Notes and Reflections on Books and Media

by Hannah Leitheiser

Decentralization

2018-10-18

- Michael Lewis, The Fifth Risk (2018OCT)

Much of government acts behind the scenes. For example, the National Weather Service provides the infrastructure responsible for accurate weather forecasts but is forbidden to advertise. There may be some customization and tweaks, but reports from weather.com, accuweather, or the local news are largely packaged NWS forecasts. Many people see, and don't like, SNAP (new name for food stamps), but small business loans granted through regular banks may have come directly from government. The department of energy monitors and cleans up nuclear waste and does research necessary to prevent nuclear proliferation around the world.

The Trump administration is trying to undermine these administrations as much as possible. You might say through neglect and incompetence, but a government does not have the luxury of incompetence, so the attempt must be considered deliberate and I think usually is. For my kind, I admit I'm skeptical of government, but it occurs to me that some of what government does is good, therefore it's wise to have a plan to decentralize those services before deleting them from government. With new tech may be ways to decentralize weather forcasting, although it's harder to see it in the nuclear field.