A former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency says that he found that the federal waste, fraud and abuse that his agency was supposed to uncover were “relatively nonexistent” during his short time embedded within the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“I personally was pretty surprised, actually, at how efficient the government was,” Sahil Lavingia told NPR’s Juana Summers.
Lavingia was a successful software developer and the founder of Gumroad, a platform for online sales, when he joined DOGE in March. Lavingia said he had previously sought to work for the U.S. Digital Service, the technology unit that was renamed and restructured by the Trump administration. He told NPR that he just wanted to make government websites easier for citizens to use and didn’t really care which presidential administration he was working for, despite protests from his friends and family.
Even in most corrupt countries, many government employees will still blow the whistle on corruption within the government.
I think American conservatives are a different case. The idea of ‘governments bad, companies good’ is a hold over from classical liberalism of skepticism on government and championing individualism, private property and free trade. Classical liberalism stemmed from when European countries practiced mercantilism from 17th-18th century. It was indeed stifling so capitalism and liberalism was born from that condition. However, as with most ideologies, the theory is never applied perfectly in practical reality. Now, there is too much emphasis on individualism, private property and free trade which unfortunately disenfranchised much of collective humanity.
The American conservative mindset is stuck in that time period as if we still practice mercantilism and absolute monarchies still exists (although Trump wants to go back to it and Americans are enabling him). But the main reason they want “little government” is so that they can have a blank cheque to be corrupt themselves without having to deal with government regulations on health and safety, financial and worker rights.