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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (109895)11/11/2007 10:20:07 PM
From: Knighty Tin  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 132070
 
Skeets, after 4 years in the Army and 4 years in civil service with the DOD, I was offered a consulting position. I would do the same thing but earn twice as much money. The only way I see that as being more efficient is if somebody wants to give his stupid nephew a job and the kid can't score high enough on the Civil Service Exam.

BTW, Federal Civil Service isn't all that easy to get into. You have to take a test that is very much like the SAT and GRE. You receive a score that ranged from 0 to 100. When I was hired, no one who scored less than 88 was called in for an interview. Unless they had special skills, like speaking a strategic language like native. These were not average joes. And they were some of the most driven, competitive guys I've ever worked with.

BTW, by the time I was offered the contracting job, I'd decided my future was in either money management or gambling. I didn't realize it would be both. <G>



To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (109895)11/12/2007 6:33:53 PM
From: Freedom Fighter  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 132070
 
Skeeter,

>>>that would be more effective if they were run privately.<<>

>this is not a valid assumption.

how is paying $150k/year for a private driver in iraq more efficient than paying a private $25k?<

We are talking about two different things.

There is zero doubt that my corporation would be run more effectively if it was in private hands. It's the only parimutual bookmaker in the history of the universe to lose money. I could turn it around in about 6 months if I was given total control. That's how easy it would be.

I don't know enough about Blackwater to comment.

However, I'd be willing to bet that in many ways Blackwater is run more efficiently than the US military. The ridiculous prices it charges and gets away with are part of the corruption. It's just like when the defense contractors rape and pillage the government too. This is the very reason I want to limit government wherever possible. The private sector gets away with this crap when it deals with government. That's my whole point!