As a former bureaucrat in DC… this is all sadly true. We tried to add a checkbox to a form. That required a 90-page report, months of public comments, months of editing and approval by multiple agencies… the “project” - to add a *checkbox* - started a year and a half ago and I don’t think it’s done yet.
It's very popular when something bad happens to suggest that a rule could fix it. Over a couple centuries that adds up to a lot of rules aimed at the fringe cases.
Thank you for toning down the applause and getting rid of the absurd whoopers. Now it sounds like the audience have actually heard Bill and are responding to what he said - thank you for reading our feedback over the past few weeks
@@trolltocol9oseven729 I also don't think it sounds great to have a weird slow applause break for a couple of the same one-liners in the beginning. Just get me through the monologue.
Poll the majority of Americans under the age of 30 and you'll probably have around 7% recognizing the name and quote together. Less than 1% will know where it originates from.
A huge problem at hospitals and colleges -- there are more highly paid CEOs and doctors and professors are at their mercy. It should be the other way around. Sounds like it's everywhere.
Well…to meet the expanding needs of an expanding population. There are about 150,000,000 more folks in the USA now than there were when I first stepped on this planet. Yeah. More people = more needs = more utilization = more bureaucrats
Bill, it's not just the Left. Cali is horrible in it's bloated, bumbling bureaucracy, but in my conservative county the reason it takes more than a year to get a building permit issued is that they slashed the personnel in the permitting department so they could put the fees to other uses (like incentives to golf courses). Naturally, the process became far slower - then they trumpeted how government didn't work.
The problem with american politics is, you have "big government" democrats who do nothing but making regulations, and republican who hates government so much they do nothing when get elected, the solution is third or more parties..
@@NathanAEnver get the moderates from both parties to break off and form a third party. Then the extremists from the other two can shout all they want while the centrist party actually gets shit done.
I work in an architectural office and I have been saying that Permit reviewers issue corrections to justify their existence for decades. The majority of our time is not spent designing beautiful buildings, protecting life safety or even making sure out projects are accessible. Our time is spent making sure our FAR calculations are rounded to two decimal points and we have shown our work. Don't get me started all the documents we have to have signed, notarized and recorded. It is insane.
As someone who majored in Environmental Science and took plenty for Env Law/Urban Planning/ GIS / etc., one my best professors always said your biggest problem, more often than not, is someone who holds everything up to make themselves seem necessary (head of the department said this). & like Bill said, it makes the regulations defeat their own purpose. My Env Law Prof., an Env lawyer himself, once said that an environmentalist is someone who’s already bought their house lol.
I like your professor. Sounds smart. Unlike the many lacking common sense. Great line. He is right. Ppl are against anything after they have their needs met first.
When I first started building houses in Atlanta in the 90's, I walked into the planning department and it was ALL black. 100% (I'm white.) And I experienced racism from them on a level I had never known before. They literally would not lift a finger to help you in any way. If you asked specific questions they would answer them. But they would never offer any assistance or information on their own. The first house I built was a nightmare. Took months and months to permit and many more months to build and pass countless inspections. After that first one I had pretty much figured out their game and learned to ask questions in the right way. "Is there any other form that I will need to fill out to get this permit?" "What are all of the steps in this process?" Etc. Because they would never give me ALL of the information I needed up front VOLUNTARILY. They would just dispense bits and pieces and keep me floundering around in the dark as long as they could. Of course, all of this extra time and energy and expense only drove up the costs which drove up the price of the houses. Oh, and we also BRIBED several inspectors over the years... to get them to pass inspections or "look the other way" when we needed to do something that wasn't quite legal. That was a real eye opener--the fact that there were STILL people taking (and making) bribes in America in the modern age.
"To make themselves seem necessary' governments wether local, state or Federal are loaded with such people, their true goal is to last long enough to collet their pension. I worked for the government for a time, there was one guy who always walked around with a clip board. I once asked him what he did, and in a moment of honesty he said to me "I don't know but if you carry a clip board you always look busy, and nobody bothers you, he wasn't wrong. True story.
I'm not a Democrat, Republican, or Independent I'm not a Liberal, Progressive or Conservative. There are good ideas and there are bad ideas. We need to work together on the issues so we can fix what's wrong. But working together is something that most people aren't willing to do
I agree! But I identify with one of the major parties so that I can have input in the early caucuses, instead of waiting to be told who my options are.
But...but that would lead to...... PROGRESS! (gasp!) Progress is a swear word for every greedy corrupt prick that couldn't wait to officially lord over something.
Except that by 'working together ' you actually mean unquestioning submission to the radical progressive agenda. Anyone with an alternative thought will be dismissed as a fascist of some kind.
@@stanleyshannon4408 What's so wrong with progress that you'd call it radical? Is it radical to not want to destroy the very environment that sustains us? Is it radical to want congresspeople and the courts to actually represent the people, and not just force their biblical white supremacy on them? Is it radical for the US to protect the rights of ALL citizens and not strip them away from 'undesirables' like women, POC, or the nonconforming? There is nothing radical about striving for an equitable playing field in a world so heavily skewed by dark money and nefarious intent.
After spending my life as a bureaucrat in Washington, DC I finally realized that there are three different welfare communities in our nation. First is traditional welfare, food stamps, etc. Second is corporate welfare, also known as crony capitalism, now running on steroids feeding in the "green" energy trough. But the third welfare program is one most people don't immediately recognize as welfare, government bureaucracy, which might be best described as middle class welfare. These welfare clients infest our local, state and most importantly, federal government. Worst of all, they claim to be servants of the public when the only thing they serve is themselves and the bureaucracy.
Yep and the third group has nothing to do with left or right. Neither side will reduce the bureaucracy because it would kill jobs, along with the fact that it provides work for lawyers, and guess what profession most politicians come from? I don't know the number now, but a decade ago administering help to the homeless cost about $50k/year per person, easily enough for them to live on. Of course, simply giving them that money would mean putting people out of work, so we constantly pay more for less just to provide jobs that aren't needed.
The New Rule already had more truth per square inch than anywhere else in TV, but this one strikes hard. Ten years ago I acquired a condemned old school building- boarded up and in tatters and conformed 1/3 of it into what is now a 5-star hotel. Our biggest single expense has not been construction, architecture, or any productive thing, but rather legal fees fighting off the City's red tape and shackles. On one hand they have me backed into a corner and preventing any future progress in the building. On the other hand they've used me as a poster boy for what can be done with old city buildings. Bill flush this swamp.
You can flush the swamp by attending local board meetings like the pro-red tape Karens do. But nah, you'd rather be lazy and just wine online. Red tape doesn't just appear out of nowhere.
What are you on about? The guy is relaying a relevant anecdote about building & running his own biz. But he’s lazy for not going to city council meetings? Gtfoh.
I work for a school district full of consultants. They get paid well over six figures to sit in a nice office with way better hours and basically sign paperwork I think? They rarely come up with good ideas, they never visit our classrooms, and a lot of them are former administrators who failed upward. I swear to God, if I have to sit and waste another day of training where I'm asked to use a completely different educational platform than the one I used last year and the one I use the year before that just because the district spent tens of thousands of dollars on it, but my consultant doesn't even know how to turn it on or login... Just let me do my damn job, and maybe give me some of that money you make. Besides those useless trainings that I get a couple times a year, the only other thing they seem to do for me is not order stuff I need for my classroom because of all the red tape required in having them fill out my purchase orders, going to the proper vendor who charges 3x what the item is actually worth, and then running all that paperwork to some other consultant to get signed so I can have the thing I needed 3 months after I needed it. It's why so many of us just go to Amazon and spend our own money. Completely pointless completely useless. They have no reason to exist
Economist Maria Mazzucato has a lot to say about consultants. She talks about how government has been infantilized by consultants. One of her books about consultants is titled The Big Con.
In NYC if you own a construction company/ contracting company and you want to make a fortune get some city contracts. These companies get whatever price they ask for and the city pisses the money away with no questions asked. The NYC school construction authority will pay $1,000 for a door knob
@@MsZephyra Exactly, our education budget is actually huge. It's just that there were 2 admins per teacher back in the 70s, now there are 20+, and the all the increased budget goes to them to come up with bullshit "new educational techniques" that are either statistically the same or _worse_ for the student. It made my blood boil to see Alabama reading proficiency skyrocket...by switching back to old-fashioned phonics rather than whatever the new trend was. It's like how we actually have one of the largest budgets for social programs of any country....but only 30 cents of every $1 actually goes to the recipients (one of Andrew Yang's points). The other 70 cents? You guessed it, goes to admins. This would make a great topic to unite left & right since there's plenty of space to modestly cut budgets _and_ get better results from government programs, but that would require politicians that are helped by _decreased_ partisanship.
As an aside, I also have the experience of being able to find the tools for my job from Amazon....but being forced to spend 50% more for the same product because we have to get it from the contractor. I mean, it's not the money in my wallet being spent....but indirectly it is my tax dollars. If someone considers themselves a socialist, they should be even _more_ pissed, because it's literally the common people being forced to give up money indirectly so some politically-connected businessman can enrich themselves from state contracts. And on the flip side, the libertarian capitalist case against this makes itself; the contractor is a walking market inefficiency shielding themselves against fair competition via government.
Ever go to the DMV? With few exceptions they seem to take pride in saying no. We. Moved from one state to another and my 17 year old wanted to change his license to the new state (which is the legal thing to do) and the woman at the DMV insisted his license from the old state wasn't a license and wanted us to start all over with a permit and pay 500 for drivers Ed which he had already done an completed in the previous state. What should have been a routine change of license was a denial and the clerk insulting us for questioning her. In the end after a call to the state office at the Capitol, we were able to go into another DMV and get it done in less than 10 minutes. Imagine the parents that don't question it. The time and money they spend on something that they didn't need to do.
A) Which state were you moving from? B) Which state were you moving to? Certain states treat people under the age of 18 differently. Also some states have been bought out by corporations to force everyone to use a private company for drivers ed. It is one of the plains states where they banned teaching drivers ed in school. This forces everyone to use the one state approved company, which donates to the republican party to make sure it stays that way.
Not all DMV offices are equal. The ones in my county suck. Last I knew, they had you take a number like at the butcher shop and then take a seat because of the long wait times. So many people travel to the next county to the DMV there because they are knowledgeable and efficient. The staff processing the paperwork can do it with their eyes closed. On a recent visit there, I noticed that despite being so busy, most people doing standard stuff were in and out in 15 minutes or less -- the only holdup was the payments line. In New York State, each county runs the DMV offices and they get a decent cut of the revenue they take in. I am sure the DMV in the next county rakes in considerable (extra) revenue because so many people from other counties go there.
I want to get that Real ID thing sooner rather than later. The DMV needs two forms of ID, to include my notarised birth certificate. What? When I tried to present my current, valid driver’s licence and active duty military ID it wasn’t good enough for them.
@@dparky1627 Those two forms of ID weren't good enough because neither one proves that you were born in the USA and can vote. That is why they were giving you problems. Anyone can get a driver license if you say you are a non-citizen because it doesn't allow you to vote then. This is a side effect of all of the Republican attempts to crack down on the non-existent voter fraud. I've been an election judge many times. You can't rig the system like they say (at least in MN & IL), and if you can then the state need to fix the process, not make it harder to get an ID.
And all the red tape it created to reduce the possibilities of destroying these projects with lawsuits. That’s the curse. Red tape is created because people demand it.
It seems everyone has gone to lunch to set up their brackets for something. Computers have not made our dreams come true. Box here, check this and see what is watching you online. Let someone record you for years and never pay you because the union starts to be get more money from their members. Then everyone tells you contradicting information. And you get ripped off everyday by the very people who begged you to do things you didn't want to. Well dishonest people will try to play you no matter were you live. I just hope everyone gets what they want. And I had to wait an amazing long time to get what was mine when l was five years old. Gee if l had been paid l could have gone to California, and done something.But all the employers were so confusing, l couldn't tell who wanted me to do what. But thank you for your time and consideration and the opportunity for years of .............. how can l describe it. Oh l will let you write your thoughts, and have fun.
The predominant ideology in big cities now isn't so much progressivism (though it's obviously done by progressives) it's anti-solutionism. They're offended by wanting to solve any problems because they don't solve the "root cause" of other problems!
Can’t agree more. I’m remodeling my home and the permit took 2 years to get. The most ridiculous thing is that I have to build new road side curbs and gutters at my expense, pay for a tree to be planted by city, and to pay PG&E to move electric to underground. $50,000 out of my pocket, for stuff outside my property line.
This was one of the best arguments Bill has ever given. If only we could all see the issues with out our blue and red glasses on, we could more accurately address this nations problems. Go Bill!
I worked HVAC all over LA for 40 years and the bureaucracy involved just became insane, but if you worked on any state or the city job it was beyond belief! They pretty much pay 3 to 4 times as much as the private sector and everyone milks the jobs for twice as long before completion. Prevailing wages are great for the workers but the tax payers are getting screwed.
Remember 30+ years ago when we were required(forced?) to become EPA certified to work with refrigerants? There were posses going around who got $15K for turning in someone who allowed it to escape into the air and we had to buy recovery systems just to work on systems? Thise bastards lied every time. I still have my old wallet sized card, my recovery unit and etc and haven't opened a system in more than 10 years. All a bullshit waste of time and $$$$$$$$$$$$.
why are prevailing wages the highest rate that any union say's it is.? the govt should do stuff at lowest wages in the area. if they can't get a contractor to do the job then raise the wage. cost to taxpayers should be #1 not employing workers at huge rates.
How do you decide which is good and which is bad? Both will have their proponents. Wait...I have an idea...we get a panel together, a panel of experts that will draw up some rules so we can figure this out. This will off course need to get greenlit and then we'll have to get their suggestions properly implemented. Don't worry, I'm sure your good regulation will be implemented shortly, because clearly good regulation is easy and will be implemented soon. And the people doing it are wondrous, really great people. Yipee.
This topic is something I've always railed against: The cost to get anything built in this country. I know it's been one of Bill's big irritants, too, because he has personal experience in needless, senseless bureaucracy in trying to go solar on his property. And it's a "government" problem, for those who only want to blame the Dems, because even when Republicans own the entire government they don't do anything meaningful to cut the bureaucracy/costs.
Dems have implemented most of the red tape / nanny-state rules though. It will take bipartisan efforts to roll them back, and should also take bipartisan efforts to re-write any new ones.
@jeffg1524 LOL, are you kidding? The Republicans are always the ones cutting money to the departments to cause a back log and make the Dems look bad for passing the regulations. They don't want to cut the bureaucracy, they want to use it like a weapon. It is the same reason the Dems never actually passed a pro-choice national bill when they had full control, it was something to use when running for office to raise money.
Having renovated a house in San Francisco I agree it's the city of red tape. Took eight inspectors, who each came in and found one tiny thing wrong, but wouldn't wait until my contractor could address it (even if 5 minutes) so they could come back and find something else wrong. It was a huge nightmare. All told, there were at least 32 visits. THEN, they have the audacity to charge you $80/hour if you go over your allotted 10 hours of free inspection time. It's a huge racket that should be investigated under the RICO act.
Thank you for calling out San Francisco. I am a contractor in San Francisco. I have many interesting things that have stopped my clients projects from happening. Sometimes I will go to a home and the owner will say if you want to get permits forget the job. I will never deal with the city building department again. It may not be quite as bad as you state, but you are not far off. So happy I have decided to never enter their brand new building again. It was amazing that building got built, a seven story nightmare.
Regulation compliance (permitting) has devolved into two things: 1) a permanent employment program for bureaucrats who could never handle a real job, and 2) a protection racket for entrenched service providers who overbill.
But if you bought a new home would you want a deck that was permitted or not? Yeah it's cheaper and takes less time, but if it's permitted, I feel that it gives me a sense of security
@@lordd007 Pay for a home inspection before you buy a house? I don't think anyone is saying there shouldn't be any permitting at all, just that it has gone way too far.
Give people with an average IQ and a sensitive ego a job that has authority and they do anything to deny you a permit. I am a contractor in LA and I literaly feel like Im asking for permission to build from the people in the counter and not the city of LA
As an ex-Mormon that is furious about the fraud that stole 48 years of my life, have to give Joseph Smith credit for this quote: “We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men [and women], as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion”
There are so many things in society where you fill out a form and the only reason you get denied or it takes as long as it does is because some person on the other side isn't doing their job. It's pretty much exactly like you say in your post. I remember the headache when we bought our first home because so much of that waiting to just move in was waiting for this person to sign that paper we sent in 3 weeks ago or having to go down to City Hall when it was open and they had available hours so someone else could sign something, and then meeting with the lawyer to fill out the paperwork but the lawyer had us go through her secretary who had to meet us at a different spot at a different time and forced me to call out of work just so I can make it... It was stupid. There were so many simpler ways to get all that done
The city of LA contacted me for a job as a plan reviewer. They interviewed me and never contacted me after my interview. Then they wanted me to interview at a specific time. I turned them down.
I worked in a research industry that started being regulated in 1967. When regulations were published, it took 43 pages. Today, that same publication is over 300 pages. It expanded not only in regulations, but in scope. In 1967 it regulated 10 "things", today it regulates over 30. No congressional approval after initial inception. The bureacracy made the rules and continues to make them. It's almost like perpetual motion. It never stops.
Thank you very much, because I thought we Germans were the only ones who couldn't get a public project off the ground. I think this problem is a public service that is spreading like a cancer. New regulations are always being created so that those who work there have a right to exist. And then they are so stressed, that more staff has to be hired in order to have time for coffee breaks and small talk besides work. This personnel needs then again more regulations. A cat that bites its own tail.
Bill always hits the nail on the head! Love the way this man's brain works to keep us on top of things weekly...... so glad he is still there setting things straight for us thanks Bill ❤
Not really because he blamed the government for the fact that the fossil fuel industry succesfully blocked that wind farm for so long. lol He's a rightwing sellout.
@@Tony11442my stoned brain is doing double time linguistic arithmetic between the 2 and I’m still confused. I think he means “shits F’d up and despite it being uncomfortable and biting the proponents of it repeatedly in the ass, they say “yes sir/ma’am they/them, may I have another!” Remember, the cable news consuming boomer lib is generally detached from the self inflicted damage they champion, being mugged 3 times in a year still hasn’t been connected to their choices at the ballot box and being mugged & denied a patio in their garden by the city is a small price to pay for not having literal *Not-sees* that call themselves republicans or whatever
Well, I have learned that it is very common, but it often makes little sense, and "Common knowledge" is even worse, because it's way more common than actual knowledge. So he must mean the common sense that actually makes sense.
This I have to agree with. I've seen too many potential buildings and developments killed just because the developers spend years working through all the red tape. Now I can understand regulation to keep big companies and shady businesspeople from doing bad things, but too much of it is poorly-written and more creates bureaucracy as opposed to progress. It's sad we have mountains of red tape to build a building (or a solar shed), but we have a lack of said regulations to keep Congresspeople from insider trading, or corporations from doing stock buybacks.
I had a friend who was a construction site supervisor for years then he took a job at a federal building. Then after this kind of insanity he left. At this building they needed a fence as a site supervisor he knew people could get it done ASAP and at really nice price. He was told no. That’s not how it’s done here. There’s already a committee working on approving it for several thousands of dollars above what his source could do it for. That’s just one example he told me about.
1979 my cousin the smartest man in North America came home to tell us at our family church that our prayers should be for the Americans who pay taxes because the way the government spends money it going to go broke soon enough and shortly after The Book Bankrupting America was written with focus on the recent GRAHAM/ RUDDMAN ACT was cancelled down the tubes with a balanced budget it’s only a matter of time they said and then they realized that you just can’t eat all the gold or drink gold to live.
As a german this all sounds like home. We in germany have the exact same problems with our lawmakers, i think all western cultures wanna die in wokeness. Like rents are to high, solution is to make 100 new laws to make new homes even more expensive and fake climaneutral to make rich billionairs investors richer.
Right, nice anecdote. I suspect he also probably new a guy who knew a guy that could get us office furnishings cheap - they'd fallen off a truck or something. I worked in government as well ran up against a similar situation setting up a classroom for training employees. I went out and bought an item on my own hook and then submitted it for reimbursement. Taxpayers, it seems don't want government employees playing fast and loose with their tax dollars. Taxpayers like you and your friend in construction. So they bitch to their legislators to write a law to establish a department and procedures to monitor the government purchasing to be certain you and your friend (and me and 'the rest of us') get the most bang for our fencing dollars. When you say "he took a job at a 'federal building," it is likely that he bid the job and was awarded the contract after completing a bid procedure and process also designed to get us the must bang for our bucks. A pity he hadn't included the cheap fencing in his bid in the first place. After all, if he was qualified to bid on Federal government projects, he should have known about the safety requirements inherent in such Federal projects. No offense, but I would hazard a guess that neither you nor your 'friend in construction" have ever actually bid on a Federal Construction Project. Reading your post again, I'm not sure you've got the facts of his employment down pat either as you do not state that he had a general contractors' license either. Maybe he was a hired hand on the job and not the General Contractor ho bid the job?
@@notcharles He was a site supervisor for years with a large construction company took a job as federal building site manager. When a few things needed to be done he wasn’t able to just do them. He said there were a lot of hoops to jump through and it was a huge waste of time and money. He was a site supervisor for 20 years and yes knew a lot of local guys who could do the work.
I worked as a temp in the Deep State of Texas for the architectural review department for elderly care homes. Maybe the architects were picky, but you can’t believe some of the architectural plans that came in for review. Some had no viable exits. Some didn’t have adequate fire prevention. It goes on and on. If everyone was honest and cared about the common good, we wouldn’t need too much oversight, but that’s sadly not reality.
And government bureaucracies are antithetical to honesty and the common good. Liberals understand this at heart yet they seem determined to have us all drown in triplicate-forms, or in a more modern take; Never-ending web forms with mutually inclusive radio buttons and back-looping drop down menus.
As a german this all sounds like home. We in germany have the exact same problems with our lawmakers, i think all western cultures wanna die in wokeness. Like rents are to high, solution is to make 100 new laws to make new homes even more expensive and fake climaneutral to make rich billionairs investors richer.
@@sofiasininen8268 But when government employees are just 15% of the population (and I'm guessing that includes the gargantuan armed services), I can only assume it takes for ever for these clearly short staffed departments to get through their workload.
And according to Malico that was apart of the citations/reports Bill used here, Texas is supposedly one of the least guilty of such things...if it's STILL that bad, it proves his point a thousand times over just how bad this nonsense is nationwide
Bill makes some good points and has some very funny lines, but don't forget that whenever something goes wrong with a building (like the collapsed high-rise in Florida) the victims immediately start looking for someone to blame. This is even true when the weather report didn't get the forecast of a storm exactly correct.
(i am speculating a bit, however...) Red tape may also have killed those people in the Florida high rise. The structural problems were known. Repair costs skyrocket due to red tape, which can slow projects as massive funding needs to be raised, as does the time it takes to make repairs due to permits.
I may not always agree with Maher, but I do sincerely respect his bringing alternative views onto his program and respectfully discussing difficult issues with them. Again, not always aligning with my opinion, but at least somebody is encouraging intelligent open discussion.
Unfortunately, this isn't just a US problem. Here in New Zealand, I recently added a second bathroom to my house. I had to resubmit the building consent application four or five times, because each time they shifted the goalposts. It got to the point where I had to physically go into the office and ask them what else they wanted to know, and the last two things they asked for ("Will that window be safety glass?", and something else I don't recall) were issues which had never been mentioned at all in previous communication.
compared to what? China, Russia, North Korea? Your statement is arbitrary- certainly less regulation and control in a state like NY compared to Florida or Texas... @@savistna
Perhaps Bill should separate federal laws and regulations from local laws and regulations. Bill seems to be especially pissed off at California, perhaps LA area laws and regulations in particular. These are very localized beefs. I live in a very blue, but very practical State and there are public-private partnerships to have solar panels over as many covered parking lots and buildings as possible. This change was done is a couple of years. My own local county government will have more than half of its power from solar energy by installing solar panels on public buildings and land, as well as agreement with private property owners. This change also only took a few years. The fight is still on for the wind turbines, but that's not because of bureaucracy. Actual residents and watermen are doing everything possible to prevent those from being built. And that's where perhaps California's problem comes in. California is NOT all blue and people who claim to be liberal and care about the environment don't always follow through, esp. if it requires sacrifice from their own situation. Just look at flood mitigation. Which communities fought back against it, which communities did not have the resources to fight back? Building permits are SUPER-local, like down to county. So that means voters chose people to make those regulations and execute those regulations. Perhaps Bill should look into who benefits from all these delays and red tape, because a block of voters in his county/district chose to put people in power to delay, delay, delay.
I mean yes, that is the effect of a democracy, at least as it is supposed to work in theory. You elect representatives who closest represent your views, so they are in effect a voice of the constituents. It just so happens California is one of the most bureaucratic, planning and paperwork-locked states in the country. And Bill is completely right - it gets this way because too many people who are smart, but vain and lazy keep rationalizing inefficiency to progress. A public toilet shouldn’t need that much oversight. It’s the perfect example. Toilets are ubiquitous and if it’s available to the public it just needs to be cleaned daily. Simple as
I live in a blue state that is not California and I can tell you, much of what he says is true. I do disagree with his take on Indian lands and habitat studies. But in general I do agree with the slow pace of everything now due to the amount of red tape involved. It's not really red tape that I find problematic. Rather, it's the opaqueness of the permitting and zoning process. On the surface permitting and zoning appear to be very logical on the surface, but when you dig deeper it's not. The thing about how you need a bunch of permits just to renovate your back porch - that is real.
I live in a deep red state that tells you how many cars your parking lot must accommodate. Sure feels like big government interfering with the cost of my building.
i live in western ny near lake erie. i have been quoted a solar system for my factory . 750 kw . permitting is no problem . just the power company . plus i get tax credits for 60% of the cost . we just signed a contract to replace all our lights with led lights. the power company subsidizes the fixtures so our cost is only 30k for over 500 lights. payback is 2 yrs so no brainer. we did a similar program 10 yrs ago where we replaced HID lights with flourescent. power company paid most of the cost. so not every state is a pain in the ass and even NY is not a pain in the ass. at least western ny . i am also replacing my garage cause it collapsed in a snowstorm. it took 3 weeks to get the permit once the drawings went to the building dept. glad i'm not in california
My dad's good friend runs an environmental clean-up company. They spend, on average FOUR MONTHS of each year filing paperwork and reports. A huge portion of their overhead is eaten up reporting every little detail to these "petty tyrants," as you say.
Hm seems like the public should be able to check on what AN ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP COMPANY is doing, hence the paperwork. You just don't want to pay taxes. Sit down.
@@KitC916 What's it like to have strong opinions with zero knowledge about the things your hold opinions on? Does it make you feel empowered? Because, I'll be honest, to the rest of the world, it makes you look kind of dumb.
He’s not wrong about “big permits”. As a homebuilder I can assure you we could knock $60-$to 80,000 off the cost of a home if the permit process an inspection process was privatized
I think simplifying permits... not privatizing them. What would privatizing them do? That's ridiculous. You want to privatize the military, too? Have an all mercenary army?
If they privatized permitting, they'd let you build a children's hospital on top of the San Andreas fault. There are good reasons government permitting exists. Don't throw out the baby with the bath water.
I can relate to all Bill has said. I lived in the USA for a time, visited San Fran and chose to go to downtown after seeing the Golden Bridge. I still hurt at the contrast I saw of homeless people and abject poverty and a wheelchair fellow stealing an apple from a stall! Worldwide there is a need for administrative changes.
Well done! I always thought that infrastructure repair in the US will take decades and billions for this reason. You can’t fix a bridge without all of the pockets being filled and the contract scams
Being a carpenter who can do household construction jobs without having to jump rope with red tape, while also knowing the amount of red tape you'd need to jump through to stop or fine me, makes me grateful for my career choices.
This is exactly how it is. I see it every day as an electrician working mainly on government projects. It’s also why housing here in Canada is so expensive to build. We in capitalist countries used to make jokes about the USSR being like this and now we’ve become it.
Freedom is gone.Its done. Its been replaced with synthetic freedom. With data mining, algos and AI, we'll NEVER be free again. Ever. EVERYTHING from now on will be synthetic. Even births in the future will be done in a tube.
Willing to wager that your town, yes you reading this, has a mandatory minimum parking lot size for all commercial buildings. Literally limiting the amount of commercial activity so theres enough room to park the maximum amount of cars at every establishment at every given moment.
It’s not supposed to be free, if everyone was free to build as they like then those misfits living on the streets are free to live and shit where they please. The permit process is varied all over the country and what works in Ohio may not work in California. Can simpler solutions be found and implemented. Of course but it’s going to take decades to develop complex solutions to solve these issues and our elected officials don’t want to address them for fear of losing their jobs and the cycle continues
It goes beyond that what about the bureaucratic corruption? War for profit, Insider trading, government projects/contracts for your friends, and pay for play where foreign governments write chests so that tax payers are forced to write one.
It all takes place under the radar, and they have the perfect shield behind which to operate: Congress. You know, the ones who write legislation that says "Bureaucrats shall make the rules." Congress is responsible for abdicating their power to the Administrative State and the Judiciary; who's holding them accountable? It's _supposed_ to be the voters -- yet despite Congress having a 13% approval rating, we continue to re-elect the same clowns every two years. When are _WE_ gonna take some responsibility for this?
I could not agree with you more. I am a conservative independent. Besides disliking Trump -like some- Republicans you are a Republican but in everything but the name. Keep up the good work!
This is a problem in democracies we make everything so regulated, safe and inclusive that a million voices chip in for building a single house so nothing ever gets done
What's wrong with safety standards and regulations? Do you not want your food to be safe? Do you not want your air and water to be clean? Don't you think its good that banks aren't allowed to scam you ? In China they cut out regulations and build houses in a matter of weeks, then the houses collapse and people die. Is that what you want? God damn you people take safety for granted.
Even in Austin I tried to start several businesses, all shot down by very unreasonable regulations. Still just a modest freelancer wobbling above/below the poverty line to this day, wondering how things could have been if this country was as pro-entrepreneur as we say we are.
That's superstitious bs. I live in Canada and it ain't like that. Some things take time to pass through the hoops, but things get done and they don't typically cost a fortune. Prove me wrong.
I liked him better when he was more liberal. Thanks again for all your help and kindness.Happy 👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃 Halloween!!!¡
Rightwing? lol Gay marriage, weed, abortion, library books, etc. The rightwing LOVES government overreach. You're confusing Libertarianism with rightwingism. Libertarianism can be left or rightwing.
Bill may hate me. I’m uk based environmental permitting officer who works from home (spinal injury, also you can do the job anywhere with a desk and WiFi). Know nothing about the American system but here we’re almost permanently short staffed and have a massive influx of permits. Mostly they take a long time because the applications are so poorly done and if signed off would cause environmental harm. Don’t know about the US but here we have to get the permits right because it’s so difficult to fix them once issued, and broadly the people applying don’t seem to care or understand why they are regulated or why for example spilling recovered industry byproducts used as fertiliser in to a protected water body matters.
What angers me, is that by now, this is obvious to everyone. The legalism and length speech of these big documents is shocking. Many of you have experienced these inspectors and regulates and have seen how long various simply building projects take to get started and finished. It's unnecessary!
thanks for speaking about something that has bothered me for years. fun fact from pen to paper to the first nuclear submarin it took five years most modern reactors are variations of that design. Approval for new reactors often take more than twenty
Visited the Hoover Dam last month. It took our grandpappys 3 years to built it. They came in under budget and 4 years sooner than expected. I was unable to take the escalator down to the Hoover Dam welcome center due to the repairs that have been going on, on 2 escalators since 2020. We have truly fallen as a nation when it takes as long to fix an escalator as it does to build a dam that provides energy to 4 states.
I’ve been an Electrician for 50 years and find that the Regulations, Permits and Inspections absolutely essential. You can’t play with Electricity. I’ve cleaned up too many home owner bootlegged and dangerous Electrical situations in my 1/2 century of my profession. Not to mention that insurance companies have wised up and have put the brakes on paying claims that involve non permitted jobs. Why should they pay for a fire that was the result of an amateurish and dangerous “job”?
One thing that Bill didn't really mention was lobbyists also being a massive issue in progression depending on the industry. Surely something like the electric power industry sees conflict of interest with wind turbines/solar farms
Texas has been majority Republican for 30 years. In that time, things requiring permitting and permit fees have soared... not to mention tuitions at State universities. Don't blame all bureaucratic screw-ups on one party.
You cannot so very astutely describe the utter inefficiency of all things government without mentioning the power of their union and their strong motivation of job security and more and more jobs.
I ordered solar for my home back in July, it was installed two weeks later in the middle of August. 2.5 months later, I am still waiting on a "Permission to operate" this is after 4 inspections by different government offices all of which I passed. I live in a blue pro green energy state and county. For asking me to move to green energy they sure make it hard.
There is BIG bucks in all those environmental type studies, and it is political who gets those contracts!! With bonus of with each new administration, new contracts completely start over instead of picking up from where it left off. And the beat goes on...
I'm from Alaska, believe me, all those Engineer teams too are reeling in the big bucks aND have their own lawyers along for the ride. Varied topics are affected with this troubles. @@briane173
A mobile home on land you already OWN in Whatcom County (Bellingham area) in Washington cost a friend for just a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath 900 sq ft home over $78,000 in permit fees and taxes before he even broke ground to level the small pad area on his 5 acres. The whole process took 19 months to where he could move in. And the house was $79,000 including delivery, $78,000 for the fees, $32,000 for the county appropriate concrete pad, $56,000 for the utilities to be run to his home. So for county land it cost a QUARTER of a MILLION dollars for a damn small mobile home. Let that shit sink in.
Weaving profit motive into public works is responsible for a lot of this, it should be about helping people, not making money, capitalism corruption is a serious problem in our bureaucratic system.
Non-profits often act like for profits but instead of maximizing profit they will maximize, for example, let’s say Prestige and other intangible factors
I appreciate what Bill is saying. The "can do" spirit has been stymied by over zealous regulations in every form. Careful project review is necessary, but it has to match private sector efficiency.
In 2020 I was laid off from my career in heavy industry private sector. I got a job as a contract maintenance worker for a government agency. Its a whole different world working for the government. Ther number amount of box checkers is ridiculous. They also layer contracts and government officials so much that a $5 hose takes anywhere from a couple of days to several months to replace at $1000. The contract specialist often are clueless aboutbthe local area and will hire prime contractors from out of state to hire subcontractors locally to provide a service far in excess of just hiring a dude to simple cut the grass or provide janitoral services. Its wild how much the government cannot get out of it's own way to get simple jobs done.
Here in Chile we are complaining about the exact same thing. Recently we have literally lost foreign invesment opportunities because of this silly burocracy.
All the college people have to have jobs. The bureaucracy has become a daycare center for the educated. There is a home shortage in Sweden aswell, but nobody is allowed to build anything and the imaginary added costs makes it insanely expensive. Most of the cost building is not materials and salaries for construction workers. Its fee's, permits and the legal team you have to hire to handle it all.
Where I live they passed a new regulatory law that everyone that works in a childcare center has to have a minimum college education. Then they started offering that program at our state colleges for $300/credit. Close to 1/2 of childcare options in my county closed in 1 year. Thanks government!
This might explain why China can build high-speed trains, skyscrapers, roadways, and other infrastructure so quickly. Granted, they have a larger workforce to draw from, but because they don't have all the bureaucracy and paperwork stopping or slowing them down.
And you're also forget that there's no real opposition because China is a one party dictatorship. As much as its annoying, the regulations are there to prevent something worse or bad from happening, if there were very few regulations, then while more can be done, its very prone to dangerous and mismanaged things because people cut corners, or build things that not only hurt the environment but also hurt the consumer
That rigjt things move quickly when normal people or even the pencil pushers have no say whatsover. And any opnion you might have about that you better not share if you want to keep yourself or your familly safe.
No mater what, Bill says what he thinks. Wokeism will nerver be his problem. He won't cave to pressure from either side. You have to respect that. Keep it coming brother.
I think there's just too many lawyers and bureaucrats and rules made up by them to unsure their jobs are save. It's the same thing here in germany. But as always, we are just some years behind the US. For example building a new wind park takes years for getting the needed approvals and lots and lots of paperwork. Nothing gets done
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.”- Thomas Sowell
Thanks for the pumpkin!!
Pls check CA Public Integrity Unit Case
1083943. Bureau of Do Nothing under
AG Rob Bonta...
Not everyone who works for the government is a "bureaucrat," and there are plenty in the private sector as well.
That quote is everything!!🙌
Because procedure allows for accountability and transparency. Kind of important for government to be that.
Whoever said that quote doesn’t understand the reason why bureaucracy, with all its hindrances, exists.
Bill still hasn't gotten the permit for his solar shed?
#Shedgate
he did but it took a year
At least he landed a joke
Cause his all time has been wasted by flattering Biden administration
Hell hath no fury like Bill Maher being "cock-blocked" from needless bureaucracy.
As a former bureaucrat in DC… this is all sadly true. We tried to add a checkbox to a form. That required a 90-page report, months of public comments, months of editing and approval by multiple agencies… the “project” - to add a *checkbox* - started a year and a half ago and I don’t think it’s done yet.
We all choose what jobs we apply for.
in your opinion, what can be done on the ground level to start the process of alleviating this?
@@warofnoise5394ask for forgiveness instead of permission.
@@warofnoise5394 Get a new government. They purposely don't trust anybody who doesn't think like them.
It's very popular when something bad happens to suggest that a rule could fix it. Over a couple centuries that adds up to a lot of rules aimed at the fringe cases.
Thank you for toning down the applause and getting rid of the absurd whoopers. Now it sounds like the audience have actually heard Bill and are responding to what he said - thank you for reading our feedback over the past few weeks
They probably had to cut the "free booze for the audience"-budget.
Wish he could have listened to us about that god awful
Seriously. After every joke sounded like Rick flair. Not every single punchline deserves that
@@trolltocol9oseven729 I also don't think it sounds great to have a weird slow applause break for a couple of the same one-liners in the beginning. Just get me through the monologue.
They improved the signs that light up by adding how loud and how long to applause
‘Cost estimation’ costs for a free toilet… tells you all you need to know
"The bureaucracy is expanding, to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy."
Poll the majority of Americans under the age of 30 and you'll probably have around 7% recognizing the name and quote together. Less than 1% will know where it originates from.
@@rngnv4551 I'm sixty-one and had to look it up. Isn't that wild (er, Wilde)!
A huge problem at hospitals and colleges -- there are more highly paid CEOs and doctors and professors are at their mercy. It should be the other way around. Sounds like it's everywhere.
Well…to meet the expanding needs of an expanding population. There are about 150,000,000 more folks in the USA now than there were when I first stepped on this planet. Yeah. More people = more needs = more utilization = more bureaucrats
@@mzmscoyoteMORE BIRTH CONTROL not to mention abortions!!!
Bill will never forget the solar shed fiasco 😂
It’s hilarious 😂 I love the running “joke”
that shit traumatized him for sure
Spot on.
Yes, and what Bill never mentions is Democratic lunacy is what led to that.
And he shouldn't
Bill, it's not just the Left. Cali is horrible in it's bloated, bumbling bureaucracy, but in my conservative county the reason it takes more than a year to get a building permit issued is that they slashed the personnel in the permitting department so they could put the fees to other uses (like incentives to golf courses). Naturally, the process became far slower - then they trumpeted how government didn't work.
why do you need 127 permits to build a house.
The problem with american politics is, you have "big government" democrats who do nothing but making regulations, and republican who hates government so much they do nothing when get elected, the solution is third or more parties..
@@NathanAEnver get the moderates from both parties to break off and form a third party. Then the extremists from the other two can shout all they want while the centrist party actually gets shit done.
@@dparky1627 So called moderates are the most corrupt dems. Far left doesn't exist.
@@NathanAEnver I'm voting for Kennedy for President 🇺🇸
I work in an architectural office and I have been saying that Permit reviewers issue corrections to justify their existence for decades. The majority of our time is not spent designing beautiful buildings, protecting life safety or even making sure out projects are accessible. Our time is spent making sure our FAR calculations are rounded to two decimal points and we have shown our work. Don't get me started all the documents we have to have signed, notarized and recorded. It is insane.
I'm an architect, and I could not agree more!
because it's all about you
As someone who majored in Environmental Science and took plenty for Env Law/Urban Planning/ GIS / etc., one my best professors always said your biggest problem, more often than not, is someone who holds everything up to make themselves seem necessary (head of the department said this). & like Bill said, it makes the regulations defeat their own purpose.
My Env Law Prof., an Env lawyer himself, once said that an environmentalist is someone who’s already bought their house lol.
I like your professor. Sounds smart. Unlike the many lacking common sense. Great line. He is right. Ppl are against anything after they have their needs met first.
When I first started building houses in Atlanta in the 90's, I walked into the planning department and it was ALL black. 100% (I'm white.) And I experienced racism from them on a level I had never known before. They literally would not lift a finger to help you in any way. If you asked specific questions they would answer them. But they would never offer any assistance or information on their own. The first house I built was a nightmare. Took months and months to permit and many more months to build and pass countless inspections. After that first one I had pretty much figured out their game and learned to ask questions in the right way. "Is there any other form that I will need to fill out to get this permit?" "What are all of the steps in this process?" Etc. Because they would never give me ALL of the information I needed up front VOLUNTARILY. They would just dispense bits and pieces and keep me floundering around in the dark as long as they could. Of course, all of this extra time and energy and expense only drove up the costs which drove up the price of the houses. Oh, and we also BRIBED several inspectors over the years... to get them to pass inspections or "look the other way" when we needed to do something that wasn't quite legal. That was a real eye opener--the fact that there were STILL people taking (and making) bribes in America in the modern age.
"To make themselves seem necessary' governments wether local, state or Federal are loaded with such people, their true goal is to last long enough to collet their pension. I worked for the government for a time, there was one guy who always walked around with a clip board. I once asked him what he did, and in a moment of honesty he said to me "I don't know but if you carry a clip board you always look busy, and nobody bothers you, he wasn't wrong. True story.
@@Big_Island_Boi Okay, s we know you built houses in Atlanta in the 90's. Tell us more about the felonies you committed to get them built.
The solution isn't no regulations though.smh grow up people
I'm not a Democrat, Republican, or Independent
I'm not a Liberal, Progressive or Conservative.
There are good ideas and there are bad ideas. We need to work together on the issues so we can fix what's wrong. But working together is something that most people aren't willing to do
these labels are good guides but not the rule
I agree! But I identify with one of the major parties so that I can have input in the early caucuses, instead of waiting to be told who my options are.
But...but that would lead to...... PROGRESS! (gasp!)
Progress is a swear word for every greedy corrupt prick that couldn't wait to officially lord over something.
Except that by 'working together ' you actually mean unquestioning submission to the radical progressive agenda. Anyone with an alternative thought will be dismissed as a fascist of some kind.
@@stanleyshannon4408 What's so wrong with progress that you'd call it radical? Is it radical to not want to destroy the very environment that sustains us? Is it radical to want congresspeople and the courts to actually represent the people, and not just force their biblical white supremacy on them? Is it radical for the US to protect the rights of ALL citizens and not strip them away from 'undesirables' like women, POC, or the nonconforming? There is nothing radical about striving for an equitable playing field in a world so heavily skewed by dark money and nefarious intent.
After spending my life as a bureaucrat in Washington, DC I finally realized that there are three different welfare communities in our nation. First is traditional welfare, food stamps, etc. Second is corporate welfare, also known as crony capitalism, now running on steroids feeding in the "green" energy trough. But the third welfare program is one most people don't immediately recognize as welfare, government bureaucracy, which might be best described as middle class welfare. These welfare clients infest our local, state and most importantly, federal government. Worst of all, they claim to be servants of the public when the only thing they serve is themselves and the bureaucracy.
Along with military welfare wasting a trillion a year to make us less sfe.
That's just disrespectful. Those brave soldiers didn't die for nothing. @@markmorris76
Acually, wind and solar farms are green - independent of where they are financing comes from.
@@leoh3616what about the ones that died in Vietnam
Yep and the third group has nothing to do with left or right. Neither side will reduce the bureaucracy because it would kill jobs, along with the fact that it provides work for lawyers, and guess what profession most politicians come from? I don't know the number now, but a decade ago administering help to the homeless cost about $50k/year per person, easily enough for them to live on. Of course, simply giving them that money would mean putting people out of work, so we constantly pay more for less just to provide jobs that aren't needed.
I’m not a Maher fan but this commentary is spot on. It makes me wonder how the politicians keep their jobs in CA.
yea, don't look at kentucy's, floriduh, arkensaw, texass, and on and on, trump proclained "poisonig the blood of our country"
The New Rule already had more truth per square inch than anywhere else in TV, but this one strikes hard. Ten years ago I acquired a condemned old school building- boarded up and in tatters and conformed 1/3 of it into what is now a 5-star hotel. Our biggest single expense has not been construction, architecture, or any productive thing, but rather legal fees fighting off the City's red tape and shackles. On one hand they have me backed into a corner and preventing any future progress in the building. On the other hand they've used me as a poster boy for what can be done with old city buildings. Bill flush this swamp.
You can flush the swamp by attending local board meetings like the pro-red tape Karens do. But nah, you'd rather be lazy and just wine online. Red tape doesn't just appear out of nowhere.
I'm convinced the main problem is that the bureaucrats hate the idea of profit and will do anything to keep one from making such an evil thing.
What are you on about? The guy is relaying a relevant anecdote about building & running his own biz. But he’s lazy for not going to city council meetings? Gtfoh.
I work for a school district full of consultants. They get paid well over six figures to sit in a nice office with way better hours and basically sign paperwork I think? They rarely come up with good ideas, they never visit our classrooms, and a lot of them are former administrators who failed upward. I swear to God, if I have to sit and waste another day of training where I'm asked to use a completely different educational platform than the one I used last year and the one I use the year before that just because the district spent tens of thousands of dollars on it, but my consultant doesn't even know how to turn it on or login... Just let me do my damn job, and maybe give me some of that money you make. Besides those useless trainings that I get a couple times a year, the only other thing they seem to do for me is not order stuff I need for my classroom because of all the red tape required in having them fill out my purchase orders, going to the proper vendor who charges 3x what the item is actually worth, and then running all that paperwork to some other consultant to get signed so I can have the thing I needed 3 months after I needed it. It's why so many of us just go to Amazon and spend our own money. Completely pointless completely useless. They have no reason to exist
Wow... so there IS money budgeted for education, but it's going to useless crap like that? How disappointing.
Economist Maria Mazzucato has a lot to say about consultants. She talks about how government has been infantilized by consultants. One of her books about consultants is titled The Big Con.
In NYC if you own a construction company/ contracting company and you want to make a fortune get some city contracts. These companies get whatever price they ask for and the city pisses the money away with no questions asked. The NYC school construction authority will pay $1,000 for a door knob
@@MsZephyra Exactly, our education budget is actually huge. It's just that there were 2 admins per teacher back in the 70s, now there are 20+, and the all the increased budget goes to them to come up with bullshit "new educational techniques" that are either statistically the same or _worse_ for the student. It made my blood boil to see Alabama reading proficiency skyrocket...by switching back to old-fashioned phonics rather than whatever the new trend was.
It's like how we actually have one of the largest budgets for social programs of any country....but only 30 cents of every $1 actually goes to the recipients (one of Andrew Yang's points). The other 70 cents? You guessed it, goes to admins. This would make a great topic to unite left & right since there's plenty of space to modestly cut budgets _and_ get better results from government programs, but that would require politicians that are helped by _decreased_ partisanship.
As an aside, I also have the experience of being able to find the tools for my job from Amazon....but being forced to spend 50% more for the same product because we have to get it from the contractor. I mean, it's not the money in my wallet being spent....but indirectly it is my tax dollars.
If someone considers themselves a socialist, they should be even _more_ pissed, because it's literally the common people being forced to give up money indirectly so some politically-connected businessman can enrich themselves from state contracts. And on the flip side, the libertarian capitalist case against this makes itself; the contractor is a walking market inefficiency shielding themselves against fair competition via government.
Ever go to the DMV? With few exceptions they seem to take pride in saying no. We. Moved from one state to another and my 17 year old wanted to change his license to the new state (which is the legal thing to do) and the woman at the DMV insisted his license from the old state wasn't a license and wanted us to start all over with a permit and pay 500 for drivers Ed which he had already done an completed in the previous state.
What should have been a routine change of license was a denial and the clerk insulting us for questioning her.
In the end after a call to the state office at the Capitol, we were able to go into another DMV and get it done in less than 10 minutes.
Imagine the parents that don't question it. The time and money they spend on something that they didn't need to do.
A) Which state were you moving from?
B) Which state were you moving to?
Certain states treat people under the age of 18 differently. Also some states have been bought out by corporations to force everyone to use a private company for drivers ed. It is one of the plains states where they banned teaching drivers ed in school. This forces everyone to use the one state approved company, which donates to the republican party to make sure it stays that way.
Not all DMV offices are equal. The ones in my county suck. Last I knew, they had you take a number like at the butcher shop and then take a seat because of the long wait times.
So many people travel to the next county to the DMV there because they are knowledgeable and efficient. The staff processing the paperwork can do it with their eyes closed. On a recent visit there, I noticed that despite being so busy, most people doing standard stuff were in and out in 15 minutes or less -- the only holdup was the payments line.
In New York State, each county runs the DMV offices and they get a decent cut of the revenue they take in. I am sure the DMV in the next county rakes in considerable (extra) revenue because so many people from other counties go there.
NY State says the same thing about Driver's Licences from the District of Columbia ! What is wrong with these driver's licences ? it is all a scam..
I want to get that Real ID thing sooner rather than later. The DMV needs two forms of ID, to include my notarised birth certificate. What?
When I tried to present my current, valid driver’s licence and active duty military ID it wasn’t good enough for them.
@@dparky1627
Those two forms of ID weren't good enough because neither one proves that you were born in the USA and can vote. That is why they were giving you problems. Anyone can get a driver license if you say you are a non-citizen because it doesn't allow you to vote then.
This is a side effect of all of the Republican attempts to crack down on the non-existent voter fraud.
I've been an election judge many times. You can't rig the system like they say (at least in MN & IL), and if you can then the state need to fix the process, not make it harder to get an ID.
It's not just the bureaucratic red tape. It's also the legal challenges brought by people/groups/companies trying to block those projects.
Rather, not to block the project, so much as make a buck on it. That's where all the holdups come from.
Good luck getting things done!
And all the red tape it created to reduce the possibilities of destroying these projects with lawsuits. That’s the curse. Red tape is created because people demand it.
It seems everyone has gone to lunch to set up their brackets for something. Computers have not made our dreams come true. Box here, check this and see what is watching you online. Let someone record you for years and never pay you because the union starts to be get more money from their members. Then everyone tells you contradicting information. And you get ripped off everyday by the very people who begged you to do things you didn't want to. Well dishonest people will try to play you no matter were you live. I just hope everyone gets what they want. And I had to wait an amazing long time to get what was mine when l was five years old. Gee if l had been paid l could have gone to California, and done something.But all the employers were so confusing, l couldn't tell who wanted me to do what. But thank you for your time and consideration and the opportunity for years of .............. how can l describe it. Oh l will let you write your thoughts, and have fun.
It's interesting how Bill Maher "forgot" to mention that. He's quickly becoming nothing but a corporate right wing sellout.
The predominant ideology in big cities now isn't so much progressivism (though it's obviously done by progressives) it's anti-solutionism. They're offended by wanting to solve any problems because they don't solve the "root cause" of other problems!
Can’t agree more. I’m remodeling my home and the permit took 2 years to get. The most ridiculous thing is that I have to build new road side curbs and gutters at my expense, pay for a tree to be planted by city, and to pay PG&E to move electric to underground. $50,000 out of my pocket, for stuff outside my property line.
This was one of the best arguments Bill has ever given. If only we could all see the issues with out our blue and red glasses on, we could more accurately address this nations problems. Go Bill!
I worked HVAC all over LA for 40 years and the bureaucracy involved just became insane, but if you worked on any state or the city job it was beyond belief! They pretty much pay 3 to 4 times as much as the private sector and everyone milks the jobs for twice as long before completion. Prevailing wages are great for the workers but the tax payers are getting screwed.
Prevailing wage wouldn’t be a problem if they only employed as many people as needed and only did what was needed to get the projects approved.
Remember 30+ years ago when we were required(forced?) to become EPA certified to work with refrigerants?
There were posses going around who got $15K for turning in someone who allowed it to escape into the air and we had to buy recovery systems just to work on systems? Thise bastards lied every time.
I still have my old wallet sized card, my recovery unit and etc and haven't opened a system in more than 10 years.
All a bullshit waste of time and $$$$$$$$$$$$.
The same ones milking every penny are the ones that complain about taxes and government spending.
Unions have never been a net positive and most were started by some flavor of Communists
why are prevailing wages the highest rate that any union say's it is.? the govt should do stuff at lowest wages in the area. if they can't get a contractor to do the job then raise the wage. cost to taxpayers should be #1 not employing workers at huge rates.
One of the problems with bad regulation is that it gjves worthwhile regulation a bad name.
This.
That's the only offence actually but conservatives of course love to exploit that and slash all the regulations that stand in their way to profit.
How do you decide which is good and which is bad? Both will have their proponents. Wait...I have an idea...we get a panel together, a panel of experts that will draw up some rules so we can figure this out. This will off course need to get greenlit and then we'll have to get their suggestions properly implemented.
Don't worry, I'm sure your good regulation will be implemented shortly, because clearly good regulation is easy and will be implemented soon. And the people doing it are wondrous, really great people. Yipee.
This topic is something I've always railed against: The cost to get anything built in this country. I know it's been one of Bill's big irritants, too, because he has personal experience in needless, senseless bureaucracy in trying to go solar on his property. And it's a "government" problem, for those who only want to blame the Dems, because even when Republicans own the entire government they don't do anything meaningful to cut the bureaucracy/costs.
Since when have Republicans owned the entire government?
Dems have implemented most of the red tape / nanny-state rules though. It will take bipartisan efforts to roll them back, and should also take bipartisan efforts to re-write any new ones.
@jeffg1524
LOL, are you kidding? The Republicans are always the ones cutting money to the departments to cause a back log and make the Dems look bad for passing the regulations. They don't want to cut the bureaucracy, they want to use it like a weapon.
It is the same reason the Dems never actually passed a pro-choice national bill when they had full control, it was something to use when running for office to raise money.
Republicans don't want any government, period. Prove me wrong.
Libertarians are Republicans who like drugs.
Having renovated a house in San Francisco I agree it's the city of red tape. Took eight inspectors, who each came in and found one tiny thing wrong, but wouldn't wait until my contractor could address it (even if 5 minutes) so they could come back and find something else wrong. It was a huge nightmare. All told, there were at least 32 visits. THEN, they have the audacity to charge you $80/hour if you go over your allotted 10 hours of free inspection time. It's a huge racket that should be investigated under the RICO act.
Thank you for calling out San Francisco. I am a contractor in San Francisco. I have many interesting things that have stopped my clients projects from happening. Sometimes I will go to a home and the owner will say if you want to get permits forget the job. I will never deal with the city building department again. It may not be quite as bad as you state, but you are not far off. So happy I have decided to never enter their brand new building again. It was amazing that building got built, a seven story nightmare.
I don’t even know what to say. You are so right, but you do absolutely make me laugh.
Regulation compliance (permitting) has devolved into two things: 1) a permanent employment program for bureaucrats who could never handle a real job, and 2) a protection racket for entrenched service providers who overbill.
That's standards, not permitting.
But if you bought a new home would you want a deck that was permitted or not? Yeah it's cheaper and takes less time, but if it's permitted, I feel that it gives me a sense of security
@Bills_Wife_And_Kids
@@lordd007 Pay for a home inspection before you buy a house? I don't think anyone is saying there shouldn't be any permitting at all, just that it has gone way too far.
This is america...everything is a racket
Give people with an average IQ and a sensitive ego a job that has authority and they do anything to deny you a permit. I am a contractor in LA and I literaly feel like Im asking for permission to build from the people in the counter and not the city of LA
As an ex-Mormon that is furious about the fraud that stole 48 years of my life, have to give Joseph Smith credit for this quote: “We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men [and women], as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion”
Yeah those dumb average people, they're so beneath us smart people.
Yes!! My partner was a contractor in LA and same. So glad someone with the stature and platform of Bill Maher has brought this up.
There are so many things in society where you fill out a form and the only reason you get denied or it takes as long as it does is because some person on the other side isn't doing their job. It's pretty much exactly like you say in your post. I remember the headache when we bought our first home because so much of that waiting to just move in was waiting for this person to sign that paper we sent in 3 weeks ago or having to go down to City Hall when it was open and they had available hours so someone else could sign something, and then meeting with the lawyer to fill out the paperwork but the lawyer had us go through her secretary who had to meet us at a different spot at a different time and forced me to call out of work just so I can make it... It was stupid. There were so many simpler ways to get all that done
The city of LA contacted me for a job as a plan reviewer. They interviewed me and never contacted me after my interview. Then they wanted me to interview at a specific time. I turned them down.
I worked in a research industry that started being regulated in 1967. When regulations were published, it took 43 pages. Today, that same publication is over 300 pages. It expanded not only in regulations, but in scope. In 1967 it regulated 10 "things", today it regulates over 30. No congressional approval after initial inception. The bureacracy made the rules and continues to make them. It's almost like perpetual motion. It never stops.
Thank you very much, because I thought we Germans were the only ones who couldn't get a public project off the ground. I think this problem is a public service that is spreading like a cancer. New regulations are always being created so that those who work there have a right to exist. And then they are so stressed, that more staff has to be hired in order to have time for coffee breaks and small talk besides work. This personnel needs then again more regulations. A cat that bites its own tail.
Bill always hits the nail on the head! Love the way this man's brain works to keep us on top of things weekly...... so glad he is still there setting things straight for us thanks Bill ❤
This was written by a bot
Not really because he blamed the government for the fact that the fossil fuel industry succesfully blocked that wind farm for so long. lol He's a rightwing sellout.
@@RedWhiteNBladeand thats a big deal too
Pure propaganda! Clapping like seals 😂 ar ar ar
Did you mean "love the way his team work"?
Spot on Bill. Great concept plus one liners. Loved the way you worked in the Leonardo quip👏
The truth is painful, but not painful enough for most Americans to ignore it.
Incorrect. It's painful, therefore the majority of Americans will blame everything on the opposition party of their choice.
You mean not painful enough not to ignore it.
@@waynetec13
Exactly, no one wants to admit that America is the bad guy who is plotting world domination.
@@Tony11442 Hard to tell what he means
@@Tony11442my stoned brain is doing double time linguistic arithmetic between the 2 and I’m still confused. I think he means “shits F’d up and despite it being uncomfortable and biting the proponents of it repeatedly in the ass, they say “yes sir/ma’am they/them, may I have another!” Remember, the cable news consuming boomer lib is generally detached from the self inflicted damage they champion, being mugged 3 times in a year still hasn’t been connected to their choices at the ballot box and being mugged & denied a patio in their garden by the city is a small price to pay for not having literal *Not-sees* that call themselves republicans or whatever
Common sense is FAR from common. Bill hits the nail on the head!
Well, I have learned that it is very common, but it often makes little sense, and "Common knowledge" is even worse, because it's way more common than actual knowledge. So he must mean the common sense that actually makes sense.
Yes, because compaling about red tape is totally not a common thing....Ugh. You fanboys are so cringey.
This I have to agree with.
I've seen too many potential buildings and developments killed just because the developers spend years working through all the red tape. Now I can understand regulation to keep big companies and shady businesspeople from doing bad things, but too much of it is poorly-written and more creates bureaucracy as opposed to progress.
It's sad we have mountains of red tape to build a building (or a solar shed), but we have a lack of said regulations to keep Congresspeople from insider trading, or corporations from doing stock buybacks.
One of your best over-all shows. Do it again!!!
"permit office: how many I hinder you" hahah
All that red tape.... for 1 Goddamn permit.
But this was a good New Rule.
I had a friend who was a construction site supervisor for years then he took a job at a federal building. Then after this kind of insanity he left. At this building they needed a fence as a site supervisor he knew people could get it done ASAP and at really nice price. He was told no. That’s not how it’s done here. There’s already a committee working on approving it for several thousands of dollars above what his source could do it for. That’s just one example he told me about.
1979 my cousin the smartest man in North America came home to tell us at our family church that our prayers should be for the Americans who pay taxes because the way the government spends money it going to go broke soon enough and shortly after The Book Bankrupting America was written with focus on the recent GRAHAM/ RUDDMAN ACT was cancelled down the tubes with a balanced budget it’s only a matter of time they said and then they realized that you just can’t eat all the gold or drink gold to live.
I feel like you're taking about me lol.
As a german this all sounds like home. We in germany have the exact same problems with our lawmakers, i think all western cultures wanna die in wokeness. Like rents are to high, solution is to make 100 new laws to make new homes even more expensive and fake climaneutral to make rich billionairs investors richer.
Right, nice anecdote. I suspect he also probably new a guy who knew a guy that could get us office furnishings cheap - they'd fallen off a truck or something. I worked in government as well ran up against a similar situation setting up a classroom for training employees. I went out and bought an item on my own hook and then submitted it for reimbursement.
Taxpayers, it seems don't want government employees playing fast and loose with their tax dollars.
Taxpayers like you and your friend in construction.
So they bitch to their legislators to write a law to establish a department and procedures to monitor the government purchasing to be certain you and your friend (and me and 'the rest of us') get the most bang for our fencing dollars.
When you say "he took a job at a 'federal building," it is likely that he bid the job and was awarded the contract after completing a bid procedure and process also designed to get us the must bang for our bucks. A pity he hadn't included the cheap fencing in his bid in the first place. After all, if he was qualified to bid on Federal government projects, he should have known about the safety requirements inherent in such Federal projects.
No offense, but I would hazard a guess that neither you nor your 'friend in construction" have ever actually bid on a Federal Construction Project. Reading your post again, I'm not sure you've got the facts of his employment down pat either as you do not state that he had a general contractors' license either. Maybe he was a hired hand on the job and not the General Contractor ho bid the job?
@@notcharles He was a site supervisor for years with a large construction company took a job as federal building site manager. When a few things needed to be done he wasn’t able to just do them. He said there were a lot of hoops to jump through and it was a huge waste of time and money. He was a site supervisor for 20 years and yes knew a lot of local guys who could do the work.
I worked as a temp in the Deep State of Texas for the architectural review department for elderly care homes. Maybe the architects were picky, but you can’t believe some of the architectural plans that came in for review. Some had no viable exits. Some didn’t have adequate fire prevention. It goes on and on.
If everyone was honest and cared about the common good, we wouldn’t need too much oversight, but that’s sadly not reality.
And government bureaucracies are antithetical to honesty and the common good. Liberals understand this at heart yet they seem determined to have us all drown in triplicate-forms, or in a more modern take; Never-ending web forms with mutually inclusive radio buttons and back-looping drop down menus.
As a german this all sounds like home. We in germany have the exact same problems with our lawmakers, i think all western cultures wanna die in wokeness. Like rents are to high, solution is to make 100 new laws to make new homes even more expensive and fake climaneutral to make rich billionairs investors richer.
But that is very easy to notice, it shouldn't take months.
@@sofiasininen8268 But when government employees are just 15% of the population (and I'm guessing that includes the gargantuan armed services), I can only assume it takes for ever for these clearly short staffed departments to get through their workload.
And according to Malico that was apart of the citations/reports Bill used here, Texas is supposedly one of the least guilty of such things...if it's STILL that bad, it proves his point a thousand times over just how bad this nonsense is nationwide
Bill makes some good points and has some very funny lines, but don't forget that whenever something goes wrong with a building (like the collapsed high-rise in Florida) the victims immediately start looking for someone to blame. This is even true when the weather report didn't get the forecast of a storm exactly correct.
(i am speculating a bit, however...) Red tape may also have killed those people in the Florida high rise. The structural problems were known. Repair costs skyrocket due to red tape, which can slow projects as massive funding needs to be raised, as does the time it takes to make repairs due to permits.
@@DFEUERMAN lol Nope. A lack of regular upkeep that other condo buildings in the area managed just fine was to blame.
I may not always agree with Maher, but I do sincerely respect his bringing alternative views onto his program and respectfully discussing difficult issues with them. Again, not always aligning with my opinion, but at least somebody is encouraging intelligent open discussion.
I work in the offshore wind industry in the US and Bill is spot on regarding permitting
I've often said that root cause of contempt for the government is actually local government. Thanks, Bill.
Unfortunately, this isn't just a US problem. Here in New Zealand, I recently added a second bathroom to my house. I had to resubmit the building consent application four or five times, because each time they shifted the goalposts. It got to the point where I had to physically go into the office and ask them what else they wanted to know, and the last two things they asked for ("Will that window be safety glass?", and something else I don't recall) were issues which had never been mentioned at all in previous communication.
The West has the same protocol everywhere, it is all about potential law suits, money paid, that is why they cover their asses.
The World's gone F@rking MAD.....!
Oh, yeah- Europe, Australia, New Zealand- way over regulated, controlled. Massive layers of Bureaocracy...
@@TinoRoncone And yet they are amongst the most desirable places to live on the planet....
compared to what? China, Russia, North Korea? Your statement is arbitrary- certainly less regulation and control in a state like NY compared to Florida or Texas... @@savistna
Perhaps Bill should separate federal laws and regulations from local laws and regulations. Bill seems to be especially pissed off at California, perhaps LA area laws and regulations in particular. These are very localized beefs. I live in a very blue, but very practical State and there are public-private partnerships to have solar panels over as many covered parking lots and buildings as possible. This change was done is a couple of years. My own local county government will have more than half of its power from solar energy by installing solar panels on public buildings and land, as well as agreement with private property owners. This change also only took a few years. The fight is still on for the wind turbines, but that's not because of bureaucracy. Actual residents and watermen are doing everything possible to prevent those from being built. And that's where perhaps California's problem comes in. California is NOT all blue and people who claim to be liberal and care about the environment don't always follow through, esp. if it requires sacrifice from their own situation. Just look at flood mitigation. Which communities fought back against it, which communities did not have the resources to fight back? Building permits are SUPER-local, like down to county. So that means voters chose people to make those regulations and execute those regulations. Perhaps Bill should look into who benefits from all these delays and red tape, because a block of voters in his county/district chose to put people in power to delay, delay, delay.
BS: there are NO Blue Practical States!
I mean yes, that is the effect of a democracy, at least as it is supposed to work in theory. You elect representatives who closest represent your views, so they are in effect a voice of the constituents. It just so happens California is one of the most bureaucratic, planning and paperwork-locked states in the country. And Bill is completely right - it gets this way because too many people who are smart, but vain and lazy keep rationalizing inefficiency to progress. A public toilet shouldn’t need that much oversight. It’s the perfect example. Toilets are ubiquitous and if it’s available to the public it just needs to be cleaned daily. Simple as
I live in a blue state that is not California and I can tell you, much of what he says is true. I do disagree with his take on Indian lands and habitat studies. But in general I do agree with the slow pace of everything now due to the amount of red tape involved. It's not really red tape that I find problematic. Rather, it's the opaqueness of the permitting and zoning process. On the surface permitting and zoning appear to be very logical on the surface, but when you dig deeper it's not. The thing about how you need a bunch of permits just to renovate your back porch - that is real.
I live in a deep red state that tells you how many cars your parking lot must accommodate.
Sure feels like big government interfering with the cost of my building.
i live in western ny near lake erie. i have been quoted a solar system for my factory . 750 kw . permitting is no problem . just the power company . plus i get tax credits for 60% of the cost . we just signed a contract to replace all our lights with led lights. the power company subsidizes the fixtures so our cost is only 30k for over 500 lights. payback is 2 yrs so no brainer. we did a similar program 10 yrs ago where we replaced HID lights with flourescent. power company paid most of the cost. so not every state is a pain in the ass and even NY is not a pain in the ass. at least western ny .
i am also replacing my garage cause it collapsed in a snowstorm. it took 3 weeks to get the permit once the drawings went to the building dept. glad i'm not in california
My dad's good friend runs an environmental clean-up company. They spend, on average FOUR MONTHS of each year filing paperwork and reports. A huge portion of their overhead is eaten up reporting every little detail to these "petty tyrants," as you say.
Hm seems like the public should be able to check on what AN ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP COMPANY is doing, hence the paperwork.
You just don't want to pay taxes. Sit down.
@@KitC916 What's it like to have strong opinions with zero knowledge about the things your hold opinions on? Does it make you feel empowered? Because, I'll be honest, to the rest of the world, it makes you look kind of dumb.
He’s not wrong about “big permits”. As a homebuilder I can assure you we could knock $60-$to 80,000 off the cost of a home if the permit process an inspection process was privatized
I think simplifying permits... not privatizing them. What would privatizing them do? That's ridiculous. You want to privatize the military, too? Have an all mercenary army?
If they privatized permitting, they'd let you build a children's hospital on top of the San Andreas fault. There are good reasons government permitting exists. Don't throw out the baby with the bath water.
@@Bills_Wife_And_Kids …that wasn’t about permitting, that was neglected maintenance
@@Dayvit78
Well, they might actually face some repercussions for napalming brown children in third world countries.
@@LividImp San Andreas
This reminds me of hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, the planet, where they’re all bureaucrats lol
It's crazy to me how hard we work ourselves to death and yet nothing ever seems to get done sometimes.
I can relate to all Bill has said. I lived in the USA for a time, visited San Fran and chose to go to downtown after seeing the Golden Bridge. I still hurt at the contrast I saw of homeless people and abject poverty and a wheelchair fellow stealing an apple from a stall! Worldwide there is a need for administrative changes.
Remember.. Trump wants those to work..... Mwhaahahahahahahahah
👍
its no different here in florida
Well done! I always thought that infrastructure repair in the US will take decades and billions for this reason. You can’t fix a bridge without all of the pockets being filled and the contract scams
Being a carpenter who can do household construction jobs without having to jump rope with red tape, while also knowing the amount of red tape you'd need to jump through to stop or fine me, makes me grateful for my career choices.
Sanfran can use this as a promotion tagline for tourism "The city is so nice that you step over 💩 twice!!!" 😂
This is exactly how it is. I see it every day as an electrician working mainly on government projects. It’s also why housing here in Canada is so expensive to build. We in capitalist countries used to make jokes about the USSR being like this and now we’ve become it.
Absolutely agree with this. Small towns are not immune nor are conservative towns, cities, or states. This country isn't free anymore
Freedom is gone.Its done. Its been replaced with synthetic freedom. With data mining, algos and AI, we'll NEVER be free again. Ever. EVERYTHING from now on will be synthetic. Even births in the future will be done in a tube.
It never was
Willing to wager that your town, yes you reading this, has a mandatory minimum parking lot size for all commercial buildings.
Literally limiting the amount of commercial activity so theres enough room to park the maximum amount of cars at every establishment at every given moment.
@@lordd007 fair enough. Much less free than it used to be then.
It’s not supposed to be free, if everyone was free to build as they like then those misfits living on the streets are free to live and shit where they please. The permit process is varied all over the country and what works in Ohio may not work in California. Can simpler solutions be found and implemented. Of course but it’s going to take decades to develop complex solutions to solve these issues and our elected officials don’t want to address them for fear of losing their jobs and the cycle continues
Literally how I've been feeling waiting 6 months for approval to just sit for my MFT test. Thanks alot Illinois
Yup
It goes beyond that what about the bureaucratic corruption? War for profit, Insider trading, government projects/contracts for your friends, and pay for play where foreign governments write chests so that tax payers are forced to write one.
It all takes place under the radar, and they have the perfect shield behind which to operate: Congress. You know, the ones who write legislation that says "Bureaucrats shall make the rules." Congress is responsible for abdicating their power to the Administrative State and the Judiciary; who's holding them accountable? It's _supposed_ to be the voters -- yet despite Congress having a 13% approval rating, we continue to re-elect the same clowns every two years. When are _WE_ gonna take some responsibility for this?
I could not agree with you more. I am a conservative independent. Besides disliking Trump -like some- Republicans you are a Republican but in everything but the name. Keep up the good work!
One of the BEST in a long while...
This is a problem in democracies we make everything so regulated, safe and inclusive that a million voices chip in for building a single house so nothing ever gets done
Too many cooks spoil the broth
Sorry if anyone reading this felt offended due to my "cultural appropriation" of "broth" and "cooks" and "too many"
What's wrong with safety standards and regulations? Do you not want your food to be safe? Do you not want your air and water to be clean? Don't you think its good that banks aren't allowed to scam you ? In China they cut out regulations and build houses in a matter of weeks, then the houses collapse and people die. Is that what you want? God damn you people take safety for granted.
I'm a minarchist monarchist partly for this reason.
That is why we have a housing problem no one wants to build cause to hard to get a permit which makes housing so expensive 😂
its better then the alternative . the bueracracy keep us safe from fascism.
And with no end in sight. These permit offices have intention of permitting their way out of a job.
Even in Austin I tried to start several businesses, all shot down by very unreasonable regulations. Still just a modest freelancer wobbling above/below the poverty line to this day, wondering how things could have been if this country was as pro-entrepreneur as we say we are.
That was amazing, I feel like every American should have to watch that.
Bay Area is horrible with permitting and the costs associated are rediculous
If he thinks this is bad, he doesn’t even want to know about Canada.
it doesn't take 3 years to get a home building permit approved in Canada lol what are you talking about
Heheh. Nothing gets built in Canada.
That's superstitious bs. I live in Canada and it ain't like that. Some things take time to pass through the hoops, but things get done and they don't typically cost a fortune. Prove me wrong.
Very good on the Permit thing.
Have to admit, this is one of the best and on point.
Love Bill's rightwing talking points. Less government overreach.
I liked him better when he was more liberal. Thanks again for all your help and kindness.Happy 👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃 Halloween!!!¡
Rightwing? lol Gay marriage, weed, abortion, library books, etc. The rightwing LOVES government overreach. You're confusing Libertarianism with rightwingism. Libertarianism can be left or rightwing.
Bill may hate me. I’m uk based environmental permitting officer who works from home (spinal injury, also you can do the job anywhere with a desk and WiFi).
Know nothing about the American system but here we’re almost permanently short staffed and have a massive influx of permits. Mostly they take a long time because the applications are so poorly done and if signed off would cause environmental harm. Don’t know about the US but here we have to get the permits right because it’s so difficult to fix them once issued, and broadly the people applying don’t seem to care or understand why they are regulated or why for example spilling recovered industry byproducts used as fertiliser in to a protected water body matters.
What angers me, is that by now, this is obvious to everyone. The legalism and length speech of these big documents is shocking. Many of you have experienced these inspectors and regulates and have seen how long various simply building projects take to get started and finished. It's unnecessary!
thanks for speaking about something that has bothered me for years. fun fact from pen to paper to the first nuclear submarin it took five years most modern reactors are variations of that design. Approval for new reactors often take more than twenty
Visited the Hoover Dam last month. It took our grandpappys 3 years to built it. They came in under budget and 4 years sooner than expected. I was unable to take the escalator down to the Hoover Dam welcome center due to the repairs that have been going on, on 2 escalators since 2020. We have truly fallen as a nation when it takes as long to fix an escalator as it does to build a dam that provides energy to 4 states.
I’ve been an Electrician for 50 years and find that the Regulations, Permits and Inspections absolutely essential. You can’t play with Electricity. I’ve cleaned up too many home owner bootlegged and dangerous Electrical situations in my 1/2 century of my profession. Not to mention that insurance companies have wised up and have put the brakes on paying claims that involve non permitted jobs. Why should they pay for a fire that was the result of an amateurish and dangerous “job”?
Certain things are essential but 86 permits to build a home is obscenely Byzantine. Should fit on 5 pages max.
And now, 8 minutes with Andy Rooney
Good reference! So true!
The Government's HOA.
@georgelayton6641
Why doesn’t the beurocratic nonsense include the police?
@@giantsr1evaAsk Bill.
well-said!
One thing that Bill didn't really mention was lobbyists also being a massive issue in progression depending on the industry. Surely something like the electric power industry sees conflict of interest with wind turbines/solar farms
Righwing Bill Maher seems to "forget" to mention a lot of stuff lately....
Texas has been majority Republican for 30 years. In that time, things requiring permitting and permit fees have soared... not to mention tuitions at State universities. Don't blame all bureaucratic screw-ups on one party.
You cannot so very astutely describe the utter inefficiency of all things government without mentioning the power of their union and their strong motivation of job security and more and more jobs.
I ordered solar for my home back in July, it was installed two weeks later in the middle of August. 2.5 months later, I am still waiting on a "Permission to operate" this is after 4 inspections by different government offices all of which I passed. I live in a blue pro green energy state and county. For asking me to move to green energy they sure make it hard.
what happens if you just go ahead and operate it without permission? will anyone know or care?
There is BIG bucks in all those environmental type studies, and it is political who gets those contracts!! With bonus of with each new administration, new contracts completely start over instead of picking up from where it left off. And the beat goes on...
The ones getting richest of all of them are the lawyers, mostly from NGOs and lobbyists. Laws made BY lawyers, FOR lawyers.
I'm from Alaska, believe me, all those Engineer teams too are reeling in the big bucks aND have their own lawyers along for the ride. Varied topics are affected with this troubles. @@briane173
One of your most brilliant shows! BILLiant, that is! 😊👏👍
A mobile home on land you already OWN in Whatcom County (Bellingham area) in Washington cost a friend for just a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath 900 sq ft home over $78,000 in permit fees and taxes before he even broke ground to level the small pad area on his 5 acres. The whole process took 19 months to where he could move in. And the house was $79,000 including delivery, $78,000 for the fees, $32,000 for the county appropriate concrete pad, $56,000 for the utilities to be run to his home. So for county land it cost a QUARTER of a MILLION dollars for a damn small mobile home. Let that shit sink in.
This cannot be real😮
5 acre, and running utilities and leveling 😮😮😮
Lunacy….out and out!
@@twhalen I think it was $45,000 in 2012 he got it
@@geraldpatterson3903those fees are ridiculous and the pad is also way too high
Maher is really killing it post-covid. He's by far the best nighttime comedian in the USA right now.
Seth Myers is one of the best now.
@@namseer Seth Myers has never been the best at anything
@@theDavidChannel1 According to right-wing cranks.
Amen Brother
Weaving profit motive into public works is responsible for a lot of this, it should be about helping people, not making money, capitalism corruption is a serious problem in our bureaucratic system.
Ha, ha, ha
Non-profits often act like for profits but instead of maximizing profit they will maximize, for example, let’s say Prestige and other intangible factors
The government that's enabling this is the problem
I appreciate what Bill is saying. The "can do" spirit has been stymied by over zealous regulations in every form. Careful project review is necessary, but it has to match private sector efficiency.
In 2020 I was laid off from my career in heavy industry private sector. I got a job as a contract maintenance worker for a government agency. Its a whole different world working for the government. Ther number amount of box checkers is ridiculous. They also layer contracts and government officials so much that a $5 hose takes anywhere from a couple of days to several months to replace at $1000. The contract specialist often are clueless aboutbthe local area and will hire prime contractors from out of state to hire subcontractors locally to provide a service far in excess of just hiring a dude to simple cut the grass or provide janitoral services. Its wild how much the government cannot get out of it's own way to get simple jobs done.
What an absolute joke. Everyone is laughing and still nothing will be done.
Here in Chile we are complaining about the exact same thing. Recently we have literally lost foreign invesment opportunities because of this silly burocracy.
All the college people have to have jobs.
The bureaucracy has become a daycare center for the educated.
There is a home shortage in Sweden aswell, but nobody is allowed to build anything and the imaginary added costs makes it insanely expensive.
Most of the cost building is not materials and salaries for construction workers. Its fee's, permits and the legal team you have to hire to handle it all.
I understand that professionals in Sweden sometimes barter services with each other to evade the inevitable taxation--true?
Where I live they passed a new regulatory law that everyone that works in a childcare center has to have a minimum college education. Then they started offering that program at our state colleges for $300/credit. Close to 1/2 of childcare options in my county closed in 1 year. Thanks government!
There is of course some truth to this point.
But, boy, Bill really has completed his transformation into a Gingrich Era Republican.
Huh
Well, turns out libertarians are just society-hating Republicans who don't want to pay taxes, but do like drugs. That's all there is to them.
I read this at first as "Grinch" era Republican.
This might explain why China can build high-speed trains, skyscrapers, roadways, and other infrastructure so quickly. Granted, they have a larger workforce to draw from, but because they don't have all the bureaucracy and paperwork stopping or slowing them down.
Yeah, also because they build shit out of cardboard and plaster, and their toys and animal feed are full of lead. Ignoring regulation comes at a cost.
And you're also forget that there's no real opposition because China is a one party dictatorship. As much as its annoying, the regulations are there to prevent something worse or bad from happening, if there were very few regulations, then while more can be done, its very prone to dangerous and mismanaged things because people cut corners, or build things that not only hurt the environment but also hurt the consumer
It might also explain why the have hundreds of unfinished sky scrapers and whole cities with no one living in them.
That rigjt things move quickly when normal people or even the pencil pushers have no say whatsover. And any opnion you might have about that you better not share if you want to keep yourself or your familly safe.
@@bullettube9863 not to mention that if anyone complains, they disappear.
No mater what, Bill says what he thinks. Wokeism will nerver be his problem. He won't cave to pressure from either side. You have to respect that. Keep it coming brother.
San Fransisco ... is ... shovel ready?
Do they really have to applaud after every. single. joke?
Thank you.
Do you have to bitch and moan about it in the comments every week? The answer to my question is likely the answer to yours.
I know!! Was this an entire audience full of building contractors?!
This is why I rarely watch his show. It’s annoying, and it makes him look pathetic that he needs people to applaud him constantly
The Government has definitely got it figured out how to waste time
& tax dollars
I think there's just too many lawyers and bureaucrats and rules made up by them to unsure their jobs are save. It's the same thing here in germany. But as always, we are just some years behind the US. For example building a new wind park takes years for getting the needed approvals and lots and lots of paperwork. Nothing gets done
I have seen glimmers of hope in subcultures and locales but in general we are not willing or capable anymore. It truly is heartbreaking.
Preach it brother. Thank you!
Congratulations Bill you finally got it, it isn’t air traffic controllers that are bad it is the bureaucrats justifying their existence.