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Notes -
reminds me of this legendary take by Ben Landau-Taylor.
Americans have institutionalized corruption, made it a normal and non-shameful career choice, which is why they are one of the least corrupt and highest-trust societies on Earth, and can import Indian, Turkish or, if need be, Haitian experts with no damage to that trust and institutions. Electing Trump also comes naturally. In contrast, Red Chyna is plagued by corruption and clannish factionalism, missiles are filled with water (注水), top commanders of the Rocket Force and other branches of the military have to be purged repeatedly. Thus do the WEIRD societies win on military procurement. More grease, less friction.
Generally, paying for your mistakes is a loser's attitude; winners fail upwards, or at worst laterally. Horrible tactical decisions, wars with no theory of victory, tariffs without understanding who pays them, all that can just be afforded, so it is afforded. Americans are a nation in the arena, trying things, learning things, unafraid of an occasional mishap. Besides, money is ≈infinite given the advantages of American system. It's frankly strange there's so little rot.
But sarcasm aside, isn't this pretty normal for a military? Militaries are routinely full of graft and random zany incompetence. Especially rich, massive, complex militaries. It's easy to maintain disciplined, patriotic forces of a dozen Royal Guards or whatever it was that Danes dispatched to Greenland.
I am not sure about that. America is a very efficient society. Smart people do smart people things (work as lawyers, doctors, hedge fund analysts, develop AGI, chips, anti-cancer treatment, reusable rockets, even fracking tech – unironically the world's best in many of the world's most important domains). This leaves the military and the state to make do with less smart people. AI can be a major assistance.
Many of of those smart people do those things while in the military. Even Marines with crayon-eater reputations are selected.
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Short answer: Yes, including for the US Army. But I do think the scale of incompetence and ~ $0 ROI on such a simple problem set is a brutal outlier.
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