{"id":6286,"date":"2025-02-14T08:26:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T13:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=6286"},"modified":"2025-02-14T08:26:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T13:26:33","slug":"thats-not-how-you-do-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2025\/02\/14\/thats-not-how-you-do-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"That’s not how you do “efficiency”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There’s been a lot of talk about “efficiency” from the current administration, but to quote a character from The Princess Bride<\/em>: “I do not think that word means what you think it means.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cutting and shutting down government programs is not efficiency. That is a bit like removing the furnace and hot water heater from your house and saying that you’ve made it more efficient – sure, your house is using less energy, but you have no heat or hot water<\/em>. It’s a bit like saying you’re going to be more efficient with your money by just not spending any of it. That’s not efficient… that’s just stupid<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Efficiency” means doing the same while using less<\/strong>, not doing less <\/em>and then just transferring that usage somewhere else. If the goal was really “efficiency,” then we wouldn’t be shutting down agencies or programs, we’d perhaps be looking for ways to combine them and reduce redundancy, or perhaps to even find ways to do more <\/em>and reap the benefits of economies of scale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A house without a furnace or water heater might use less energy, but you wouldn’t want to live there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I do not think that word means what you think it means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"uspol","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[19,385,392],"class_list":["post-6286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-society","tag-government","tag-politics","tag-society","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-1Do","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5892,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2022\/11\/17\/diesel-efficiency\/","url_meta":{"origin":6286,"position":0},"title":"Diesel Efficiency","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 17, 2022","format":"status","excerpt":"Drove 204 miles round trip to the Pine Barrens today and still managed almost 34 MPG despite all the low speed soft-roading I did (and the fact that the Keithmobile is kind of shaped like an angular brick and weighs some four and a half thousand pounds). Love that little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quick Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Quick Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/quick-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2022\/11\/img_3775-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2022\/11\/img_3775-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2022\/11\/img_3775-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2022\/11\/img_3775-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2022\/11\/img_3775-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2022\/11\/img_3775-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":930,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/10\/24\/saving-energy\/","url_meta":{"origin":6286,"position":1},"title":"Saving Energy","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"You might be surprised to hear it, but I do try to conserve energy and resources wherever I can.","rel":"","context":"In "society"","block_context":{"text":"society","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/society\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1299,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/08\/19\/wheres-the-stick-shift-gone\/","url_meta":{"origin":6286,"position":2},"title":"Where’s the Stick Shift Gone?","author":"Keith Survell","date":"August 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time to revisit a popular topic around here - the old \"manual vs. automatic\" argument. If you follow - well, actually, let's just be honest here and say \"obsess\" - over cars, you might have noticed a trend in regards to what transmissions are available on new cars these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":393,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/01\/05\/shutting-down-the-gps-network\/","url_meta":{"origin":6286,"position":3},"title":"Shutting Down the GPS Network","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to agree with Bruce on this one - this is dumb... or rather, make that \"Dumb\" with a capital \"D\"","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":907,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/07\/02\/intj\/","url_meta":{"origin":6286,"position":4},"title":"INTJ","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"That's me, to a tee!","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6205,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2025\/01\/21\/i-do-not-consent\/","url_meta":{"origin":6286,"position":5},"title":"I Do Not Consent","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It should go without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that I am very, very, very much not happy with the direction my country is going as of late.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6288,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6286\/revisions\/6288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}