There is nothing wrong with wanting things to be efficient, but everything has to be in balance.
For example, in Marvel Strike Force one of the ways they determine how to rank people on the leader board is by efficiency. If you use a combination of players that is faster at killing the other players, that is one way to be more efficient.
Now I don’t play that game looking to be efficient. If I am effective enough to get to the next stage that is all that I care about. Do I want efficient strategies? Sure, and I watch and try to cultivate the most helpful players. However I don’t try to memorize all of the details to have the highest efficiency. That isn’t fun to me.
We want the government to be efficient. Of course. We want to get the most value for our investment and people to have all of the services they need. However recently we have gone overboard on looking for efficiency. Somethings are so important, than efficiency is the last thing we want.
For example, people who work with key security and safety issues. We need redundancy in FAA, nuclear materials, and so many other things. We have learned about how important these departments and employees are when they aren’t there and harmful things happen. It has been a painful lesson, but people do seem to be drawing some lessons from it.
No one wants waste, fraud or abuse. However just like the game, looking at things in a simple way robs the rewards of looking at it from a nuanced approach. Simple minds do not solve complex problems. It takes a complex mind who can see shades of gray, not just a simple bottom line number on a spreadsheet.
Many companies are penny wise and pound foolish. I have shared many examples of this in past articles. We need to consider both the short/long term in decision making or any attempt at efficiency is a partisan hack at best. We need people who can work with experts, consider options and look for long-term solutions. We have made things worse, as we always do, when we think money is the only thing to care about.