That's sarcasm, right? No one who has ever had to deal with even one agency would ever attribute any of the words you used to government or "civil servants".
You must have never worked for the government. If you had, you'd see the monstrous inefficiency and corruption. Billions of tax dollars going to nothing whatsoever.
Ah yes, corporations use resources much more efficiently with $40 million severance packages for CEOs that run the company into the ground. There's waste in government, no one argues that, but by and large, agencies are full of normal people who mostly try to do their jobs, just like any large organization. I personally have an easier time dealing with government agencies than with Comcast, AT&T, my bank, my health insurance, or whatever other big corporate bureaucracy controls much more of my life than the government does.
You sound like the sort of person Donald Trump would appoint to head up one of these agencies, only to discover after taking the job that they do a lot of important things you had no idea about.
Haha! I totally thought to myself as I was doing it "Here's one that needs to go, that one never should have been made, here's another we need to get rid of..."
All with 1:42. I always was a spy freak. And a conspiracy theorist of sorts. But mainly just a spy freak. And I love EVERYTHING that ends in 'agency'. Especially if it gets an acronym.
All with 3:02 left. Thanks, bygone journalism career! Of course, many of these agencies will be gone soon enough too if the current administration gets its way.
With all these agencies and commissions protecting us why do we still have widespread diseases, natural disasters, rampant corruption and generally inefficient services?
Widespread diseases? like what? chlamydia? The CDC, WHO, and many other organizations do tremendous work preventing disease. If not for government intervention we'd still be living in a world with rampant polio, smallpox, and meningitis. Ebola, SARS, bird flu, and Zika would probably all have made it to the USA in large numbers. AIDS cases would still be growing rapidly instead of shrinking.
and while the government can only do so much to prevent natural disasters (effective measures to combat global warming would be a great start! and something only governments can do in a meaningful way), I'm sure the emergency response services that FEMA, etc provide have made quite a big difference to those who benefitted from them.
As for corruption, well, that's a little hard to combat when, instead of having politicians influenced by vile oligarchs, we just cut out the middle man and vote in a vile oligarch as president. Maybe in 2020...
Smallpox, though "eradicated" is still around. Measles are making a comeback, so are STD's and Zika remains a danger, particularly in the Southern states.
So, rampant corruption on the federal level didn't happen until the 2016 election? You may not have agreed with the results of that election but corruption was well in place before it. Politicians have pledged to fight it for almost as long as we've had elections, yet here it still is more pervasive than ever. Can't blame that one on the orange man.
diva: the CDC remained one of the most trusted and effective agencies in the world bar none up until this year when Trump decided to try and destroy it for his own political gain.
Fishbone: Corruption at the federal level happened before, sure, but not on anywhere even approaching the current administration. Not even Harding can hold a candle to Trump in terms of being most corrupt. And I didn't say corruption was new anyway. I said it was novel that we had elected a vile oligarch to be president. And that's something that is more or less unique in history. We have had businessmen presidents.. Bush Jr., Hoover, Harding (all among the worst presidents in US history because this is not the same skill set), but Trump is the first failed businessman who was born rich and had *ZERO* political experience before assuming office, and who was obviously running, by his own admission, for no other reason than branding and to try and enrich himself.
This has nothing at all to do with my opinion of the 2016 election outcome. It's objective fact. And I absolutely can blame Trump for making things worse. He promised to "drain the swamp" and now things are, no exaggeration, at least ten times swampier. EVERY decision he makes is about personal political or financial gain. EVERY one. We have NEVER had a president who was this nakedly, shamelessly, openly corrupt in history. And this opinion is shared by thousands of reputable and well-respected conservatives and lifelong Republicans if you just look for and are open to hearing from them. Look at the number of indictments. Look at the amount of government money spent at Trump properties. Look at the neverending list of conflicts of interest for Trump and everyone in his administration. Look at things he has said or tweeted himself, or the hundreds of accounts coming out by people who worked inside the administration. This is not a political opinion. The numbers don't lie.
And would run rampant if not properly watched and prevented from spreading by that vigilance and prompt action when needed by the right agencies so don't dis the agencies, they are there for good reasons.
With STDs that is no agency going to kick that without input into education of children and parents but they are only going to listen if there is reliable information to base it on. These agencies work to make sure what we know about diseases and how to prevent and treat them is accurate and up to date.
Public education campaigns against HIV/AIDS cut that down to minuscule numbers. Free clinics giving out antibiotics and free testing have kept incidence of things like chlamydia and syphilis fairly low. Development and deployment of the HPV vaccine will save thousands of women's lives in the future. Though the number of new cases of some diseases are increasing, mostly chlamydia and gonorrhea, probably among new immigrants and younger people who didn't live through the strong push for condom use in the 80s and are less likely to use them now, it's still less than 1% of the population affected each year. And one very likely culprit for the rise of new cases is decreased funding to state and local STD prevention programs - so, eliminating such programs all together is obviously not the answer.
As a non-American, a lot of the departments listed are to do with defence and security rather than social services - is the US federal state a bit militaristic still?
The CIA gathers foreign intelligence, the FBI investigates domestic federal crimes, the NSA handles code breaking and cyber security, Veterans Affairs handles benefits for military veterans like healthcare, the Social Security Administration is like a pension program for retirees and has nothing to do with defense, Homeland Security works in counter-terrorism... all of these agencies have specific missions and several are actually part of the larger Department of Defense. It's not like Americans just like war so much they needed multiple redundant departments for it.
OSHA = Occupational Safety and Health Administration
USDA = United States Department of Agriculture
NIOSH = National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health
and while the government can only do so much to prevent natural disasters (effective measures to combat global warming would be a great start! and something only governments can do in a meaningful way), I'm sure the emergency response services that FEMA, etc provide have made quite a big difference to those who benefitted from them.
As for corruption, well, that's a little hard to combat when, instead of having politicians influenced by vile oligarchs, we just cut out the middle man and vote in a vile oligarch as president. Maybe in 2020...
Fishbone: Corruption at the federal level happened before, sure, but not on anywhere even approaching the current administration. Not even Harding can hold a candle to Trump in terms of being most corrupt. And I didn't say corruption was new anyway. I said it was novel that we had elected a vile oligarch to be president. And that's something that is more or less unique in history. We have had businessmen presidents.. Bush Jr., Hoover, Harding (all among the worst presidents in US history because this is not the same skill set), but Trump is the first failed businessman who was born rich and had *ZERO* political experience before assuming office, and who was obviously running, by his own admission, for no other reason than branding and to try and enrich himself.
With STDs that is no agency going to kick that without input into education of children and parents but they are only going to listen if there is reliable information to base it on. These agencies work to make sure what we know about diseases and how to prevent and treat them is accurate and up to date.