tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post814065761718946003..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: A Note on FraudJonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-83786629190420702912010-10-28T12:10:17.891-05:002010-10-28T12:10:17.891-05:00Here's an attempt at pithiness: "The effe...Here's an attempt at pithiness: "The effective priority of a government program varies directly with the amount of waste and fraud associated with the program."Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09497993096630160212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-37973670675667164582010-10-28T11:30:41.649-05:002010-10-28T11:30:41.649-05:00Why use the unintended, but likely, consequence as...Why use the unintended, but likely, consequence as your indicator, when we could try to think of indicators of the things we want directly?<br /><br />So, don't use the relative lack of stimulus fraud to say that the stimulus didn't work: use data on what the stimulus was supposed to do. I think that, on average, you'd find the same things, but not always. You note the Iraq example as a high fraud-to-subtsance one, but what about a low one. Social Security fraud, for example. I don't mean number fraud; that's a real problem. But I mean the primary goal of the program: mailing checks to old people. And, as far as I know, the instances of mailing out checks that are "undeserved" is very, very rare. As for waste, it only employs 62,000 people to deal with 37% of the federal budget. I'd say that's very little waste. Does the program work, though? Well, that depends on what you think it should do.Matt Jarvisnoreply@blogger.com