Yeah, I sure do enjoy poking a little fun at Crosscut—kinda a friendly rivalry—but really, Roger Valdez’s piece on waste in government is a must read.
As I’ve long said, a bureaucracy is a bureaucracy is a bureaucracy, public or private, and anybody who has ever worked for or with a large, established corporation knows what I’m talking about. Think there’s no waste, fraud or abuse at Microsoft or Boeing? Talk to a few longtime employees, and then tell me how it’s any worse in the public sector.
I’m not saying there aren’t any efficiencies to be gained in government. Of course there are. But all this perennial talk about waste, fraud and abuse is just a way of avoiding the more difficult conversation about policy priorities.
Are you betting on the Seahawks with 10.5 points?
Then I guess that the government is being run like a business.
That’s great news!!
What I’ve always been frustrated about is why public transportation is never encouraged in these types of situations be it Government of corporations. I get that taking a cab or renting a car is nicer, but in many MANY cases public transportation is a better option (and in some cases, quicker).
I wish companies and governments would calculate what is expected and if employees can come under budget by taking the train, they get a bonus or something. Lazy ass employees with entitlements cost companies a lot of money.
Yep! You can put non-profits on the list as well.
My favorite is ‘outsourcing’. Ever eaten in an outsourced corporate cafeteria? Utter crap. Lowest bidder always wins and the quality of the product suffers. Financially it might be cheap.
How come Republican waste, fraud, and abuse (e.g., Halliburton delivering Coca Cola to our troops in Iraq and charging the Pentagon $110 per case?) is never waste, fraud, or abuse?
Well, we have a state auditor who wants people to report “Fraud, Waste, and Efficency [sic],” so what do you expect?
To date, I’ve never heard a Republican screaming about fraud, waste, and abuse actually identify such fraud, waste, and abuse. It’s just a buzz word for “conservatives” and anti-government types.
“SQUIRREL!!!”
No, all this talk about waste isn’t a way to avoid talking about priorities. Quite the opposite. It’s directly talking about priorities.
It didn’t get the nickname ‘the Lazy B’ for nuthin’.
# 5: You’ve got that right. I’ve seen corporate cafeterias which were outsourced where the products they were selling for lunch were a choice of various Costco-purchased frozen foods – Reeser’s buritos, just-reheated frozen pizza, etc. Your cost at Costco would be less than a dollar a serving. But at the outsourced cafeteria? About $5.00 to $7.00.
Of course, somebody’s going to chime in that if the employees don’t like it, they can just bring their own lunch. At one large local employer this was made pretty difficult shortly after the out-sourced cafeteria was established:
(a) micowave ovens, popcorn poppers, refrigerators, even coffee makers, etc. were prohibited anywhere on the premises (other than those in the cafeteria) due to the “fire danger”. After decades of employees having such company-purchased accomodations installed near their work areas without incident, suddenly this is a fire danger?
(b) employees were prohibited from consuming food or drink anywhere on the premises except in the cafeteria, due to “sanitation concerns”. You can’t even drink a cup of coffee at your desk.
(c) the cafeteria has a policy of not allowing any outside food or drink on the premises.
Most of the workers assumed that this was part of the contract with the company, a “guarantee” that no matter how crappy the food got, they would have a guaranteed minimum level of business. Unless you get in a car and leave to eat lunch elsewhere, you have no choice but to purchase it in the now out-sourced cafeteria, no matter the quality or the price.
Leaving the premises to get lunch elsewhere might work for salaried managers and executives, or white-collar workers who have at least an hour for lunch, but it isn’t a realistic option for blue-collar employees with only a 30-minute lunch break.
Speaking of waste, fraud and abuse (h/t bobswern), some good news:
MA Supreme Court Deals Banks a Major Blow on Foreclosure Fraud, in the Ibanez Case
Goldy:
Nothing written by Roger Valdez is a “must read.”
# 11: Okay, that explains the stocks losing ground today.
But it’s really an extension of the probem going back to the mid-2000’s. They issued a lot of mortgages without doing the proper inquiries and paperwork. Now they are trying to foreclose in the same manner.
Note that part of this is the insistence that no matter what the volume of work, the same people (or even a reduced staff) is expected to perform the same functions. And in the case of WAMU (and probably quite a few others), execs who don’t care about quality as long as they get the mortgage initiation fees actually tell employees to ignore clear signals of mortgage fraud.
It’s almost impossible to change stupid rules that become entrenched in the system. If you don’t like a rule, just go around it.
Living well is the best revenge — just ask the banksters.
@13: That doesn’t quite get at it.
The fundamental insight to the fin crisis is:
Securitization (derivatives — CDOs, MBSs, etc., etc.) was a gaping maw of bonus generation after repeal of Glass-Steagall. Hence, Countrywide and all the other fly-by-nights to generate mortgages and equity loans to people who could least afford them. No one gave a shit about the paperwork. And it has come back to bite them.
Did you know that WA is now a leading foreclosure state? And the sad fact is we do not have “judicial” foreclosure in this state (as in Mass which got the courts involved), meaning, here, some bankster arbitrator gets to decide whether the paperwork is OK.
Almost no mortgage generated since about 2003 has any legal provenance.
What to watch: There has already been a move afoot (in the last congress) to absolve the banksters from producing the note, establishing right to foreclose.
Considering that there is $1.5 QUADRILLION* (i.e., $1,500 Trillion) of this crazy leveraged paper in the world, there will be enormous pressure to let the banksters weasel out to avoid another bank bailout.
Nothing will improve until the banksters are forced to take their losses.
*For context: The entire world economy was about $45 Trillion in 2007. The US economy: about $15 Trillion.
Exactly–it is the size of the institution, not whether it is private or public, which leads to waste, etc. Bureaucracies, by nature and necessity, produce inefficiencies.
@8 Calling someone else’s priorities “waste, fraud, and abuse” in lieu of debating its merits is intellectually dishonest.
OK, rhp6033 @10, please tell us the name of this “large local employer” who screwed over his employees with the cafeteria deal
Speaking of hypocritical Republicans…
the governor of Ohio has been saying
Just days after being quoted in the NYT as saying this about state workers
(via DailyKos)
Agreed with the post. Might as well be said that waste, fraud, and abuse is a rug under which the right sweeps their waste, fraud, and abuse. It’s how we can afford the tax cuts for the rich, after all.
@10 The only place I’ve eaten corporate lunch in recent years was at Microsoft. It wasn’t bad, but not great. I never ate better than when I worked at the IBM facility outside of Boulder. They served pig-out levels of great food for cheap.
One of the biggest differences between the public and private sectors is the Public Disclosure Act. You can ask for documents from the public sector you will not get from the private sector. The flaws of the public side are easier to see.
Yeah, K has a point. Puddy would like to see what GE has done. Remember this FDL post? Somehow no HA leftist wanted to comment on it.
GE – Odumba Administration – NBC News – Odumba Administration – MSNBC – Thrill up their leg – Odumba Administration.
Puddy wants to see those internal GE memos where all the jobs went too.
This is priceless