William D. Eggers: Making Government More Effective and Less Intrusive
The former Reason Foundation privatization guru says it's time to move past the "vending machine" model of government.

William D. Eggers is co-author, with Donald F. Kettl, of Bridgebuilders: How Government Can Transcend Boundaries To Solve Big Problems. He's now the executive director of Deloitte's Center for Government Insights, but 30 years ago, he was the director of government reform for Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason and this podcast. In fact, I interviewed with him when I applied for my first job here.
Eggers has since worked with dozens of governments at all levels, both in the United States and internationally, and he's written a shelf's worth of books on the proper scope and function of government. I talked with him about Bridgebuilders, what he's learned over the past three decades about making government more effective and less intrusive, and why it's long past time to move beyond what he and his co-author call "the vending machine model" of government.
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You could argue certain naughty governments in the 20th century were effective. I just want the damned thing to leave me alone.
If you're not a young male person who has dark skin, you'll just have to stop acting suspiciously and stop driving on public streets. That's the only way to get them to leave you alone. Of course they could get the wrong address on their no-knock death warrant and shoot you through a blank wall "in good faith." Well, never mind ...
A Part 2 of a Nick story is as reliable as “boaf sizes” of Biden criticism or recent Florida articles.
Finally! Some honest words out of the White House.
https://twitter.com/C3PMeme/status/1739720460428796112
Ha!
To be renamed the Brown House
Another Reason expert weighs in on a different subject.
Taylor Lorenz skips Christmas for 4th straight year because of Covid, accuses those who don’t wear masks of 'social murder of disabled people'
https://thepostmillennial.com/taylor-lorenz-skips-christmas-for-4th-straight-year-because-of-covid-accuses-those-who-dont-wear-masks-of-social-murder-of-disabled-people
She posted on Threads which may have been a mistake. All of the cool kids are on Mastodon.
> In this case, it would be the oppression one suffers when others do not choose to acknowledge Covid as a massive social contagion.
Very nicely done. Social contagion.
I still don't understand how the world got so fucked up that these sorts of obvious grifters have any public voice at all, but kudos to the marxists that made it happen. They did a thoroughly fantastic job of it. Someone should pat the Soros crowd on the back as they're strung up by their heels.
Who wants government to be more effective though? Better that they accomplish little.
How do you expect people to get elected if they don’t feed the beast?
The way for libertarians to sell the notion that govt is not needed - is to be competent enough to be credible.
Incompetent people can only sell corruption and cynicism.
I'd prefer less intrusive AND less effective.
Just less.
My experience with the gov't is through USCIS when I was petitioning my wife to move over. I met here and married in her country. While waiting and researching I found that the act of paying a fee ahead of time basically gave the gov't agency the entire cow with no real time line of the petition to be looked at.. I was looking at 18+ months at the time. I managed to find a loop hole. Stupid that if you filed a fee free form they would deny that form because they didn't offer that visa anymore, but they would pull your file, and adjudicate it on the spot. I had my wife in the United States within 6 months. USCIS, NVC, and Embassy processes. That sounds still a long time, and I agree, but more reasonable than 18 months.
Basically I think any fee based agency should take a application fee, then when they are ready they should collect payment for the answer, or service. Paying upfront only allows the gov't to take their time with no incentive to work more efficient.