The existence of perverse incentives explain a lot of the bad behavior that we see among government bureaucrats. A perverse incentive can be said to exist whenever an incentive to achieve a specific goal instead creates an unintended and undesirable result, which is often entirely contradictory to the intentions of the people who created…
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According to a report by Adam Ashton in the Sacramento Bee, California will net a large portion of Volkswagen’s $14.7 settlement for cheating on emissions. Some $10 billion will go to buy-back programs and $4.7 billion toward state and federal air-quality programs, and “California stands to gain $1.18 billion of that money.” Mary Nichols,…
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As we recently noted, the Regional Transit authority in California’s capital of Sacramento cut 20 administrative positions, saving taxpayers $1.5 million. In similar style, the salary of incoming business manager Henry Li is $14,000 less than that of outgoing boss Mike Wiley. Those reductions set a good example, but all is not well at…
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It’s a well established fact that unlike previous U.S. Presidents, President Barack Obama made an unusual practice of bowing to foreign leaders, and particularly China’s and Japan’s leaders as he greets them, which is a major breach of diplomatic etiquette in that by doing so, the President appears to be acknowledging that he is…
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Back in 2013, some 8,000 members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) rallied at the California state capitol in Sacramento chanting, “We’re letting them know this is our house!” In 2012, the government employee unions had helped elect big-government, tax-hiking politicians such as Jerry Brown, and they were now clamoring for more money…
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According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the federal government has borrowed over $1.036 trillion to loan money to U.S. college students through the Federal Direct student loan program through April 2016, with over 86% of that amount having been added since January 2009. David Jesse of the Detroit Free Press reports that for the…
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According to a new whistleblower, supervisors at the the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ central office are abusing their power in ways that include physical and verbal intimidation, sexual harassment, and orders to their staff to not cooperate with Congressional investigations of wrongdoing at the federal government entity. Ashleigh Barry of Phoenix’ KPHO/KTVK News…
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As Craig Eyermann observed last year, veterans who survive combat face health care rationing by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. Contrary to official proclamations, veterans wait months before they can even get on a schedule to receive care. In Phoenix, as many as 40 veterans died before receiving care, all due to a…
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Eileen Norcross and Olivia Gonzalez of the Mercatus Center have released a new report on the fiscal solvency of each of the United States, Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition. The rankings they determine for each state is based on the following five categories: Cash solvency. Does a state have enough cash on hand…
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The regional transit authority in California’s state capital recently laid off 20 employees, most of them administrators. “We don’t have business needs to justify these positions,” new business manager Henry Li told Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee. In other words, the jobs were not necessary, and therefore wasteful. The staff reductions will save…
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