Is it time to break up Washington, DC?

[BugI02]

That's what is happening.

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/7590...g-usda-research-agencies-point-to-brain-drain


But, it does make sense to have the Dept of Ag located near actual agriculture.

From your cite

This June the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its plan to move two of its research agencies out of Washington, D.C., to the Kansas City area. Most of the people working at the agencies have since quit, leaving gaping holes in critical divisions. Researchers warn that the agency upheaval will starve farmers, policymakers and ultimately consumers out of the best possible information about food and the business of growing it.

This is indicative of the 'credentialism' nail I've been hammering lately. Going beyond the rampant hubris that only Washington apparatchiks can provide the 'best possible' information (and the realization that "best is the enemy of good enough") practically their sole claim to being the best is hagiographic and dependent on a heirarchy of degrees, where having gone to any Ivy alone is enough to make you smarter than someone who went to Notre Dame, or Penn State or Michigan. Especially with respect to agriculture, it would pay to look at what schools were/are doing the research on which forecasting is based and whether forecasting done inside the beltway is unbiased or is bent to serve political purposes (looking at you, EPA)

It would even be informative to look at where truly elite intellects did their undergrad work. Brilliant scientists often arise in modest schools and then are picked up by 'elite' schools for graduate work

The map is not the territory, the degree is not the mind behind it

tl;dr I'm highly skeptical the work of agencies will suffer when moved out of DC, and may even become better by becoming more apolitical

 

[actaeon277]

"We currently have bureaucracies with all of the power of the legislative, judicial and executive branches merged in a single organization..."

This is the very epitome of unconstitutional and tyrannical. We don't need to move government geographically, we need to be eliminating government. Bureaucracies are part of the executive and should have ZERO legislative, "rule-making" powers. Nor should they be acting as courts.

This is the sort of BS that our nation's founders were shooting jackbooted thugs over, times 1000

 

[JettaKnight]

tl;dr I'm highly skeptical the work of agencies will suffer when moved out of DC, and may even become better by becoming more apolitical

Can't say I disagree, but it will be a bumpy road to get there.

 

[Jludo]

People who live in dc should be happy to have departments moved just for the fact that cost of living will go down for them. Modest homes in the DC area are going for 500k right now. Even if you make six figures you're not going to be buying a home in dc anytime soon

 

[BugI02]

Can't say I disagree, but it will be a bumpy road to get there.

The Trumpmobile seems to have an enhanced degree of suspension travel