> Our "starve the beast" approach to funding public agencies, also inspired by our hysterical attitude about government corruption, comes into play, too.
There's a vicious cycle here:
bureacratic rules -> government inefficiency -> perception of government ineptness and corruption -> more bureaucratic rules
Back in the day, we had corruption, but that didn't stop us from getting things done. If you look at New York or Chicago during the early 20th of the century, they were dominated by machine politics like Tammany Hall that openly traded votes for party jobs. But they also built most of the modern infrastructure that we take for granted today.
> Back in the day, we had corruption, but that didn't stop us from getting things done. If you look at New York or Chicago during the early 20th of the century, they were dominated by machine politics like Tammany Hall that openly traded votes for party jobs. But they also built most of the modern infrastructure that we take for granted today.
There is a more recent example: the reconstruction of major Japanese cities after WWII. They currently have excellent infrastructure, the best public transit in the world, and surprisingly affordable housing prices whether you rent or buy.
There was quite a lot of bribery, kickbacks, and illegal campaign financing going on the whole time between construction companies and politicians, but that may have actually helped. Local officials are a lot more motivated to push a project through the bureaucracy quickly when they are going to get a kickback.
There's a vicious cycle here:
bureacratic rules -> government inefficiency -> perception of government ineptness and corruption -> more bureaucratic rules
Back in the day, we had corruption, but that didn't stop us from getting things done. If you look at New York or Chicago during the early 20th of the century, they were dominated by machine politics like Tammany Hall that openly traded votes for party jobs. But they also built most of the modern infrastructure that we take for granted today.