Milton Friedman: The Problem of Bureaucracy

Dr. Friedman discusses the problems stemming from government bureaucracy in education and beyond.

[an.unarmed.civilian]

Every child left behind.

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results." --Milton Friedman

[Pariah]

As a government employee I can confirm, he's 100% correct.

The bureaucracy I deal with only ever has 2 outcomes from its procedures: to consolidate power under the governor in the name of "efficiency" (an efficiency defined without cost as a factor), and to avoid litigation at all costs. The actual mission of my agency is a 3rd priority to those two unwritten goals.
This has been true of both right and left administrations, and the only difference between the two being who gets to get away with graft, and who doesn't. They just take turns drinking from the milk jug.

[Robripslibs]

Milton Friedman is brilliant..My IQ always goes up listening to him...Every leader and person should take a course in Friedman 101.

[an.unarmed.civilian]

Exactly. Government ran programs have no need to provide good or efficient service to consumers because they hold monopoly power over that industry. Also funds are guaranteed because they are forcibly taken as opposed to willingly handed over as in private enterprise. Thereby the actual incentive for these municipalities is to be LESS efficient and effective to secure more fund for future years, because, as we know, in gov. ran systems, if you don't spend all you've got, you get less next year.

[HTMANactual]

Damn this is the best 4 minute evisceration of govt efficiency I have ever heard. Apply a cost-benefit analysis to any govt program and none of them will hold up.

[letsgoBrandon]

Centralisation of power is exactly the problem with the European Union. Remove power from the states, and give power to Brussels. Disconnected from the people they purport to be doing this for. Same deal with your Federal government getting too involved in what should be local matters.

[hank_Reardon]

If that woman understands the philosophy of liberty she is the most attractive woman I have ever seen.

[fern]

always relevant in 2018 !
in this area ( éducation) the centalisation reduce the impact of the consumer on the producer.

[crazieeez]

Wow, relevant to DMV and high tuition.

[buckfan]

Why don't government workers look out the window in the morning? Because if they did, they wouldn't have anything to do all afternoon....;)

[Cjeska]

They can't satisfy the shareholder if they can't satisfy their customers and thus make money. Common sense, so rare these days.

[justinpeek]

Please move all your content into sites like Rumble or others. Free speech about elections is under attack on this platform.

[firehot]

So what about the prisons in the UK currently that have been run so badly by private companies that there have been riots and the government has had to step in and take back control? Or, when the train system got a new timetable latest year in the UK and the entire system was screwed for 2 months while the train companies scrambled to get back to some sense of normality (all privatised companies, not working well together). Why do US citizens have to spend almost twice as much on their healthcare than UK citizens for only marginally better outcomes? He states all his ideas as if they are fact, but he is often cherry picking his data. The fact is, sometimes privatisation can lead to better outcomes and sometimes it does not.

[garymorrison]

I am waiting for an economist to announce the discovery that the "economy" is a vertically integrated bureaucracy that in fact runs America. The gospel according to Milton, however beseeches us to cast our eyes heavenward 
     "The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them high and lowly, and ordered their estate" ---Hymn      
.

[Hijfblog]

Except that corporations are first accountable to their shareholders, not their customers.

[Knaeben]

I wish he was alive to comment on how they 'privatized' the socialist program of student loans. I'd like to see what he would have to say about government money being loaned out by private entities, who then collect the interest at no risk and have to do practically nothing for it. Maybe send out a dummy mailer once a while.

[MAYKNG]

The problem is not with the fact that week have bit Government but inbits quality. It is not anprobpemnin and of itself.