The newly proposed Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE promises to make the U.S. government lean and effective. But champions of efficiency would do well to heed the warnings of 19th century British economist William Stanley Jevons: The more efficiently we do something, the more of it we tend to do.

Billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will head an effort, dubbed DOGE, to reduce wasteful federal spending. Here's what it's about.