In her magnificent 2023 book *Doppelganger*, Naomi Klein describes the "mirror world" of right wing causes that are weird, conspiratorial versions of the actual things that leftists care about:
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Ladies and gentlemen, the efficiency of government outsourcing. Run the government like a business!
As bad as this is when the government hires outside contractors to *do things*, it's even worse when they hire outside contractors to *consult on things*. Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Canadian government spent a fortune on consultants, especially at the start of the pandemic:
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The main beneficiary of these contracts was McKinsey, who were given a blank cheque and no oversight - they were even exempted from rules requiring them to disclose conflicts of interest.
Trudeau raised Canadian government spending by 40%, to $11.8 billion, creating a "shadow civil service" that cost vastly more than the actual civil service - the government spent $1.85b on internal IT expertise, and $2.3b on outside contractors.
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The main beneficiary of these contracts was McKinsey, who were given a blank cheque and no oversight - they were even exempted from rules requiring them to disclose conflicts of interest.
Trudeau raised Canadian government spending by 40%, to $11.8 billion, creating a "shadow civil service" that cost vastly more than the actual civil service - the government spent $1.85b on internal IT expertise, and $2.3b on outside contractors.
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Contractors produced some of the worst IT boondoggles in government history, including the bungled "ArriveCAN" contact tracing program. The two-person shop that won the contract outsourced it to KPMG and raked off a 15-30% commission.
Before Trudeau, Harper paid IBM for Phoenix - a failed payroll system that was, amazingly, *far worse* than ArriveCAN. IBM got $309m to build Phoenix, and then Canada spent another $506m to fix it and compensate the people whose lives it ruined.
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Contractors produced some of the worst IT boondoggles in government history, including the bungled "ArriveCAN" contact tracing program. The two-person shop that won the contract outsourced it to KPMG and raked off a 15-30% commission.
Before Trudeau, Harper paid IBM for Phoenix - a failed payroll system that was, amazingly, *far worse* than ArriveCAN. IBM got $309m to build Phoenix, and then Canada spent another $506m to fix it and compensate the people whose lives it ruined.
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Wherever you find these contractors, you find stupendous waste and fraud. I remember in the early 2000s, when Dan "City of Sound" Hill was working at the BBC and wanted to try an experiment to distribute MP3s of a radio programme.
The BBC - an organization with a long history of technical excellence - had given the exclusive contract for web delivery to Siemens, who wanted £10,000 to set up a web-server for the experiment.
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Wherever you find these contractors, you find stupendous waste and fraud. I remember in the early 2000s, when Dan "City of Sound" Hill was working at the BBC and wanted to try an experiment to distribute MP3s of a radio programme.
The BBC - an organization with a long history of technical excellence - had given the exclusive contract for web delivery to Siemens, who wanted £10,000 to set up a web-server for the experiment.
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Dan bought rented a server from an online provider and put it all on his personal card, serving tens of thousands of MP3s for less than £10. It turns out that letting your technical personnel do your technology development costs 1/1000th of what it costs to have contractors do it.
Running your public institution "like a business" is incredibly *inefficient*.
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Dan bought rented a server from an online provider and put it all on his personal card, serving tens of thousands of MP3s for less than £10. It turns out that letting your technical personnel do your technology development costs 1/1000th of what it costs to have contractors do it.
Running your public institution "like a business" is incredibly *inefficient*.
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Back when Musk and Ramaswamy announced their plan to cut $2t from the US federal budget, David Dayen published a plan to realize nearly that much savings just by attacking waste arising from running the government "like a business":
The US government's own estimate of the losses due to contractor *fraud* comes out to $274b/year - roughly the size of the *entire civil service payroll*.
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Back when Musk and Ramaswamy announced their plan to cut $2t from the US federal budget, David Dayen published a plan to realize nearly that much savings just by attacking waste arising from running the government "like a business":
The US government's own estimate of the losses due to contractor *fraud* comes out to $274b/year - roughly the size of the *entire civil service payroll*.
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(The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which Musk sadistically destroyed, accounts for 0.012% of federal spending.)
Medicare "upcoding" - a form of fraud committed by companies like United Healthcare, the largest Medicare Advantage provider in the country - costs the public $83b/year:
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(The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which Musk sadistically destroyed, accounts for 0.012% of federal spending.)
Medicare "upcoding" - a form of fraud committed by companies like United Healthcare, the largest Medicare Advantage provider in the country - costs the public $83b/year:
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Congress has banned Medicare and Medicaid from bargaining for pharma prices, which is why the US government pays 178% more than other governments, for the same drugs, which are often developed at public expense:
The Pentagon is a cesspit of waste. It's not just firing spies and rehiring them as contractors at a 300% markup - that's just for starters. The Pentagon receives $840b/year and has failed its last three audits:
Access to this page has been denied
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(thehill.com)
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Congress has banned Medicare and Medicaid from bargaining for pharma prices, which is why the US government pays 178% more than other governments, for the same drugs, which are often developed at public expense:
The Pentagon is a cesspit of waste. It's not just firing spies and rehiring them as contractors at a 300% markup - that's just for starters. The Pentagon receives $840b/year and has failed its last three audits:
Access to this page has been denied
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(thehill.com)
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The conservative version of "efficiency" cashes out to "efficient at extracting value from public institutions, workers and customers." Mamdani's (good) mirror world "efficiency" means providing great public service through investing in public excellence.
New York City is overdue for this kind of overhaul. Everywhere you look in the city, you find high price consultants making out like bandits and starving the city of the funds it needs to deliver.
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The conservative version of "efficiency" cashes out to "efficient at extracting value from public institutions, workers and customers." Mamdani's (good) mirror world "efficiency" means providing great public service through investing in public excellence.
New York City is overdue for this kind of overhaul. Everywhere you look in the city, you find high price consultants making out like bandits and starving the city of the funds it needs to deliver.
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The Second Avenue subway spent more on consultants than it spent on digging tunnels:
Mamdani has pledged to audit the Department of Education's 25 largest contracts (the DOE spends $10b/year on outside contractors). He's rolling out "fiscal training and certification" for any government employee involved in procurement.
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The Second Avenue subway spent more on consultants than it spent on digging tunnels:
Mamdani has pledged to audit the Department of Education's 25 largest contracts (the DOE spends $10b/year on outside contractors). He's rolling out "fiscal training and certification" for any government employee involved in procurement.
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Mamdani isn't pretending he can bridge the gap Adams left in city finances through efficiency alone: to make up the difference, he will tax NYC's millionaires, and ask the state to "rebalance" its relationship with NYC (NYC contributes 54.4% of the state budget, but only gets 40.5% in return).
As Lynch writes, NYC was the birthplace of austerity-driven outsourcing, following from the city's bankruptcy in 1975. 50 years later, Mamdani is bringing that age to a close.
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Mamdani isn't pretending he can bridge the gap Adams left in city finances through efficiency alone: to make up the difference, he will tax NYC's millionaires, and ask the state to "rebalance" its relationship with NYC (NYC contributes 54.4% of the state budget, but only gets 40.5% in return).
As Lynch writes, NYC was the birthplace of austerity-driven outsourcing, following from the city's bankruptcy in 1975. 50 years later, Mamdani is bringing that age to a close.
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Mamdani knows what the stakes are, too. He called efficiency "the most paramount left-wing concern, because it is either the fulfillment or the betrayal of that which motivates so much of our politics":
'What Speaks to Me About Abundance': My Full Interview With Zohran Mamdani
The meteoric Democratic Socialist candidate and I talk about where we disagree about policy, where we agree about politics, and how to change our mind when we're wrong.
(www.derekthompson.org)
Mamdani is reviving the tradition of "sewer socialism," a governing philosophy based on "bringing people into your politics by improving their lives in obvious ways":
Digital Sewer Socialism
With the rise of AI slop and overall “enshittification,” it is increasingly the case that the internet is failing to address the public’s needs. What we need is sewer socialism for the digital realm — and it can start at the municipal level.
(jacobin.com)
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Mamdani knows what the stakes are, too. He called efficiency "the most paramount left-wing concern, because it is either the fulfillment or the betrayal of that which motivates so much of our politics":
'What Speaks to Me About Abundance': My Full Interview With Zohran Mamdani
The meteoric Democratic Socialist candidate and I talk about where we disagree about policy, where we agree about politics, and how to change our mind when we're wrong.
(www.derekthompson.org)
Mamdani is reviving the tradition of "sewer socialism," a governing philosophy based on "bringing people into your politics by improving their lives in obvious ways":
Digital Sewer Socialism
With the rise of AI slop and overall “enshittification,” it is increasingly the case that the internet is failing to address the public’s needs. What we need is sewer socialism for the digital realm — and it can start at the municipal level.
(jacobin.com)
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Sewer socialism, public excellence, real efficiency: these are the (good) mirror world versions of the right's obsession with "government efficiency." On the conservative side of the mirror, "efficiency" is an excuse for hamstringing government employees and turning their budgets over to lazy, crooked contractors.
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Sewer socialism, public excellence, real efficiency: these are the (good) mirror world versions of the right's obsession with "government efficiency." On the conservative side of the mirror, "efficiency" is an excuse for hamstringing government employees and turning their budgets over to lazy, crooked contractors.
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On the left's side of the mirror, "efficiency" is building capacity in democratically accountable institutions that care about helping *every* person, and who deliver tomorrow's excellence by making long-term investments today.
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On the left's side of the mirror, "efficiency" is building capacity in democratically accountable institutions that care about helping *every* person, and who deliver tomorrow's excellence by making long-term investments today.
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Image:
DAVID ILIFF (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_Midtown_Skyline_at_night_-_Jan_2006_edit1.jpgCC BY-SA 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/eof/
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In her magnificent 2023 book *Doppelganger*, Naomi Klein describes the "mirror world" of right wing causes that are weird, conspiratorial versions of the actual things that leftists care about:
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
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@pluralistic Cory, have you considered using the “quiet public” visibility for the follow-ups instead of posting all of the 30+ replies as spoilers? This way, only the first one would appear on our timelines but all would be quotable and we wouldn’t have to click “reveal” on the replies to read the thread.
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@pluralistic Cory, have you considered using the “quiet public” visibility for the follow-ups instead of posting all of the 30+ replies as spoilers? This way, only the first one would appear on our timelines but all would be quotable and we wouldn’t have to click “reveal” on the replies to read the thread.
@patrys You've fallen prey to the most pernicious urban legend of the Fediverse. While that would be a great way for that flag to work, it's just not. More here, along with tips on thread management and places to find my work elsewhere if you'd prefer to unfollow me here:
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@patrys You've fallen prey to the most pernicious urban legend of the Fediverse. While that would be a great way for that flag to work, it's just not. More here, along with tips on thread management and places to find my work elsewhere if you'd prefer to unfollow me here:
@pluralistic TIL! Thanks for the tip about timeline filtering though.
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