I liked Jen Pahlka’s point that there’s a lot of pointing out flaws in government, but little discussion of good models. One of the interesting things that I wish progressives embraced more is the focus on user experience and administrative simplicity other countries have pioneered. Jack Meserve called the idea “Keep it Simple and Take Credit” in Democracy Journal in 2017. Annie Lowrey wrote about the public encountering the “time tax” during the pandemic in The Atlantic. Steven Teles wrote about America’s “kludgeocracy”, which Michael Lind picked up on in Salon in 2015. Matt Bruenig put out a plan about six years ago to streamline the welfare state, while enacting a brute-force plan to cut poverty. They’ve hinted at better models in their works.
Estonia has a perfectly fine e-government model, as pointed out above. The Faroe Islands have a simple but strong tax collection system, as pointed out by Ryan Cooper last year. Chile has a single defined contributions retirement system, instead of the panoply of American plans prone to skimming by financial ‘advisors’. Instead of the dog’s breakfast approach that was PPP loans, the national governments of the Netherlands, Britain, and Denmark simply guaranteed 80-90 percent of lost wages directly. The latter two have socialized medicine, with the majority of healthcare workers being government employees in one simple nationwide insurance network. Instead of a child tax credit that has to be reapplied for once a year via the IRS, these nations also have a strong and simple direct child benefit. Germany and Canada recently updated their infrastructure approval processes to ensure a goal of two years’ time, while respecting eminent domain. And evidence is emerging that Finnish-style Housing First policies are doing what the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit couldn’t, which is end homelessness in US localities.
These are the kinds of models that came to mind for me. I appreciate Ms. Pahlka’s perspective
Also, with respect to how such reforms get done, I think large-scale efficiency efforts should be led by career inspectors general. I’ve been impressed by NASA’s OIG work on the Artemis program in particular. Provided they be given adequate staffing with ethicists, human rights experts, and forensic auditors, they would be really helpful overall
I liked Jen Pahlka’s point that there’s a lot of pointing out flaws in government, but little discussion of good models. One of the interesting things that I wish progressives embraced more is the focus on user experience and administrative simplicity other countries have pioneered. Jack Meserve called the idea “Keep it Simple and Take Credit” in Democracy Journal in 2017. Annie Lowrey wrote about the public encountering the “time tax” during the pandemic in The Atlantic. Steven Teles wrote about America’s “kludgeocracy”, which Michael Lind picked up on in Salon in 2015. Matt Bruenig put out a plan about six years ago to streamline the welfare state, while enacting a brute-force plan to cut poverty. They’ve hinted at better models in their works.
Estonia has a perfectly fine e-government model, as pointed out above. The Faroe Islands have a simple but strong tax collection system, as pointed out by Ryan Cooper last year. Chile has a single defined contributions retirement system, instead of the panoply of American plans prone to skimming by financial ‘advisors’. Instead of the dog’s breakfast approach that was PPP loans, the national governments of the Netherlands, Britain, and Denmark simply guaranteed 80-90 percent of lost wages directly. The latter two have socialized medicine, with the majority of healthcare workers being government employees in one simple nationwide insurance network. Instead of a child tax credit that has to be reapplied for once a year via the IRS, these nations also have a strong and simple direct child benefit. Germany and Canada recently updated their infrastructure approval processes to ensure a goal of two years’ time, while respecting eminent domain. And evidence is emerging that Finnish-style Housing First policies are doing what the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit couldn’t, which is end homelessness in US localities.
These are the kinds of models that came to mind for me. I appreciate Ms. Pahlka’s perspective
Also, with respect to how such reforms get done, I think large-scale efficiency efforts should be led by career inspectors general. I’ve been impressed by NASA’s OIG work on the Artemis program in particular. Provided they be given adequate staffing with ethicists, human rights experts, and forensic auditors, they would be really helpful overall