One Step Closer to Kafka

 

Starting with a post from almost two years ago: Please, No DOGE.  Several months before DOGE blew up, but after noting that there is no chance that the bureaucracy and those who live off its fat would allow Musk to take $2 trillion (or even $2 million) out of government spending, I offered:

But there is a bigger problem: do I want the government to more efficiently kill innocents overseas; more efficiently spy on me; more efficiently incarcerate perpetrators of victimless crimes; more efficiently process illegal aliens?  Oh, the list can go on.

Concluding with:

At most, Musk and his buddies will make some aspects of government more efficient – Blackwater will fix the DOD, Palantir will fix the CIA and FBI, etc.  You get the idea.  

I want none of that.

Well, the “good” parts of DOGE disappeared very quickly, and look what we are left with:

Beginning next year, U.S. citizens can apply for their first passport fully online, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

"By the end of 2027, our goal is for the vast majority of Americans to be able to apply for a passport or a passport card on America.gov," Rubio said during a Sept. 29 remark at an event launching the America.gov platform.

Now, setting aside the wisdom of such an idea (not my subject for today), this is just one step in a larger plan to make the government more “efficient.”  There is an entirely new platform being developed, consolidating every bit of federal government data into one location:

The America.gov platform was launched by President Donald Trump on Sept. 29.

Trump signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to integrate their services with the platform.

The new web portal is aimed at making it easier for people to find government-related information, enabling people to ask questions and get guidance on how to procure various services.

The portal serves as a landing page that consolidates almost 30,000 federal government websites into one chatbot.

To the extent any of this is accomplished (also not my subject today), I suspect Russian and Chinese hackers are giggling with glee at how much easier this will make their work (and…also not my subject today). 

This is my subject:

Answers to questions about government services come directly from official government websites with links to sources, according to the platform.

If anywhere close to accomplished, this could reach all aspects of interaction with government.

Next year, the site is scheduled to offer assistance in finding Medicare coverage and enrollment.

Already a bankrupt program, but now we will make it go bankrupt even more efficiently?

The site will also make it easier for Americans to find a job in the federal government.

What?  If you are making the government more efficient, why make this part of the government more efficient?  Wouldn’t we require fewer government employees, not more?

Citizens will submit their resumes, and the platform will match them with positions fitting their experience.

If there was any true intent to make government more efficient (there isn’t), the government would do fewer things (say, start by looking at the actual Constitution for a blueprint); it wouldn’t work to do everything it does and more even more efficiently.

Conclusion

Now, if I believed this would result in some reduction in government spending due to a reduced need for wasteful hiring (say, at least $1 trillion), I might be willing to make the tradeoff.

And who knows what else they are planning to make more efficient (which, of course, they aren’t telling us about until it goes live – if then).  It is the “what else” that is the really scary stuff…assuming they could actually do any of this (although, there is always a bright and evil someone willing to trade their evil for a few coins).

To this end, returning to my post from two years ago:

Almost all that the government does are things that I do not want the government to do.  So why would I want the government to be more efficient at any of these?

I want none of this.

I am certain they will make the stuff I don’t want more efficient.  There are dozens of tech companies already serving or lining up to serve these ends.  Some of the brightest (and most dangerous) minds in the western world are telling us loudly what they intend in this regard.