The government doesn't make tanks, it just shells out gigantic amounts to companies to make them.

That said, there are plenty of successful government actions across the world, where Europe or Japan probably have a good advantage with solid public services. Think streets, healthcare, energy infrastructure, water infrastructure, rail, ...

We're talking about the US government though

There's nothing special about the US government that makes it uniquely shit.

The difference here is that we have people like yourself: those who have zero faith in our government and as such act as double agents or saboteurs. When people such as yourself gain power in the legislator they "starve the beast". Meaning, purposefully deconstruct sections of our government such that they have justification for their ideological belief that our government doesn't work.

You guys work backwards. The foregone conclusion is that government programs never work, and then you develop convoluted strategies to prove that.

National Weather Service

Library of Congress

National Park Service

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

NASA

Smithsonian Institution

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Social Security Administration (SSA)

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control

U.S. Postal Service (USPS)

Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are all three programs that have massive approval from US citizens.

Even saying the military is a dumpster fire isn't accurate. The military has led trillions of dollars worth of extraction for the wealthy and elite across the globe.

In no sane world can you say that the ability to protect GLOBAL shipping lanes as a failure. That one service alone has probably paid for itself thousands of times.

We aren't even talking about things like public education (high school education use to be privatized and something only the elites enjoyed 100 years ago; yes public high school education isn't even 100 years old) or libraries or public parks.

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I really don't understand this "gobermint iz bad" meme you see in tech circles.

I get more out of my taxes compared to equivalent corporate bills that it's laughable.

Government is comprised of people and the last 50 years has been the government mostly giving money and establishing programs to the small cohorts that have been hoarding all the wealth. Somehow this is never an issue with the government however.

Also never understand the arguments from these types either because if you think the government is bad then you should want it to be better. Better mostly meaning having more money to redistribute and more personal to run programs, but it's never about these things. It's always attacking the government to make it worse at the expense of the people.

Hi. Assuming the US here. Depends on scope of analysis and dumpster fire definition.

1. The National Weather Service. Crown jewel and very effective at predicting the weather and forecasting life threatening events.

2. IRS, generally very good at collecting revenue. 3. National Interagency Fire Service / US Forest service tactical fire suppression

4. NTSB/US Chemicals Safety Board - Both highly regarded.

5. Medicare - Basically clung to with talons by seniors, revealed preference is that they love it.

6. DOE National Labs

7. NIH (spicy pick)

8. Highway System

There are valid critiques of all of these but I don’t think any of them could be universally categorized as a complete dumpster fire.

Weather Forecasting

1) art museums, specifically the Smithsonian, but nearly every major city has a decent one.

2) state parks are pretty rad.

The US federal government doesn't run most museums, but it does run the massive parks system with 20k employees (pre-Musk) and that system enjoys extremely high ratings from guests.

post office and USDA (pre trump regime slash-and-burn of course)

That's a trick question.

I mean, name 2 things anyone owns that aren't dumpster fires?

Long time ago industrial engineers used to say, "Even Toyota has recalls."

Something being a dumpster fire is so common nowadays that you really need a better reason to argue in support of a given entity's ownership. (Or even non-ownership for that matter.)

Highways

Roads and telecommunication. You can argue they are indeed a dumpster fire, but imagine the alternatives full of tolls and incompatible wavelengths.