Well, I think government CAN be efficient, I just haven't seen it yet.

The US Military is EFFECTIVE (i.e. it's good at blowing stuff up) but it is NOT efficient.  Not in the slightest.  Here's just one little example:  people in my army reserve unit are still waiting to get some travel pay from a gig we did last July.  We are all taking bets about whether we will get our travel pay from THIS year's annual training before we get last year's.

John,

I did not mean to insult you by comparing you to Newt Gingrich, I may have a difference of opinion with him on some issues but generally hold him in high regard. It was not my intent to be unfair.

Any system where a persons pay check is not related to their productivity, will be by it's nature inefficient. This is true of government workers and some union labor. I have yet to see a government program that has productivity even defined let alone advocated. How do you define productivity for government? As long as it has the means to take what it wants, it has no incentive. As long as it operates as a monopoly, there is no incentive.

How do you exactly make this efficient government you desire? Most people seem to forget that when Abraham Lincoln said, '...a government of the people, by the people, and for the people."; he was not overly concerned about the government of the people, by the people, and for the people in eleven states. Government was anything but efficient in Lincoln's day.

Samantha