Governments do waste a lot of money & that's common knowledge, whenever a budget is given to a department their prime objective ought to be to make an improvement, which I suppose they do try to achieve, but the unnecessary expences to get from A to B are plain stupid a lot of the time. Trouble is that if a department shows that they managed to save money from a budget, then they will most likely get less next year. System is flawed, as good performance is rewarded with a cut in funds.
Only in the USA do people hate government so!! They underinvest in it...then complain that it can't do anything. Up here in Canada, we privatized water sanitation (in Ontario) a few years back....well, there were hundreds of deaths. Last year, the government inspection of meat was put mainly in the hands of private business....deaths started to happen...and, the business that was primarily responsible almost went bust, as did many other meat businesses. There is a role for government. I lived in a foreign country, and did not pay tax to Canada, but I had give up any association with Canada for that time. Living in a country and availing oneself of that country's benefits without paying your way is the same as welfare fraud. The government is ultimately, the people.
UBS Warning UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti says the first quarter of this year "was lacking any of the elements of positive seasonality," meaning it was pretty awful for a first quarter, and not just for UBS. Ermotti: "In this environment, it's true that equity markets have recovered but the conviction level of both institutional and private clients is not there…the Chinese market is up 25% and Hong Kong is up, U.S. is up, but the volumes supporting that rally are not there." CNBC