It's a funny passage, but there is a reason governments pay farmers not to produce. They want surplus capacity. They prefer resiliency to efficiency when it comes to food crops (including fodder). If something goes wrong, they want the ability to put additional fields into play quickly. You actually do have to maintain the machines that you aren't using.
Inefficiencies always look silly, and there will always be those looking to take advantage of them. Compare the vast amounts of fraud on the recent COVID policies. But they were more effective than just letting people die or go bankrupt, which would be even more disruptive.
Heller's book is funny and I don't want to ruin what is basically a good joke. But it's not as silly as it sounds at first.
Inefficiencies always look silly, and there will always be those looking to take advantage of them. Compare the vast amounts of fraud on the recent COVID policies. But they were more effective than just letting people die or go bankrupt, which would be even more disruptive.
Heller's book is funny and I don't want to ruin what is basically a good joke. But it's not as silly as it sounds at first.