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Government Hired a Firm for $13.6M to Hire Recruits. It Hired 2

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Re: Government Hired a Firm for $13.6M to Hire Recruits. It Hired 2

#21

Post by jki275 »

adwhit wrote: post #20
j_m_b wrote: post #8

“There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can…

I’m sold, let’s get rid of the part of the government that costs the most and delivers the least. I’m talking about the military, of course.

Military in the US is 18% of the budget. SS and medicare are something like 70%.

If you want to live in a country without a military there are a bunch of them. I wouldn't personally want to live in any of them, but of course everyone is free to do as they see fit.

Re: Government Hired a Firm for $13.6M to Hire Recruits. It Hired 2

#22

Post by how_many_times »

robertsd247 wrote: post #11
sideshowb wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government can do things well, or badly Private sector can do things well, or badly I don't see what people find so hard to understand about this

When private sector fails, it goes out of business and other competent businesses take over. When government fails it spends more tax dollars and does the same thing over again, expecting a different result.

>> When private sector fails, it goes out of business and other competent businesses take over.

Unless it is a bank, or an important tool for surveillance (e.g. Facebook in 2020). In which case losses are irrelevant and it is ultimately bailed out by the government.

Re: Government Hired a Firm for $13.6M to Hire Recruits. It Hired 2

#23

Post by bufferoverflow »

jki275 wrote: post #21
adwhit wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sold, let’s get rid of the part of the government that costs the most and delivers the least. I’m talking about the military, of course.

Military in the US is 18% of the budget. SS and medicare are something like 70%. If you want to live in a country without a military there are a bunch of them. I wouldn't personally want to live in any of them, but of course everyone is free to do as they see fit.

Switzerland has no military, it's not that bad.

Re: Government Hired a Firm for $13.6M to Hire Recruits. It Hired 2

#25

Post by sideshowb »

ck425 wrote: post #19
robertsd247 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When private sector fails, it goes out of business and other competent businesses take over. When government fails it spends more tax dollars and does the same thing over again, expecting a different result.

But when the private sector does something it optimises for money. When the government does something it can optimise for other things. Both are systems that in certain circumstances suck. One isn't better than the other in every circumstance.

Yeah, this.

Private sector tends to fail at spending correctly for the long term. e.g. the 100 year time horizon required for healthcare.

Government tends to fail at spending on anything that might generate a media backlash (wars excepted) which is probably a good thing in general but can lead to them failing to do the right thing on some occasions. Also extreme risk averseness can lead them to over focus on risk management rather than actually achieving the aim, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation by private companies which can offer the former at the expense of the latter.

Re: Government Hired a Firm for $13.6M to Hire Recruits. It Hired 2

#26

Post by louisswiss »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #23
jki275 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Military in the US is 18% of the budget. SS and medicare are something like 70%. If you want to live in a country without a military there are a bunch of them. I wouldn't personally want to live in any of them, but of course everyone is free to do as they see fit.

Switzerland has no military, it's not that bad.

Switzerland definitely does have a military.

Re: Government Hired a Firm for $13.6M to Hire Recruits. It Hired 2

#27

Post by thecopy »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #23
jki275 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Military in the US is 18% of the budget. SS and medicare are something like 70%. If you want to live in a country without a military there are a bunch of them. I wouldn't personally want to live in any of them, but of course everyone is free to do as they see fit.

Switzerland has no military, it's not that bad.

Switzerland has mandatory conscription.

Re: Government Hired a Firm for $13.6M to Hire Recruits. It Hired 2

#28

Post by Spooky23 »

robertsd247 wrote: post #11
sideshowb wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government can do things well, or badly Private sector can do things well, or badly I don't see what people find so hard to understand about this

When private sector fails, it goes out of business and other competent businesses take over. When government fails it spends more tax dollars and does the same thing over again, expecting a different result.

The existence of companies like Accenture stands as a strong counter-argument. You can fail for a long time before going out of business.

If you’ve been in any kind of business where you have a view of how the business works, you’ll find that nobody has a monopoly on incompetence.

I have worked in Fortune 100, late startup, local and state government. All had remarkably dumb practices. The startups were the most corrupt and wasteful, local government was the most limited in capability. Comparing big gov to big Corp, the workers are much better in the gov and the leaders are better in Corp.

Re: Government Hired a Firm for $13.6M to Hire Recruits. It Hired 2

#29

Post by dagw »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #23
jki275 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Military in the US is 18% of the budget. SS and medicare are something like 70%. If you want to live in a country without a military there are a bunch of them. I wouldn't personally want to live in any of them, but of course everyone is free to do as they see fit.

Switzerland has no military, it's not that bad.

Switzerland not only has a military, it has mandatory military service for all males.
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