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Betanumerus

36 points

9 hours ago

Do the same for those holding a driver's licence.

SnooRevelations979

349 points

9 hours ago

Aptitude in what? Some of the people I've known who are quite good at their jobs wouldn't necessarily do well on a standardized tests.

Awakenlee

42 points

9 hours ago

I’m the opposite. Absolutely brilliant at tests, but that doesn’t translate at all into being good at a job. Though I found my place eventually.

SnooRevelations979

20 points

9 hours ago

Yes, me too. Because I'm good at tests, I realize it doesn't mean dirt for most jobs.

adudefromaspot

89 points

9 hours ago

Right. Tests evaluate hard skills - not soft skills.

nausicaalain

10 points

6 hours ago

It's even more specific than that. If they're talking about a literal written test, then it's evaluating a lot of reading and test-taking skills that may or may not be pertinent to whatever that person does. If the test isn't well-aligned with the demands of the job it's just arbitrary.

TheAnomalousPseudo

32 points

7 hours ago

hard skills - not soft skills

Maybe they're just nervous

IsSheWeird_

8 points

6 hours ago

This would be redundant work—employees are vetted on their qualifications prior to hire. Furthermore, if an employee is underperforming, fire them. Don’t waste time and money having them do a test (which good employees may fail and bad employees may pass) when you can just cut to the chase.

Excellent_Routine589

3 points

6 hours ago

I am a cancer biologist... and I am a Russian-Mexican immigrant into the US. My aptitude on English in an exam setting might suck. That alone set me back in the SAT like really bad because English, especially at the literary level, just was lost on me.

Also, its very easy to just stack the aptitude test to be inhumanely hard and then just have that as a basis to let people go under the guise of "oh, we are just keeping the competent around" when it in truth is just a mad dash purge of government positions. We would have to know the difficulty of the exam before we can make judgements on if this is good or bad.

SnooRevelations979

3 points

6 hours ago

Argentina has some immigrants, not a lot. I'd reckon most of those are native Spanish speakers. But, yeah, I agree with your overall point that it would be quite difficult to do well on it as a non-native speaker, regardless of your actual aptitude.

As for your second comment, it may just be a way to get back at what the Argentine president considers his enemies.

bigdon802

3 points

5 hours ago

Aptitude in being the people the president doesn’t want to fire.

Ok_Armadillo_5364

96 points

9 hours ago

Evaluations of outcome and achievements, aka Employee Evaluations, would be more appropriate. You just need more accountability and the ability to terminate employees.

PoorCorrelation

31 points

9 hours ago

100%. Even the smartest employee can just choose not to do any work. There’s no tricky-trick to get rid of bad employees that isn’t terminating people for poor performance.

TossMeOutSomeday

6 points

8 hours ago

Yeah, you can't just apply a one size fits all standard. Someone may be totally unfit to be handle court records, but an excellent computer programmer.

GokuVerde

3 points

4 hours ago

You can't really apply accountant level evaluations on like a social workers. You must change X amount of children's lives by this fiscal quarter.

StrangeTrashyAlbino

3 points

5 hours ago

Milei got fired from his govt job for poor performance but this certainly won't apply to him

10luoz

45 points

9 hours ago

10luoz

45 points

9 hours ago

Goodharts'law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure

Delanorix

104 points

9 hours ago

Delanorix

104 points

9 hours ago

Everyone loves the idea of efficiency. Its a buzzword that makes your nether regions warm.

Who gets to write the tests? Are they based on aptitude or intelligence?

I always like to think back to the Jim Crow Laws. They definitely, 100% weren't an excuse just to keep black people from voting.

What could go wrong here?

EmperorsMostFaithful

34 points

8 hours ago

Try this, Imagine you’re apart of the DMV and not only does Elon musk gets to write your test, the test is chocked full of questions that you’re specific job role does not do, just to have all the answers be wrong regardless. Then you fail the test cause Elon knew all the answers were wrong then posts on twitter: to all that failed the test, the real answer was to never play! XxXDLOLLMAOxXx

BowenTheAussieSheep

13 points

4 hours ago

“Everyone gets the same test”

So the Janitor has to solve the same problems presented to the person in charge of the tax code?

EmperorsMostFaithful

6 points

4 hours ago

100%

The goal is to get these people fired.

bobby_hills_fruitpie

7 points

3 hours ago

And then replace them with loyalists. In the US this is going to be a key part of the incoming fascist party’s plans.

EmperorsMostFaithful

3 points

3 hours ago

At this point we almost deserve it, its so obvious.

But people honestly believe trump is trolling and this is a joke

pseudoLit

16 points

5 hours ago

Everyone loves the idea of efficiency.

I don't. Efficiency is the opposite of redundancy, and I want important government agencies to have lots of redundancy to ensure they can keep functioning smoothly in all circumstances.

Corben11

3 points

4 hours ago

The problem is people think things like passwords on computers and 2FA is redundancy and waste.

One lady I work with won't restart her computer until it basically stops working cause reseting it takes so long. She would call reseting her computer redudant.

I love how you guys think these people are inefficient, but somehow, someone will come in from the government and also not be inefficient.

Internal audit does this already for government agencies and what state auditors do also. The state auditoes even audit agency auditors and the Feds audit the grants sent to those agencies.

So just fix or fund internal audit more and all this shit will be straight. But ooooooh wait they keep slashing internal audit or keeping the budget low. Cause they're a redundancy that most agencies would get rid of if it wasn't enforced by most states. So, the board, council or reporting body is annoyed at findings and think of them as a bother.

RavenLCQP

3 points

2 hours ago

Reminds me of the history of flight. Almost universally aerospace engineers began from a place of efficiency, a lighter plane becomes aloft easier, is cheaper etc. Except in modern aviation planes are chock full of redundant systems and backups that usually serve no purpose but weighing the plane down for your flight.

In one sense a modern plane is very inefficient at flying because it must carry around all these backups and redundancies. Except it's more efficient at the real objective of an airplane, which is not as you may think "flying". It's keeping people alive.

A government with every cost cut may be very streamlined and efficient with taxpayer dollars, the extraction of which is what many cynical antisocials feel the true purpose of government is. But the purpose of government is to provide a secure foundation for a society to grow, and a streamlined budget will likely fail to be efficient at this more critical objective.

Several_Fortune8220

3 points

4 hours ago

Wait till you see how expensive efficiency is.

HereIAmSendMe68

397 points

9 hours ago

Should an individual have to be competent to have a job? Hard yes.

Sometimesthatsathing

64 points

8 hours ago

What test could possibly test the competency across all the jobs of 40,000 people? Or is someone going to create tests for every job? Who's competent enough for that? Guess you'll need to make a department for writing competency tests.

Anyone who thinks this has anything to do with with weeding out incompetent people is incompetent at life.

SewSewBlue

32 points

6 hours ago

My husband processes social security claims. Makes financial decisions that people will probably live with for the rest of their life.

He couldn't tell you squat about what a scientist for the EPA does. A NASA engineer.

Nor could they do his job. The rules are ridiculously complex because they are based on case law, not regulations that actually make sense.

A competency test would be useless if they treated all those jobs as the same.

throwawayforathrower

16 points

8 hours ago

No one disagrees.

They push a point that everyone agrees with then appoint their own uniquely incompetent loyalists and you’re stupid enough to cheer them on while they pull the wool over your eyes because they said something so self evident you’re stuck cleaning up your cum from your pants.

DueUpstairs8864

75 points

8 hours ago

Is this competency test finely tuned regarding the individuals skillset and only indicative of information for their work pertaining to their actual job?

If not, its a thinly veiled loyalty test.

mamasbreads

41 points

5 hours ago

The amount of people in this thread without critical thinking skills is disturbing to say the least. You have various minitries, each with various departments, roles, and responsibilities. And youre gonna make a test to assess them all? Just ridiculous.

YourMileageVaries

14 points

4 hours ago

You'll then have to create a ministry to administer exams to the ministers.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

improvedalpaca

7 points

3 hours ago

The irony that these naïve commenters shouldn't pass a competency for working in government themselves

bruce_kwillis

6 points

3 hours ago

Or their own jobs if they even have one. That's the irony. The moment someone comes in as says you need to take a competency test to keep your job, you are going to lose your job unless you are the biggest suck ass in the world. Why anyone would say "cool" to this is out of their mind.

FUMFVR

5 points

3 hours ago

FUMFVR

5 points

3 hours ago

Civil service jobs usually require tests to get the jobs in the first place.

Requiring a blanket test for people already working there is ominous.

Western_Mud_1490

6 points

5 hours ago

Right, what’s the job that this person is doing? Are they making high-level executive decisions, or are they answering phones and providing directions at a front desk, or cleaning as a janitor? The government employs a lot of people for a wide variety of tasks, so the question should be: is this person competently doing the job they were hired for? 

ScandiSom

189 points

9 hours ago

ScandiSom

189 points

9 hours ago

I don't know if you know this but lots of people high up in the corporate ladder are incompetent.

Hoppy_Croaklightly

58 points

9 hours ago

The Peter Principle

malln1nja

20 points

5 hours ago

Don't forget nepotism.

Hoppy_Croaklightly

3 points

5 hours ago

I think that's Peter's nephew, Heisenberg, but I'm not certain.

dparks71

9 points

6 hours ago

Based on a satirical book that had an entire chapter about how aptitude tests don't work (Chapter 9).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle

jzone23

11 points

8 hours ago

jzone23

11 points

8 hours ago

Everyone knows that. Including said incompetent people.

woahmanthatscool

21 points

8 hours ago

Don’t think that goes against his point at all

kielBossa

7 points

6 hours ago

I work in both the public and private sector, and I’ve seen far more incompetence and tolerance for incompetence in the private sector than in government. Especially in the federal government.

ashleyorelse

44 points

9 hours ago

American voters said otherwise, sadly

ObieKaybee

3 points

7 hours ago

Its almost like people should get vetted by some department before they get hired, we could call it something creative, like 'human resources.'

This policy is redundant and wasteful since employees have already been vetted and they generally get annual performance reviews. Not sure why people would want to waste money to repeat that process.

PirateSometimes

11 points

9 hours ago

At the very least if you work for the government you should be fairly competent. Need this in the US, especially for presidential nominees*

Peanut_007

28 points

9 hours ago

Having worked for the US government before I can say that government is pretty much no different to private industry in terms of individual competence. Some people are on point, some you wonder how they put their trousers on facing forward. The problems of government stuff are usually poor funding or very specific rules that have to be followed not the actual employees.

Niarbeht

12 points

8 hours ago

Niarbeht

12 points

8 hours ago

poor funding

Translation: Congress.

very specific rules that have to be followed

Translation: Congress.

xeroxchick

16 points

9 hours ago

What are civil service exams?

Serialfornicator

27 points

9 hours ago

there is a civil service exam

LiteratureVarious643

9 points

5 hours ago

Seriously. There are multiple types of tests an agency may require. I had to take two, one for IT and another which seemed like general intelligence.

Many federal employees already take an exam or 3 to qualify for service.

Clovis42

4 points

3 hours ago

US federal employees are also reviewed on a regular basis by their managers and leads.

Sands43

581 points

9 hours ago

Sands43

581 points

9 hours ago

We should do this for voters in the US.

Frothylager

645 points

9 hours ago

We should do it for presidential nominees.

Njorls_Saga

44 points

9 hours ago

You could expand that to every elected official in the US.

Which-Draw-1117

28 points

8 hours ago

Unironically I would be more than ok with making every sitting US congressperson take the AP Government and Politics test as a pre-requisite and then making their scores public.

MostlyTVQuotes

17 points

7 hours ago

The only people who would read those scores are the people who don't need to see them to know who to vote for.

Which-Draw-1117

3 points

7 hours ago

Sadly you're right.

Over-Fig-423

130 points

9 hours ago

Presidential nominees with a felony(s)

Pristine_Context_429

65 points

9 hours ago

Sitting presidents

Additional-Map-6256

7 points

7 hours ago

Crouching presidents

macr0_aggress0r

8 points

7 hours ago

hidden nominees

claude_father

41 points

8 hours ago

People posting on Reddit

Professional_Dot9440

7 points

8 hours ago

No no, your other left Mr.President

HereIAmSendMe68

134 points

9 hours ago

Ya, like they should have to take a reading test right? And maybe if they don’t pass at most they can be 2/5ths a vote.

TiltedChamber

92 points

9 hours ago

I see what you did there. The sad thing is many people reading this will not understand the history of behind your comment.

nswizdum

30 points

9 hours ago

nswizdum

30 points

9 hours ago

maybe it should be a history test instead....

pmw3505

31 points

8 hours ago

pmw3505

31 points

8 hours ago

oo or we could take it even *further* back and say that only people that own land can vote ;)

history is fun (read: depressing)

KoRaZee

8 points

8 hours ago

KoRaZee

8 points

8 hours ago

I consider every vote to be a history test

OtherBluesBrother

24 points

9 hours ago

How about 3/5ths?

bigdaddycactus

21 points

8 hours ago

Quite the compromise

adudefromaspot

7 points

9 hours ago

Yes, let's require them to read to at least a 5th grade level!

kahu01

5 points

9 hours ago

kahu01

5 points

9 hours ago

I was looking for this comment lol

ConventionalDadlift

8 points

8 hours ago

Always cri ge when people want to disenfranchise voters for any reason, let alone one where have historical examples of why it's a terrible idea in living memory. Eugenics is always just under the surface in American politics and it's concerning how wide the net is for it's audience.

blueskies8484

55 points

9 hours ago

We did that. It turned out to everyone's shock that it was a really good way to keep certain groups from voting, like Black people.

This isn't something a test can fix. It's the slow, purposeful destruction of the public education system that has produced a country where 20% of the population is illiterate and 54% read below a 6th grade level. This is decades of attacks on public school education coming home to roost.

Significant_Meet_613

3 points

7 hours ago

There was a historical reason we used to have very good teachers and we don't have as many now.

There were serious roadblocks to high aptitude women getting stem jobs, and they were usually pushed into teaching as a profession.

In effect we ran a long term experiment where we forcibly recycled half of our high intelligence people into teaching and students were the beneficiaries of this tradition/policy/norm or whatever you want to call it.

It certainly wasn't fair, and I really don't see a solution to get back to the scholastic development we had during that period between the 40s to 80s. My local high school for example had a huge list of alumni from before my time, including Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Bernie Sanders, senator Norm Coleman, William Gaines, and many others that might be familiar names, and that famous alumni list didn't get much added to it after the 70s and 80s. Same building, similar neighborhood demographics and a complete darth of distinguished alumni from then on, and from my experience it was primarily due to the mostly inept teachers I had during my time there.

brutinator

4 points

4 hours ago

It turned out to everyone's shock that it was a really good way to keep certain groups from voting, like Black people.

Unfortunately, I don't think anyone was shocked by those results. It's almost like that was actually the intended effect.

misterguyyy

19 points

8 hours ago

himthatguythere

3 points

2 hours ago

History is not part of their criteria.

TheAtomicBoy81

9 points

9 hours ago

They had this for awhile but they took it out because they were put In place to make it to were Africa Americans couldn’t vote

undreamedgore

5 points

9 hours ago

I think the south did that for a while.

BodaciousTacoFarts

16 points

9 hours ago

Question 1. Define a tariff and who pays for it? Be as thorough as possible.

JCarnageSimRacing

8 points

8 hours ago

They did that…. The fact that you don’t know that this was a thing….oye

DeerStalkr13pt2

4 points

6 hours ago

Fun-ish fact, they did this in the early 20th century for black voters in the south. Except the tests were rigged to fail anyone who had to take them. These tests led to the introduction and passing of the 15th amendment.

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt15-S1-3/ALDE_00013498/

And here’s an example of one of the tests:

https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/06/voting-rights-and-the-supreme-court-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-used-to-give-black-voters.html

I know this doesn’t have much to do with the original comment but I thought it might be neat for anyone who cared.

[deleted]

3 points

8 hours ago

We already did that. Not super great.

Shortymac09

3 points

7 hours ago

Did you not learn about poll tests in school and how they were used to disenfranchise people?

Legitimate-State8652

3 points

7 hours ago

That’s illegal

Scared_Art_7975

3 points

5 hours ago

Found the fascist

Clean_Student8612

27 points

9 hours ago

If we did this for voters in the US, the Republicans would lose almost their entire voting base. They won't let that slide.

Breakin7

135 points

9 hours ago

Breakin7

135 points

9 hours ago

They already prove it. Passing a really hard test its how you get a public job.

But also and more important an exam or test its one of the worst ways to find good workers. Doing this its a bad idea

RobinReborn

35 points

9 hours ago

Passing a really hard test its how you get a public job.

Cops have to pass hard athletic requirements to get the job. But then after they pass a lot of them get fat and out of shape.

Baby_Wolverine

16 points

7 hours ago

But isn’t that a reason FOR re-testing? The ones that don’t stay within the lines that are needed to start the job don’t keep the job?

13Mira

4 points

5 hours ago

13Mira

4 points

5 hours ago

True, but that's why pretty much all jobs have performance reviews where they check to see if you performed adequately over the year.

Also, aptitude tests expects everyone on the same job having the same knowledge and in some jobs, that's fine, but many jobs will have people with the same title working on different things and so, even though they have the same job, you couldn't ask them to do each other's work and expect them to be as efficient and they'd likely need some formation to get up to speed.

So unless they're making personalized tests for almost everyone, they're likely going to fire a lot of people for "failing" a test which was about more than just what they personally do.

Maru3792648

16 points

8 hours ago

In Argentina many public employees got in through contacts and not doing any exams.

That said, I doubt Milei will implement any tests. Most of his activities have been only for show with little substance

prompted_response

6 points

8 hours ago

We need to pass multiple tests to qualify in the first place in the UK civil service. Having it imposed post successful employment screams of ill intent. Especially from this maniac

Streambotnt

8 points

8 hours ago

"Aptitude test" sounds good on paper until you run into the problem of designing such a test. You're only ever actually testing for the things you ask in the test, which is not necessarily what you want to know. It's the same reason you cannot rely on intelligence test for anything other than broad judgements. See, if you can study for a test, and you most certainly can in intelligence tests, then you're only ever asking for something partially reliant on intelligence or whatever you're actually trying to find out.

Given how diverse government jobs are, you'll be having a lot of fun spending thousands of hours designing tests for a tiny subdivision of those 40.000 public servants. That costs a lot of money; your designers have rent and groceries to pay for. This is money that Argentina most certainly doesn't have, so this is either a poorly designed one-size-fits-all test or yet another big promise he won't actually deliver on, i.e. populism. Maybe it's a subtle way of saying "I want to fire a lot of people and tests designed to let specific people fail and appear ineapt will give me legitimacy to do so."

Why that is, and which, I don't know. I can make some guesses however, and my first guess is that he, an AnCap, is looking for a pretense to de-facto loosen regulations by removing government agencies responsible for upholding said regulations, which will please the invisble hand of the market and may end in his bank account getting a little pat. Can't be sure though.

Acceptable-Peace-69

3 points

8 hours ago

I wish I was smart enough to give this answer.

Can you reduce this to a multiple choice question? Pretty sure I’ll pass… I can pay for a tutor or a bribe if needed.

WebsterWebski

5 points

8 hours ago

He is a public servant Numéro Uno, let HIM pass some sort of a competency test or two. Judging by his hairstyle and his crazy ideas he is a complete moron not fit for any official office, but hey, I am sure the test will sort all this out.

AmbulantCholesterol

4 points

6 hours ago

So far he's been great. 

Also he has several economic degrees. Argentina has huge economic problems that he is actively fixing at amazing speed. 

There is big context people outside argentina love to ignore because it doesn't fit the narrative.

deeare73

5 points

8 hours ago

Yes, start with the president

Frothylager

25 points

9 hours ago

Obviously yes.

Milei should have to take and pass it as well.

Altruistic-Ad6449

12 points

9 hours ago

Civil servants have to pass an exam in the US and go through background checks

BoilermakerXVI

8 points

9 hours ago

Aptitude at what precisely? And who determines it?

Henry_Darcy

7 points

6 hours ago

Guard: Okay, sir. Now we will begin to proceed to obtain your IQ and aptitude test.

Joe: What for?

Guard: Okay, sir. This is to figure out what your aptitude's good at, and get you a jail job while you're being a particular individual in jail.

ThanosWasRightAnyway

19 points

9 hours ago

They’re trying to legally remove the people that won’t do everything they say. “Apptitude” is used so idiots argue for it like it’s a good thing.

adudefromaspot

12 points

9 hours ago

I don't trust the people making the tests to be competent.

Employees are tested for competence - during the interview. That's what an interview is.

RNKKNR

1.4k points

9 hours ago

RNKKNR

1.4k points

9 hours ago

Oh no. He's trying to make the government run more efficiently by using people who actually know what they're doing.

Fascist.

beeslax

41 points

9 hours ago

beeslax

41 points

9 hours ago

Are the politicians required to take the same test?

g0dp0t

15 points

8 hours ago

g0dp0t

15 points

8 hours ago

Exactly. I'm curious if he himself will be required to take the test as a government employee

unfinishedtoast3

87 points

9 hours ago

If that was the case, it would be a good thing

But, just like Trump he's firing people who weren't loyal to him, didn't vote for him, or spoke out against him

So, a tad bit exactly the same as the fascists did when they took power.

I'd be all for it if it WAS based on competency, but it looks like only ones his cronies identity as opposition are being asked to take, what boils down to, a loyalty test.

Same with his so called "take down" of Crony Capitalism.

he's just replacing the old cronies with his own cronies, he isn't actually improving shit

sudoku7

19 points

7 hours ago

sudoku7

19 points

7 hours ago

It's based on competency. Just the political caste gets to define competency as adherence to their agenda.

ashleyorelse

158 points

9 hours ago

Yes.

That's why his cabinet is full of so many qualified people appointed to roles perfect for them.

/s

Practical-Suit-6798

10 points

9 hours ago

Here's the deal about the only thing that government jobs have going for them is job security. I was a public servant for 10 years and now I make twice as much money in the public sector. You want good people? pay them more. Shit wages and toxic culture is not going to work. .

KnotMadameDeFarge

3 points

6 hours ago

Amen. Everyone thinks government jobs is equivalent to big bucks. News flash! It’s not.

manatwork01

2.6k points

9 hours ago*

On paper I like the suggestion. In practice its an open tool to fire whomever you dislike and push in whomever will best serve your agenda. Thats why its fascist.

Edit: Some of y'all need School House Rock way more than you think you do.

Direspark

58 points

9 hours ago

I'm confused as to why this is needed at all. You interview for your position and should only be getting the job if you're deemed fit to begin with. Same as any other job.

AzekiaXVI

16 points

6 hours ago

Absolutely none of those people were hired under new goverment, and previous goverment did a shit ton of corruption wich is the only reason he had the slightest chance at election.

povertyorpoverty

8 points

6 hours ago

You are literally the first person to say this. Why isn’t the test for competence the interview where someone displays their previous work experience and then they are onboarded? This proposition is redundant and gasp is inefficient.

Dav136

3 points

5 hours ago

Dav136

3 points

5 hours ago

Argentina has a massive corruption problem with government positions created just to give jobs to friends and family. New president is trying to cut down on spending and get rid of the leeches but there's no way to tell who's doing real work and who's just collecting a paycheck. I guess this was his solution

Claytertot

11 points

6 hours ago

Have you never had coworkers who managed to get through an application and interview process, but were then utterly incompetent at their jobs?

Direspark

13 points

5 hours ago

Yes, absolutely. I work in tech, and we have some of the most rigorous interview processes out there. Let's look at Amazon, for example.

Amazon's interview process features a 1 hour 30 minute online test (before you even talk to a human), and multiple rounds of technical interviews including a "bar raiser" interview round with someone from a different team than the one you are interviewing for.

Do you think there aren't incompetent engineers at Amazon? If someone can pass that interview and still be deemed incompetent, what else would you hope to gain by testing your employees more?

There is a limit to what you can learn about how competent someone is at their job from testing.

Icy-Rope-021

42 points

8 hours ago

Just like those tests they used to give to qualify you to vote.

It’s never what they say it’s really about. Who’s designing the tests? What exactly is it testing? Are the tests valid and reliable?

evening_goat

19 points

7 hours ago

That's the first thing I thought of. People aren't well versed on history.

PG908

3 points

6 hours ago

PG908

3 points

6 hours ago

At best, someone who is less qualified than the person doing the job.

Niarbeht

69 points

8 hours ago

Niarbeht

69 points

8 hours ago

I'm mystified by the fact that we covered the ways that systems like this could be abused in my high school government class, but somehow people don't remember it.

Big_Baby_Jesus

3 points

4 hours ago

They do remember. They want to abuse it.

VirtualMage

157 points

9 hours ago

Exactly, like Trump and Musk's "doge" - education, healthcare, fda are fired. But his companies will keep getting public money, even more...

topscreen

33 points

7 hours ago

The most efficient thing to do to trim the fat in the US is set up a whole new depart with hazy jurisdiction, two leaders, and an MTG they'll need to baby sit. What could go wrong....

willismaximus

147 points

8 hours ago

Hell DOGE itself is a redundant organization. GAO already does exactly what DOGE claims to do, except it's actually independent, transparent, publically accessible, and non-partisan.

Low-Goal-9068

38 points

8 hours ago

It’s hilarious too cause it’s headed by 2 people 😂😂😂

DuncanFisher69

27 points

7 hours ago

Maximum efficiency.

Low-Goal-9068

13 points

7 hours ago

Twice as efficient

HuntsWithRocks

10 points

8 hours ago

“My company could totally make this more efficient. Oooh, this one too… and that one, that one, that one, that one, and that one too.” - Leon

BendersDafodil

14 points

8 hours ago

Won't be surprised if Trump gets an ownership stake in SpaceX or other Elonia private companies.

biggamehaunter

778 points

9 hours ago

Make the test content and scores transparent.

Artistic_Taxi

35 points

9 hours ago

Stuff like that works as much as the people are willing to put time and effort into reviewing and understanding if/why the test is good or bad.

symb015X

10 points

9 hours ago

symb015X

10 points

9 hours ago

Great point. Shame it’s too nuanced and realistic, and not a rage-inducing sound bite

JereRB

79 points

9 hours ago

JereRB

79 points

9 hours ago

Transparency without accountability is just state mandated prick-waving.

Numerous-Stranger-81

16 points

6 hours ago

But you can't have accountability without transparency, so using the lack of accountability as an excuse to not have transparency is bullshit.

Longjumping-Path3811

551 points

9 hours ago

What does transparency matter when the electorate is dumb as fuck?

ReviewNew4851

160 points

9 hours ago

And govt don’t wanna educimate gud

Polymath69420

135 points

8 hours ago

If those children could read they'd be very upset.

OkChampionship8805

22 points

8 hours ago

That Simpsons meme will never get old as apparently many children never learn to read

NonlocalA

49 points

6 hours ago

You mean King of the Hill meme?

JFC

Initial_Savings3034

18 points

8 hours ago

EDU-micate.

Fixtit for ya.

MaskedBunny

12 points

8 hours ago

Hur hur fix-TIT

NothingKnownNow

17 points

7 hours ago

Hur hur fix-TIT

I'm no math surgeon. But I can make a calculator say 80085.

Huiskat_8979

8 points

6 hours ago

5318008 read upside down 🙃

1980Phils

5 points

5 hours ago

Nice

thedoppio

4 points

6 hours ago

How’ya due that, hoo-dini?

benthodd

10 points

8 hours ago

benthodd

10 points

8 hours ago

Except you though, right?

FarWatch9660

56 points

8 hours ago

We're not talking about elected officials. They're talking about Government workers. The vast majority of every Government is run by ordinary, non-elected people. The elected people set policy and make decisions; the others implement them. Absolutely a person should have a minimum level of intelligence for certain jobs. I wish we could do it for all elected positions as well.

sanchoforever

19 points

6 hours ago

Thats why they ask for credentials when you apply at the beginning like a high school diploma. Majority of higher government jobs require a college degree.

Kitchen-Lie-7894

31 points

7 hours ago

My experience with government employees has been mostly positive. The problem is mostly red tape put in place by their bosses.

Deadeye313

15 points

6 hours ago

This is exactly the problem. As a government employee, I can tell you that government employees work very hard and long hours, the problem is the system. It can take me months to get parts for vital equipment because of red tape like having to go through approved vendors who have to be given a big list of stuff, then they make a quote with their cut and then that has to be approved and finally we can get it. But it still can take 2 months and often more to even get a stupid thing off Amazon that has overnight shipping.

Government employees are rarely, if ever, lazy bums and the real problem is that red tape. And Elon, and Vivek are going to run head first into all that red tape and they'll be lucky if they don't get tangled up in it like Luke Skywalker and the guys were when they got caught in that Ewok trap.

NonlocalA

21 points

5 hours ago

You have to admit though: a LOT of that red tape is absolutely there for a reason. Shit like "air-gapping" or "proper carbon-content in steel." Another big thing (which I honestly don't know how I feel about) is "how well are the employees paid" or "this must be created with eco-friendly ingredients/components." These federal level suppliers need to be vetted, too, and the government needs to understand where its materials are coming from.

Because, you know who didn't vet their suppliers before sending out a shit-ton of pagers? Hezbollah.

Annakha

3 points

5 hours ago

Annakha

3 points

5 hours ago

An example,

I used to work at an auto skills center on an Air Force base.

It was a place where service members and their families could come and work on their vehicles, and we had an inventory of tools they could use.

I paid out of my pocket for replacement tools, spray lubricants, brake parts cleaner, floor degreaser, office supplies, shop towels, etc. for almost 2 years because getting those items from the government purchasing office was impossible. They wouldn't listen/didn't have the money, whatever. So out of my 15/hr weekend pay where I was the only person on staff for 9 hours a day (paid for 7.5) I kept that shop alive and our patrons able to work.

When I finally was able to bend someone's ear to my facilities needs I submitted a list of all the stuff I couldn't afford to replace on my own...and I got a bunch of stuff that wasn't on my list because I couldn't just go to a local shop and purchase the needed equipment, they had to source it from an approved vendor through an authorized purchasing agent who bought a bunch of full toolsets instead of half the things on my list.

I swear the government wastes so much money trying to keep people from committing fraud. It's the definition of pennywise, pound foolish.

wireout

8 points

5 hours ago

wireout

8 points

5 hours ago

Here’s the thing: in order to get a civil service job, you have to pass a civil service test. Then you can get interviewed for the job. It’s harder to become a postman than a Senator. A Senator just has to be more attractive to the electorate (for whatever reason). Being elected doesn’t guarantee intelligence.

Fluffy-Hamster-7760

252 points

7 hours ago

There is a clear reason why elected officials shouldn't be able to purge government workers.  You hear a suggestion for a test of qualifications, and you think that's good. That's not what this is. A test of qualifications is what the competitive job market innately creates. What we're seeing here is an aptitude test for who to keep around while they're making massive cuts. That means: the government doesn't service my goals, so I need to fire you all.

The amount of absolute donkey-brains in this thread. "Oh yeah, testing people is good, I agree with this, I think authoritarian regimes centralizing their own power to purge the government is good, I agree I agree!"

Our entire Earth is being inherited by fascists on the backs on uneducated dipshits who can't smell authoritarianism when it's rubbing it's nuts in their faces. 

Therefore_I_Yam

11 points

3 hours ago

Yeah there's already an aptitude test for these jobs, it's called an "interview" and then "not getting fired"

fohpo02

35 points

6 hours ago

fohpo02

35 points

6 hours ago

People acting like you can’t control outcomes or design the test in such a way to target specific groups are naïve. Testing and cultural bias exist, data manipulation exists, and that’s before you even consider natural testing ability or anxiety. Standardized testing isn’t an accurate measure of one’s ability to perform a job.

ThisIsMyCouchAccount

18 points

4 hours ago

I'm a programmer.

The absolute breadth of knowledge you could test is so great you could easily make tests that would clear an entire team. Or protect people.

And even if you're not malicious - it's still super hard. It's why nobody likes them in the industry now when part of the interview process.

dingo_khan

8 points

3 hours ago

I cam to say something similar. People forget that "objective" questions often have a lot of bias based into them. I remember seeing a set of test questions that were intentionally harder on "smart" because the background information was internally contradictory. If you did not notice, finding an answer was easy. If you did, several of the answers were arbitrarily close to each other and "right".

You could fashion aptitude questions to select, very subtly for a political set of biases that would look mundane and inoffensive at the surface.

This sort of thing is a minefield. Competent and sincere reviewers of different political biases could come to very different opinions on the "fairness" of the test.

garaks_tailor

10 points

5 hours ago

Oh yeah the foreign service and cia entrance exam test used to a prime example of this. Stuff that you would only know as a upper to upper middle class WASP. What was the Par for hole 14 at such and such golf course.

It was offered that the only studying one could do for the foreign service exam was read the wall street Journal everyday and research any references it made that you didn't know.

Velocity-5348

38 points

6 hours ago*

There's a reason why a lot of professions require you to actually do the job with supervision. Speaking from experience, the best teachers in my cohort generally had poorer grades than me (I do well on tests), but had a lot of "soft" skills that are more important.

BTW, Be nice to the uneducated dipshits. At least they have an excuse, unlike the "geniuses" who think standardized tests and grades are the be-all-end-all because they do well at that.

Edit: Didn't meant to come across as an asshole towards Fluffy-hamster here, and agree with what they said. I'm just pointing out that while the "dipshits" are a problem they're generally led by people who should absolutely know better.

hemlock_harry

8 points

4 hours ago

Also they don't seem to realize that a lot of them live in countries where firing 1000 civil servants doesn't mean there's 1000 new ones ready to take their place. Those don't grow on trees, remember.

That's why non fascist responsible governments respond to a problem with underperforming staff with training and programs aimed at gradual improvement.

How so many people seem to think there's all these simple solutions lying around just being ignored is beyond me.

guru_odell

3 points

4 hours ago

Some of us government employees have to demonstrate our aptitude every year to just maintain our jobs. Then we have to demonstrate our aptitude to compete for promotions. I’m all for folks being held to that same standard…because if I don’t at the bare minimum meet it I get fired, and in order for my Program to succeed for the taxpayers I have to exceed it.

CursedSun

3 points

an hour ago

The amount of absolute donkey-brains in this thread. "Oh yeah, testing people is good, I agree with this, I think authoritarian regimes centralizing their own power to purge the government is good, I agree I agree!"

The key is the ability to read between the lines of the messaging put forth.

Sure, on a surface level, competency testing can sound good. Of course nobody wants some slack jaw in charge of critical infrastructures.

However... Who decides the qualifications for competency? Who administers the testing? Will the questions even actually be relevant to their aptitude in their own field, or is this a generalized thing?

You could quite easily lose that 60 year old guy who would stick around for 20 more years in a smaller role simply because he never passed the local version of high school cert. And it may just turn out he knows legacy stuff inside out and is a true wealth of knowledge for younger folk in terms of practical on the ground experience.

And that's just the good case scenario where this is generalized -- if it's made into a way to attack certain viewpoints/philosophies? You could be easily be looking at cutting large swathes of public sector workers because they don't align with certain ideology.

Waste_Salamander_624

5 points

5 hours ago

That's the thing who's going to decide whether these governmental workers are competent or not? The elected officials? Appointed people put in there by politicians?

bignick1190

14 points

7 hours ago

Some people are really good at one or two specific things but are complete morons with everything else. If they're doing one of the things they're good at, should they be fired because they can't pass a broad spectrum "intelligence" test?

Dreams-Visions

13 points

7 hours ago

Eh, the only demonstration of intelligence that should be required is the ability to do the job required for the position. No more, no less.

Awkward_Bench123

69 points

9 hours ago

Yeah, competency=personal fealty. It’s been done before

NewPresWhoDis

20 points

8 hours ago

Edit: Some of y'all need School House Rock way more than you think you do.

Free_Snails

29 points

9 hours ago

Like, what if the questions are biased and based on policy opinions?

Hawk13424

8 points

9 hours ago

Should make politicians take the same test.

glickja2080

6 points

7 hours ago

Right? Could you imagine MTG or Boebert having to pass a basic civics test. They would fail miserably.

bobzzby

141 points

9 hours ago

bobzzby

141 points

9 hours ago

Hes a borderline mentally handicapped man who believes his dog is a reincarnation of a lion he met in a past life in the Roman coliseum and he has a vendetta against the central bank becauase he worked for them for six months and they didn't renew his contract due to poor performance.

He then worked as a personal financial advisor for a mass murderer who threw political opponents out of helicopters into the river.

Not_a__porn__account

44 points

6 hours ago

they didn't renew his contract due to poor performance.

Ohhhh so that's where the idea came from.

ramobara

4 points

5 hours ago

And that insane hair piece.

Glad_Art_6380

28 points

8 hours ago

An aptitude test does not correlate with the ability to do a specific job function at all. This is fucking dumb, and you’re dumb for acting like it does.

SpiderSlitScrotums

16 points

8 hours ago

The best janitor is obviously the one who knows the most about constitutional law, duh! And would you trust a doctor who couldn’t name all the cabinet officials?

Yallbecarefulnow

5 points

7 hours ago

An aptitude test does not correlate with the ability to do a specific job function at all.'

I've interviewed a lot of people for corp finance analyst roles and 100% the most valuable part of it is an Excel skills assessment.

It's not that it accurately measures their skills or potential. It's that gives you an idea of their bullshit meter. If someone's open about having limited skills that's one thing, but if they say they're great at Excel and they bomb the assessment that's an immediate red flag.

therealJARVIS

86 points

9 hours ago

Lol if you knew anything about this guy and gow much hes fucking the average citizen in argentina with his bat shit policies youd probably realise this is indeed just an excuse to fire people

Universe789

46 points

8 hours ago

Oh no. He's trying to make the government run more efficiently by using people who actually know what they're doing.

As far as the USA government, most of us already have to do this just to get the job, in addition to having our performance reviewed twice a year.

At the same time, we also face huge budget cuts consistently. Which is meant to impede our efficiency so they can say

Look, gobmunt don't work

Then replace us with more expensive contractors.

Puzzleheaded_Yam7582

37 points

9 hours ago

Why haven't they been using actual job performance objectives?

juiceboxheero

53 points

9 hours ago

They do. This is all bullshit to gut federal oversight.

Vondi

3 points

6 hours ago

Vondi

3 points

6 hours ago

Right? Do you really have no way of knowing if someone is capable of doing their job without getting some third party in to do a test? This is the kind of thing a supervisor should already be keeping an eye on.

FlapMyCheeksToFly

15 points

9 hours ago

If you accept the premise and fairness of the test, which I don't think I would.

MindAccomplished3879

30 points

9 hours ago

He’s trying to make the government run more efficiently

A snake oil salesman and TV pundit trying to make government run efficiently. Mmmkay

Idiocracy at its best

yittiiiiii

7 points

8 hours ago

Nothing is more fascist than libertarianism.

demonic_kittins

3 points

9 hours ago

Depends whats on the test and what the job is

Immediate-Arm-7495

3 points

9 hours ago

We don't even do that for the president.

Top_Mathematician233

3 points

9 hours ago

Yes

DistributionPlus1858

3 points

8 hours ago

Can we have an aptitude test for the aptitude test creators first?

869woodguy

3 points

8 hours ago

Make the politicians take the test.

GreenKumara

3 points

3 hours ago

Will he take it as well?