short period of time. I can't help but wonder how many folks in the EPA have stock in AC manufacturers?
So yeah.....example 347,349,870 of why people don't trust government to do the sensible thing.
