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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

#151

Post by jcranmer »

patricius wrote: post #111
astura wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ The military spends on R&D where it makes zero business sense for a for-profit company to spend. Private companies must be profitable.

Still, the question remains: Can we say a priori that the funds for R&D military spending wouldn't have been spent better by the private sector?

Honestly, no.

The private sector is generally very, very heavy on short-termism. Even when companies do have internal long-term research initiatives, there is often a strong aversion to pursuing research that could cannibalize high-margin products.

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

#152

Post by rchaud »

bobjordan wrote: post #122
rchaud wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested to know what part of this story sparked your comment about Libertarianism? Was it the use of taxpayer dollars to expand a border force that didn't seem understaffed to anyone but the Pres? I ask because the other part, namely government contracting work to the "more efficient" private sector sounds perfectly in keeping with Libertarian principles.

Spending $40,000 USD per hire for a border patrol job, strikes me as inefficient, regardless of whether or not the private sector or Government is doing the hiring. But most likely, what sparked my comment about libertarianism, was simply the fact I'd visited the Libertarian party website earlier today at https://www.lp.org/ and happened to be thinking about their tagline "Libertarian Party | Minimum Government. Maxi…

I agree that $40k/hire cost is absurd. That being said, I hope you'll agree that actions matter more than words. Plenty of organizations make virtuous claims in public, and behave differently in private. Political slogans are no exception. I would encourage you to look at their political representatives' voting records and ask yourself if they are being consistent with their professed beliefs.

The absolutism of Libertarian theory doesn't translate well to politics and economics, as those require building relationships and cutting deals to make things happen.

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

#153

Post by simonsarris »

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…

Someone wondered publicly how the economics of Starbuck's recently-announced coffee delivery service are going to work. They don't think it will.

But it's probably going to be very easy easy. Police or Fire or other public departments order the coffee every day which gets buried as an office expense and taxpayers foot the bill. The bureaucracies are happy. Starbucks is happy. No one else, uh, notices.

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

#154

Post by nabnob »

swebs wrote: post #131
kaitai wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very elegant, and encapsulates the problem with America. Well, many other countries as well, but certainly us, America. Not government -- but our conception of "ourselves". HN occasionally has articles about education and the comparison of, say, Finnish education and American education comes up. I am firmly of the opinions that Finnish education works, when it works, because it is a service that the populatio…

I think the main reason is that Finland is also a very homogeneous country. There's much less of a concern for "paying for other people's kids".

What do you mean by homogeneous?

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

#155

Post by jermaustin1 »

exabrial wrote: post #92
_dark_matter_ wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Government is nearly always the least effective use of a citizen's money These kinds of broad, factless statements do not deserve to be on HN. > Huge discussion on HN a few days ago about the IRS barely making $7 for every $1 spent Are you suggesting that the totality of taxes we pay to the IRS are only 1/7 of the IRS cost? What are we... paying for roads with? The military? Is the entire government going down in f…

Why, because the facts don't conveniently align with your world view? Because you completely misunderstood my comment? Here, take a moment to read: https://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2017/0...

So the IRS makes a 700% return on investment, and you are suggesting that means government is wasteful? Sounds like more of the government needs to run like the IRS.

Also trusting stories published through PR Newswire is unwise if not corroborated by other journals. PR Newswire is a pay for distribution service. Anyone can publish through it.

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

#156

Post by jondubois »

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…

It's not true because when you spend somebody else's money on a third party, that third party can pay you back with future favors so there is a huge long term career incentive for you to give out a lot.

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

#157

Post by JamesBarney »

mkirklions wrote: post #5

[dead]

You know there are no private companies that provide border security. And it's nonsensical to even believe that there could be It's obviously a government function unless you think the right amount of border security is none.

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

#158

Post by dsfyu404ed »

pjc50 wrote: post #128
kaitai wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very elegant, and encapsulates the problem with America. Well, many other countries as well, but certainly us, America. Not government -- but our conception of "ourselves". HN occasionally has articles about education and the comparison of, say, Finnish education and American education comes up. I am firmly of the opinions that Finnish education works, when it works, because it is a service that the populatio…

The problem with American opposition to government, especially Federal government, is that it's inextricable from the outcomes of the civil war.

So we should mitigate the problem by making more of the stuff government does happen at the state level instead of the federal level.

There's no inherent reason something like healthcare or net neutrality needs to be done nationally.

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

#159

Post by astura »

patricius wrote: post #111
astura wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ The military spends on R&D where it makes zero business sense for a for-profit company to spend. Private companies must be profitable.

Still, the question remains: Can we say a priori that the funds for R&D military spending wouldn't have been spent better by the private sector?

Unequivocally, no, the reasons are stated in the post you're replying to.

Which private, for profit, company would spend five (5) billion dollars (unadjusted for inflation) to launch GPS satellites into space and then allow their unlimited use free of cost to anyone in the world who has a receiver? That cost doesn't even account for ongoing maintenance.

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

#160

Post by dsfyu404ed »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #73
arandr0x wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what it says about me or Friedman, but if I'm choosing to buy someone a gift I don't care about the cost but I will attempt to make it something they like, and refrain from gift-giving if I don't think I can do that. (Or give money, I suppose.) On the other hand, when spending other people's money on myself, for example lunches for business travel, I am incredibly cost conscious. I've skipped dinner a co…

Do you work for the Boy Scouts? I am not going to spend in excess, but if a company is paying for me to fly somewhere, I doubt a $30 airport meal is going to break them. Now there have been times on site with a client, and I had a $120 per diem, where I might eat breakfast and lunch from a vending machine so that I can have a nice dinner, but I would never skip a meal at an airport if I had enough money left for it,…

And when the attitude and behavior you just described is scaled throughout an organization you wind up bleeding money everywhere.
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