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Old 03-14-2013, 01:35 PM   #817
jammies
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Originally Posted by crazy_eoj View Post
Every private business department I have ever worked in has zero based budgeting. Each and every expense is approved. Pretty much unheard of in the public sector.
Have you ever worked at a really big company? I have, more than once, and your assertions are ludicrous.

"Zero based budgeting" is more "well except for all these capital projects, new hires we need, and the yearly raises everyone gets". And "expenses approved" means "my boss cursorily looks them over for anything labelled 'strippers' and vetoes that, otherwise it's all good."

Inefficiency is a hallmark of large organizations. Once you have enough people that you have to use a rule-based system to manage them all, this is inevitable, as humans will gladly spend unbelievable amounts of energy figuring out how to circumvent and exploit those rules. Anyone claiming that government should act more like private business as a "solution" has no more credibility than a random homeless guy shouting on a streetcorner about black helicopters coming for his precious bodily fluids.
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