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Comment by cupcakecommons | Hacker News Reader

Defaulting to discussing the US here: let's start with reducing the state's size - it shouldn't be the world's largest employer, it shouldn't be able to run an unfathomably large deficit, it shouldn't be able to declare war without congressional approval. Technology to run a police state is just the last step in a long line of ridiculously unacceptable steps.

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How does the number of state employees de facto result in a police state?

I agree with you on our obscene debt and our obsession with "conflicts" around the world, but I'd argue we're seeing the mass reduction of state employees and it's just making everything worse (eg massive deregulation and the destruction of checks and balances).

I in no way endorse taking people's jobs away once they have them. I'm saying the situation itself is absurd to begin with - now we are in a terrible situation where it can only be shrunk across a long timespan where people retire and orgs shrink naturally.

Let's slip in your pet bugaboo. Workforce size very little to do with state surveillance. In fact, mandating that it shrink can result in blowback, just like we have seen with how the US provides a great antagonist for China to evolve its own capabilities faster than if we had done nothing.

Never once said shrinking should happen at any rate that people lose their livelihood, you totally read that in yourself. The first step is recognizing that it's actually a problem worth solving. The simple idea the government should be laser focused on key areas of effort and avoid expanding to all areas of life should be obvious but it isn't for perverse reasons.

We should all cry a tear when an administrator loses their job. /s

No, what I would argue with, is if you want an org to laser focused, GET THEM TO DO THAT. Making them smaller doesn't reduce the focus, it could perversely, cause them to 100x their automation into all the areas you don't want them. Don't try and control an autonomous system by its second order effects.

what are you trying to express here?

It won’t work for any country. They all want more control, and also create a class of people depending on government money to be on their side. Only people losing out are the powerless ordinary citizens and taxpayers

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