Sorry, Harvard, Efficiency Matters
By Sam Stone
According to Harvard Business Review’s Karthik Ramanna, is out with a piece titled “Governments Should Be Effective, Not Efficient.” You can click on the link, but essentially Ramanna is arguing that government spending and efficiency aren’t important, and don’t lead to preferred outcomes. As someone who spent years working in local government watching taxpayer money be wasted to little effect, Ramanna’s take is nothing short of insane. The elitist conceit that ‘effectiveness’ at any cost is more valuable than efficiency created the mess we’re in today. Efficiency in government is essential. One of the major drivers of division in the country right now is that our government continues to grow, continues to spend more money every year, while delivering fewer services.
Take Affordable Housing. Democrats cry that we have a massive lack of government-funded affordable housing. They’re not wrong. But here’s the thing: U.S. federal, state, and local governments spend billions of dollars a year on affordable housing. The problem isn’t the spending, the problem is that government affordable housing costs more than double what equivalent private-sector housing costs to build. Sometimes a lot more. Phoenix is currently spending more than $700,000 per unit to build affordable housing on land the city already owns. California has topped the $1 million per unit mark. Equivalent private construction costs about a third of that. In real terms, that means California has 66 percent fewer affordable housing units. Phoenix has half the number they should. The story is the same everywhere. Those missing units represent real people struggling to pay their bills, living in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, and – worst case, but obviously quite common – ending up on the streets because bureaucrats have largely adopted Ramanna’s mantra. The same applies to building shelter facilities and treatment centers. Libraries. Parks. NYC is spending more than $1 million for every new toilet. The toilets themselves cost $185,000 to purchase as a whole unit. NYC manages to spend the other $800K plus on their typically farcical union construction. Every construction project our government agencies are involved in is essentially the same story. And the forces underlying those excess costs exist in every government agency.
So why do academics like Ramanna believe efficiency isn’t something to strive for? According to Ramanna:
“But governments, which are not subject to such peer competitive forces, don’t usually work as cheaply and quickly as they could — and that can be a good thing.
For instance, we don’t want law enforcement to be efficient with fuel resources during a car chase of a suspected violent offender. Likewise, we don’t want courts to be efficient in the administration of justice on that suspected offender if that tramples on their fundamental rights. Nor do we want doctors in public hospitals to be efficient in an emergency-room surgery on a victim of that violent offender if that means giving up on the patient who might otherwise be saved. And while it is likely the case that the Department of Defense can be more efficient with its more than $800 billion budget, we don’t want that to stifle the development of next-generation technologies before adversaries do.”
This is utter nonsense. No one is asking police officers to be efficient with gas during a car chase, we’re asking police departments to be efficient with repair costs when that cruiser needs an oil change. No one is demanding courts railroad suspects, we’re asking that the government discovery process be completed quickly, forensic testing performed in a timely matter, etc. Hospitals aren’t being asked to let people die in the name of cost savings (though they certainly are in countries with socialized medical systems), they’re being asked to refocus on doctors, nurses, and patients instead of hiring more bureaucrats.
Ultimately, government efficiency is about delivering more and better services – real benefits for real people – for the same dollar. Anyone opposing that is putting bureaucrats ahead of the people they’re supposed to serve.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Sam Stone only and not his co-host Chuck Warren or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.
As we used to like to joke with one another as kids: “Your perception of the obvious is phenomenal!” How did our government & perceptions of it ever become so BLINDLY ignorant?!