I recently read an interesting mathematical discussion of why it’s a waste of time and money to try to get rid of welfare fraud. It’s in “How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking”, by Jordan Ellenberg; Chapter Twelve. Here’s part of what he says: “If we’re going to count utils [that is, units of utility] we shouldn’t be asking ‘Why are we wasting the taxpayers’ money,?‘, but ’What’s the right amount of taxpayers’ money to be wasting?‘…If your government isn’t wasteful, you’re spending too much time fighting government waste.” (p.. 236-37). It’s an interesting argument, I recommend it.
I recently read an interesting mathematical discussion of why it’s a waste of time and money to try to get rid of welfare fraud. It’s in “How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking”, by Jordan Ellenberg; Chapter Twelve. Here’s part of what he says: “If we’re going to count utils [that is, units of utility] we shouldn’t be asking ‘Why are we wasting the taxpayers’ money,?‘, but ’What’s the right amount of taxpayers’ money to be wasting?‘…If your government isn’t wasteful, you’re spending too much time fighting government waste.” (p.. 236-37). It’s an interesting argument, I recommend it.