I wish it was ONLY a novel!
Next time you come home tired and frustrated by your job–but you’ve got to keep working, or the roof falls in–DO NOT contemplate the $65 billion of American taxpayers’ money pissed away, by our government, literally all over the world. You’ll never get to sleep.
And that’s just the $65 billion that our new Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has turned up so far (https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/02/26/doge-millions-of-taxpayer-dollars-were-poised-to-drive-social-and-behavior-change-in-uganda-developing-socially-responsible-behaviors-in-colombia/).
Here are a few gems from the collection.
*Millions for “social and behavior changes”… in Uganda! Betcha never guessed you were working for that.
*Millions for fostering “socially responsible behavior” in Columbia.
Sugar daddy to the world, that’s us! Like, they have no adults in countries like Uganda? No one in Colombia knows how to behave?
*How about $520 million for ESG investments in Africa? Does that float your boat? In case you didn’t know, ESG stands for environmental , social, and corporate governance by people who think most of you got stuck at five years old and aren’t to be trusted with your own money. That you worked for. And these stunatas in government never even said “Thank you.”
Who the dickens do these people think they are? “Shut up! We’re busy solving all Uganda’s problems!”
Go, DOGE, go! Cut ’em off at the hips!
Many Americans have an idealized view of the rest of the world. While there is inefficiency and corruption within the US, in many other places, corruption is the lifeblood of governments and the overall societies, themselves simply stated, sending money to many of these places is unlikely to accomplish anything, beyond lining the pockets of corrupt officials.
I am not without compassion for people in these places, but throwing money at these places is not the answer. Even in practical matters, such as sending food and medication ends with these gifts being intercepted and sold, not given, to those most in need.
Programs to encourage social change are far easier to corrupt. Jobs will be given to people with the proper political connections, and many of these “jobs” end up being little more than money for nothing in return.
If my back of the matchbook math is correct, 65 billion, divided by the population of the US would come down to roughly $2000 per person, but there are less than half as many taxpayers as there are people in the US, so that means maybe $4000 of my 2024 taxes would have gone to programs of questionable worth. I’m no high roller, by any means, but Federal Income Tax is my single greatest expense, and a $4000 reduction would definitely make a difference.
I had a short career as a government employee. I left, mostly because I felt that it was difficult to be truly productive in that environment. I met many good people there, and most of them wanted to do a good job. The problem was that the system made it difficult to accomplish things as efficiently as would be possible in the private sector. (For the record, the private sector has significant problems of its own, but competitive pressure works towards efficiency and provides at least some counter balance.)
If anything can be done to make government more efficient, I’m all for it. At this point, they are going for the low hanging fruit, but perhaps that will be enough to make things better.
Government is what it is because of Original Sin. Resist we must, but no one’s hands are strong enough but God’s.
Sadly, our fallen world is just that; fallen. The best, and most well intentioned among us are still fallen and will obtain imperfect results, at best. But when government officials are corrupt, it can get much worse. There are obvious examples throughout history, and it’s obvious that some in government were more than willing to give away the public largesse for political reasons. Fortunately, there are still some loyal and honest people striving to correct these wrongs.