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Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

reuters.com

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Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#461

Post by cess11 »

Smeevy wrote: post #345
miltonlost wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USAID looking for an ROI???? THat's NOT the purpose of aiding other countries. You don't need to look for a return on an investment. USAid was feeding children in places. You're looking for an ROI on saving human lives. Learn empathy.

Empathy seems to be in rare supply these days. I've made the mistake of talking to these people about the human collateral of these decisions and it's waved off like I'm bringing up an unpleasant experience in a checkout line.

It's surprising to me that not more of them object to Radio Liberty and its siblings getting ratfucked, since those channels are both rather cheap and obviously in the interest of whatever regime has the White House.

Running Twitter bots can't compete with the deep reach and influence that was built up there over many decades.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#462

Post by dgfitz »

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #306
bitmasher9 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the news to judge what the propagandist want me to know, not to actually learn things. I find skimming NYT’s and FOX’s headlines are perfectly satisfactory. If anything peaks my interest I do independent analysis, putting weight on primary sources. I often try to listen in on experts discussing the matter among themselves.

When do you have time to work?

Fwiw, I listen to sports talk radio whenever I’m not in meetings or otherwise physically interacting with someone else at work.

The actual “news” stopped being productive to read, watch, or listen to when the term “pregnant chads” was coined. Been downhill ever since.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#463

Post by wormlord »

grandempire wrote: post #426
wormlord wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wasting money in pursuit of public health How do you define waste? If research isn't harmful, but doesn't produce results, is that waste? Are inconclusive results wasteful? What ratio of public utility to cost would you consider non-wasteful spending? What about the benefits of effectively subsidizing your biotech sector by keeping biologists in-demand? There is more upside (globally) to public health spending than…

> If research isn't harmful, but doesn't produce results, is that waste? It’s certainly worse that research that does produce results. We should try to optimize for research that works. And yes, in the extreme example of spending a lot of money and never getting anything of public utility, that would be a waste. > What ratio of public utility to cost would you consider non-wasteful spending? I wouldn’t use abstractio…

I get that there's a discussion here over the minutae to be had in good faith. I am not qualified enough for that discussion. My point is that funding a genocidal empire is inherently bad whereas public health funding can have inefficiencies but is overall a net good.

The discussion is moot however because the agencies aren't being gutted over concerns of efficiency, but because of an ideological commitment to free market shock therapy. It's like arguing if you should order the fish or chicken while the Titanic is sinking. Sure there's an argument to be had, it's just not relevant right now.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#464

Post by snake42 »

grandempire wrote: post #406
mlinhares wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we shouldn't be cutting research, healthcare and social security if we want to have a future as a society.

Society existed before social security.

So we should go back to being hunters and gatherers?

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#465

Post by grandempire »

ibejoeb wrote: post #21

Kinda amusing that the general sentiment so far, in a forum filled with technology expertise, is that there is certainly waste in these budgets. But, when discussing the overall trend of cutting programs in other fields where the majority doesn't have that expertise, the conclusion is the opposite.

Yep, the image portrayed of every other government department is scientists in white coats looking at cancer cells in a microscope, or doctors bandaging soldiers coming off the battle field.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#466

Post by immibis »

FloorEgg wrote: post #400
Vegenoid wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if this is the case, “process” is immensely more important in government and military than in companies because government has the authority, the prerogative even, to use violence, ruin lives, and kill people. The onerous processes are in place to protect civilians. When you shoot from the hip at a tech company, the bad outcome is that a lot of money gets wasted and people lose their jobs. When the federal gover…

That's all true. Process and bureaucracy are guard rails, and guard rails limit change. So when the whole system is barrelling towards a cliff (default, hyperinflation, kinetic war), what should the leaders try and do? It probably seems like I'm defending their actions, I genuinely don't know if their actions are correct and I'm not defending them. I'm just acknowledging it seems like many US institutions haven't bee…

I don't quite get the metaphor - you might have reversed it. The whole system is barrelling towards a cliff because of the current administration, who took away the guard rails that stopped the system barrelling towards a cliff, and then set course directly towards the cliff.

The old system could well have been, like, scraping against the guard rails, flattening them gradually over time. The solution to that is not to remove the rails and aim directly for the cliff.

Unless you're an accelerationist. Accelerationists are people who view bad times as inevitable, and want them to come as quickly as possible so we can get through to the other side (where times are good again) as quickly as possible, instead of prolonging the collapse by doing it more slowly. Does that describe you?

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#467

Post by whimsicalism »

bumby wrote: post #286
whimsicalism wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

workers are allowed to bargain against the government, as in “i will not take the job at the pay you are offering.” both private companies and workers should not be allowed to band together to deny the government all contracts until they get the one they want.

Your stance seems to be at odds with the freedom of association protected by the US Constitution.

The protections offered to unions goes far beyond standard freedom of association. Generally I think that is okay, but not in the case of public unions.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#468

Post by l2silver »

glitchc wrote: post #405
SamuelAdams wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The narrative around fed jobs has changed recently too. A fed job used to be a lower salary, but much stronger job security. Now with the new administration government job security is gone, so federal jobs overall are simply not as attractive anymore.

I don't think this applies. According to the stories here, folks were choosing out of Fed jobs even when gold-plated pensions were the norm.

Government organizations aren't very good at accounting for true inflation, so right now the salary + golden handcuffs combination is way lower than industry compensation, if you're competent. If you're not competent, and you're not doing anything, then you might as well stay.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#470

Post by immibis »

yrxuthst wrote: post #224
pjc50 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing says freedom like banning the right to strike. Which might work in the short term, but makes the strikes much, much more vicious when they do come.

Federal employees already do not have the right to strike, see 5 U.S.C. §7311.

Do they have the right to quit?
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