In Government, Nothing Succeeds Like A Really Good Failure

By, Chris Rossini

Well, we knew it was coming. Healthcare.gov has become a laughing stock. It's a picture-perfect snapshot of government bureaucracy in action. "Failure" is too nice of a word to describe it.

But we're not dealing with the real world here, where such a disaster would mean shutting your doors, and not misallocating resources any further. No...we're dealing with government, where failure only means more resources must be misallocated.

The New Republic tells us that:

Healthcare.gov's troubles are symptomatic of a much larger problem of congressional malaise toward new technologies..This aversion to technological risk has also prevented the United States from reversing its precipitous decline as a global leader in innovation. For four straight years the United States has dropped in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index because of reduced rates of investment in research and development. (my emphasis)

Ahhhh...they need more money!

New Republic is already nestling Obamacare into the familiar pattern that we're all used to: If the government program fails (as it always does, and must) just keep throwing more money at it.

We're all too familiar with the drill:

How many umpteen zillions have been thrown at the government schools indoctrination centers? Throughout my entire life, I have heard only one thing about the failing schools: they need more money.

How about the U.S. Postal "Service"? No amount of losses seem to get rid of that zombie. Billions and billions of irreversible red ink. It can only mean one thing: they need more money.

What about the octopus military empire? Or the biggest Welfare State in the history of the world?

The answer is always the same: Throw more money!

Todd Park, the head of Healthcare.gov, which garnered a whopping 6 sign-ups on the first day, said he wants “to demonstrate that government can act in lean-start-up mode to make change happen, and to unleash the innovation mojo of the many talented innovators across government.”

It goes without saying that such a fantasy is impossible. Ludwig Von Mises pointed out long ago that government's foremost aim: "is to prevent any innovations that could endanger its own supremacy. Its very nature pushes it toward extreme conservatism, the tendency to retain what is, no matter how desirable for the welfare of the people a change might be. It is opposed to new ideas and to any spontaneity on the part of the subjects."

In fact, if you haven't checked out Mises's very easy-to-read book Bureacracy, I highly recommend it. You can download a free PDF or eBook here.

In it, you'll find the following gems:

• Bureaucratic management is management of affairs which cannot be checked by economic calculation.
• Nobody can be at the same time a correct bureaucrat and an innovator.
• The ultimate basis of an all around bureaucratic system is violence.
• Seen from the point of view of the particular group interests of the bureaucrats, every measure that makes the governments payroll swell is progress.
• A government enterprise can never be commercialized no matter how many external features of private enterprise are superimposed on it.
• The bureaucrat is not free to aim at improvement. He is bound to obey rules and regulations established by a superior body. He has no right to embark upon innovations if his superiors do not approve of them. His duty and his virtue is to be obedient.

Asking government to be innovative is equivalent to asking a rooster to lay hen's eggs.

The only outcome possible for government is: Failure > More Money > Failure > More Money > Failure > More Money> ........ Bankruptcy.

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