re: #537 lawhawk

Why is it that you’ve got folks who were in the military complaining about how they were no longer doing certain kinds of logistics work, but given to private companies who paid workers 2-3+ times as much as the soldiers, and did a crapulent job at the same time?

Outsourcing jobs to the private sector isn’t a panacea or cost-saving measure that people make it out to be. While in theory competition should push cost savings, the reality is that companies will underbid on the job, and then demand more as the real costs become known (a huge issue with infrastructure projects).

I have never understood the worship of the Private Sector as the perfect provider of whatever is needed. In the Private Sector, the ‘providers’ are there to make money. Period. “Providing” is simply a means to that end, and the company which “provides” least for the greatest amount of money is the winner.

Take insurance, for example - the most successful company will be the one that skates closest to the edge of not paying out at all without quite going over into breaking the law, or paying out so little that nobody buys their insurance. The service they provide is a liability for the company, rather than their mission.

OTOH, in the public sector, the service provided IS the mission.