

Rube Goldberg Machine
for release 11-29-05
Washington D.C.
Governments are in the business of inefficiency. If we want real efficient inefficiency we ask the government to handle it. And any time you hear a president declaring war on something, you can be prepared for a major ramp-up in inefficiency.
Two obvious examples are the War on Drugs and the War on Terror. I liked the War on Poverty but we saw where that went. I can't wait for the War on Hurricanes or the War on Boogie Men.
It's the perfect circular loop. The government creates problems that only the government can solve. It's a practical demonstration of entropy. Rube Goldberg comes to mind.
Take the War on Drugs, for example. Even with the budget of the DEA approaching a billion dollars per year, no appreciable decline in drug use or importation or sale has been detected as a result of these efforts since Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971. In fact drug production and distribution and use have increased.
The Washinton Post reports that drug nazis have destroyed over a million marijuana plants in Northern California. This body count is up from 33,000 plants two years ago. Oh yeah, the war on drugs is really working. After spending billions of dollars and untold human effort on this 'problem', the 'problem' is worse. I call that efficient inefficiency.
According to Wikipedia "a Rube Goldberg machine or device is any exceedingly complex apparatus that performs a very simple task in a very indirect and convoluted way." That also sounds like the definition of bureaucracy. If you want to confuse an issue, get a government committee to investigate it.
The War on Drugs is a great example of the Rube Goldberg effect. First you take a harmless plant that will grow almost anywhere and you make it illegal. This has the effect of turning a simple ubiquitous and harmless herb into a high-priced commodity that sells for up to $400 per ounce. If you could get $10,000 for a bushel of wheat, every farmer in America would be growing it. It's no different with marijuana. We're talking about a major cash crop here, and it's all thanks to the drug laws. Governments are famously adept at creating exactly the conditions that they are trying to prevent.
The War on Terror became a license for invading foreign countries. When we went into Iraq there were supposed to be rose petals thrown at our feet and the oil revenues were supposed to pay for the war and the reconstruction. About half a trillion dollars out of America's pockets and thousands of lives later, we see how well that war is working. We have created more terrorism than we have prevented and at a fabulous expense.
The Poet's Eye would rather see a War on Kudzu than a War on sweet, harmless, useful herbs.
"Make the most of the Indian hemp seed. Sow it everywhere."
--George Washington
A committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain.
--Robert A. Heinlein.