Reagan is ultimately to blame. In 1986 he gave this famous quote: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
It gets your attention, pithy and direct. If you put it in the context of the time, it also sort of makes sense. Unfortunately an entire right-wing religion has sprung up around these words. The modern idea seems to be that government is evil, extraneous and needs to be destroyed entirely. At the very least, that’s what they are trying to do.
The latest efficiency drive against government waste is the National Weather Service. Over 1000 meteorologists have been cleared out, with 30 offices no longer having any senior officer. The person who liaises with media and local emergency services when there’s a problem. Such as a hurricane in Florida, one of the closed offices.
I mean, why is the government involved in this at all? If you want to know the weather, you just go to an app and it will tell you everything you need to know. All that weather data, it’s just simply there! An unalterable fact of nature.
The trouble is that all this reorganisation is being performed by people who have no idea what they are doing. They take the world as it is for granted and do not understand the processes and systems in operation. Literally nothing at all will work after they have finished.