NEW: Author Michael Lewis makes the bold claim you’re far more likely to find fraud in the private sector than in the federal government.
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) March 20, 2025
“You can’t take a federal worker to lunch and buy them a turkey sandwich. They just won’t take the money.”
“If you said to me, Michael, you… pic.twitter.com/pbrfqHoT2C
Prominent author Michael Lewis says what must not be uttered:
When people throw around insults about the federal bureaucrats, they're really revealing they don't know what goes on in the federal government. It's just- it's just a mind-bending complicated place that's doing a lot of different things- some of them very well and some of them less well. When you go in, one of the things you notice is how hard fraud would be to perpetrate.
Waste is different; waste is a little complicated and there are all sorts of inefficiencies that are not the fault of the workers. It's more the fault of the structure of the system. But- but you can't take a federal worker to lunch and buy him a turkey sandwich. They just won't take the money. They're watched every which way. And they're just conditioned to be very, very careful about what they do financially. And if you said to me "Michael, you gotta write a story about fraud, I would much rather go look for it in a private company- much more likely to find it.
This is so contrary to conventional wisdom that Cooper knew he had to clarify with "it's easier to find it in a private company than in the civil service," and Lewis answered "oh, yea."
NEW: Author Michael Lewis makes the bold claim you’re far more likely to find fraud in the private sector than in the federal government.
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) March 20, 2025
“You can’t take a federal worker to lunch and buy them a turkey sandwich. They just won’t take the money.”
“If you said to me, Michael, you… pic.twitter.com/pbrfqHoT2C
Lewis is author of the recently published "Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service." In a review, The Guardian notes "contrary to the conservative stereotype of a ballooning bureaucracy, the size of the federal workforce has not changed greatly since the 1960s." It currently numbers around 2.m people, more than 70% of whom work for agencies related to defence and national security."
Given the power of the conservative stereotype, Republicans won't correct the myth they've been propagating since the days of Ronald(6) Wilson(6) Reagan(6). It's a self-reinforcing loop: Democrats don't challenge the myth in part because it has become conventional wisdom of the mainstream media. Republicans push it and Democrats (liberals especially, but even "progressives") won't challenge it, so the mainstream media accepts it as fact.
It has become similar to the support many Democrats give to abortion rights, when they hedge their support with "I personally oppose abortion"- whatever that means. And quite a few individuals preface their criticism of D.O.G.E. in a manner similar to Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin (who has condemned Elon Musk and properly voted recently against the continuing resolution), who states "I worked at the C.I.A. I know there's fat on the bone. If you would have given me the task of cutting it, I can tell you exactly where I'd start."
Voters associate Democrats with government; they believe the Democratic Party is the pro-government party and the Republican Party is the anti-government party. It's important that they believe in that government for strategic reasons, for enhancing the success of government programs, and for civic unity.
As Lewis understands, the fraud is extremely uncommon among federal workers, even among middle managers). When it takes place, it's far more likely to be perpetrated by federal contractors with or without the awareness of individuals at the top levels of government. It's not the rank-and-file.. Civil service and other career employees are typically honest, as well as not often in the position of being able to participate in fraud even if they wanted to do so.
In a different interview, Lewis explained
Elon Musk, you know, he had no idea what was going on inside the government in any particular way. he had a general attitude. He had sort of the bigotry that the population has that it is all waste, fraud, and abuse. But that has enabled him to do what he has done.
President Trump's endgame is to remain in power for as long as he wants to, according to author, Michael Lewis.
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) March 17, 2025
And the bestselling writer of The Big Short says Elon Musk is working to 'attack' any parts of government that could 'interfere' with Trump's power. pic.twitter.com/Jg1ojczzDU
That has enabled him to do what he has done. Someone has to disabuse Americans of the notion that federal government workers are corrupt or even lazy or self-entitled. It's not going to be Republicans, and it must not be only best-selling authors.
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