Comment by Esophagus4
9 hours ago
> so many inefficiencies that are trivially solved with existing tech frameworks.
Out of curiosity, like what specifically?
Didn’t DOGE’s failure highlight that it actually wasn’t trivial? I’m skeptical at first glance but open to being proven wrong.
DOGE wasn't actually trying to make things more efficient. You can't count it as an honest attempt.
> Out of curiosity, like what specifically?
For example, there are thousands of divisions of government out there provisioning largely the same systems in duplicate. E.g. the very local government here has a web portal for the sports venue bookings like pools and tennis courts. They have a waste collection portal. Local tax portal.
Only recently has this been slightly standardized but even those efforts are purely regional. You might get 5 local councils in the city using one SaaS platform, another 5 using another SaaS platform, and another 5 rolling their own. For each function of local government.
Nevermind the fact that a local government in France like this probably has very similar needs to one in Belgium or even the US.
And the worst part is they are terrible at procurement so even when they do consolidate, they're basically getting scammed.
I often think about starting a cost-plus-priced open core project to deal with these issues. Like we build common government functions, and sell it for cost plus 20% markup, with a licence that lets the gov run it themselves if we ever go bust. But then I think procurement is largely a grift game and it might not do well for that reason.
Wouldn’t consolidation lead to monopoly? If 50 local governments use the same SaaS/vendor, the 51st local government would likely go for the same vendor just because 50 others used that vendor before them, no? What prevents the vendor from jacking up prices or general enshittification at the stage?
DOGE made the token gain more in market cap than it saved in expenses. Despite having at head a master of blind layoffs.