The Federal Government and Outsourcing

[Peter1469]

The Federal Government and Outsourcing (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-federal-outsourcing-boom-and-why-its-failing-americans/2014/01/31/21d03c40-8914-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html)

An interesting article about how the privatization of government functions may have back fired and directly caused some famous news stories in recent months.


Two of the biggest news events of the past year have been the leaks about top-secret snooping by the NSA and the disastrous rollout of Obamacare. But in an important way, they are both manifestations of a story that has been unfolding for decades — that of a federal government that has outsourced too much of what it does to private contractors while allowing the quality of its own workforce to atrophy.



The outsourcing initiative started under Reagan and has continued to grow since then. Clinton put a bit of a hold on it, but that didn't last because government, to include the military, figured out that as their budgets were cut, contracting out was a way to get bigger and do more, while telling Congress and the American people that they are really getting smaller.


The federal government has long relied on outside contractors to provide it with weapons systems and other goods. But starting with the Reagan administration, there has been a determined shift of work from government employees to private contractors, on the theory that they could do it better and cheaper. For a time, that was true. Much of the early outsourcing was for lower-skilled clerical and maintenance functions for which government workers received pay and benefits well above the market rate. Or it was for the design and operation of new computer systems that automated the work of government and had never existed before.


But in recent years, much of the outsourcing has been driven by politics and ideology.



The article goes on to discuss some other contracting problems and concludes with contract management. Even contractors say that the government can't manage all of its contracts, and that contract management should be the government's job.

In my opinion, the root of the problem is that the government does way too much.

[donttread]

The Federal Government and Outsourcing (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-federal-outsourcing-boom-and-why-its-failing-americans/2014/01/31/21d03c40-8914-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html)

An interesting article about how the privatization of government functions may have back fired and directly caused some famous news stories in recent months.

Our government is so broken an non-function that they can't even farm work out without screwing it up


The outsourcing initiative started under Reagan and has continued to grow since then. Clinton put a bit of a hold on it, but that didn't last because government, to include the military, figured out that as their budgets were cut, contracting out was a way to get bigger and do more, while telling Congress and the American people that they are really getting smaller.



The article goes on to discuss some other contracting problems and concludes with contract management. Even contractors say that the government can't manage all of its contracts, and that contract management should be the government's job.

In my opinion, the root of the problem is that the government does way too much.

[waltky]

So much for Ford bein' America's truck...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_evil.gif
‘It Used to Be Cars Were Made in Flint, and You Couldn’t Drink the Water in Mexico’
September 15, 2016 – GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump told the Economic Club of New York on Thursday that the U.S. is a “silent nation of jobless Americans” as evidenced by the city of Flint, Mich., where jobs “have been stripped from the community and its infrastructure has totally collapsed.”


“It used to be cars were made in Flint and you couldn’t drink the water in Mexico. Now cars are made in Mexico, and you can’t drink the water in Flint, but we’re going to turn this around,” Trump said, referring to the Flint water crisis, where the water wastainted with lead after the city switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River in 2014. Furthermore, the Ford Motor Company announced Wednesday that it was moving all of its small car production to Mexico to boost company profits. “Ford announced yesterday that they’re moving their small car production facilities to Mexico, and I’ve been talking about this a long while,” Trump said, adding that “to think that Ford is moving its small car division is a disgrace.” “It’s disgraceful,” he said. “It’s disgraceful that our politicians allow them to get away with it.”

Trump’s unveiled his economy plan during the speech at the Economic Club of New York, saying it “will embrace the truth that people flourish under a minimum government burden and will tap into the incredible unrealized potential of our workers and their dreams.” “My economic plan rejects the cynicism that says our labor force will keep declining, that our jobs will keep leaving, and that our economy can never grow as it did once before, and boy, oh boy, did it used to grow,” Trump said. “We reject the pessimism that says our standard of living can no longer rise, and that’s all there is left to divide, because frankly, we’re looking at an economy now of no growth and redistribution of wealth, and that’s not going to work,” he said.

Trump’s economic plan establishes “a national goal of reaching four percent economic growth.” “Over the next 10 years, our economic team estimates that under our plan the economy will average 3.5% growth and create a total of 25 million new jobs,” he said, adding that it will be deficit neutral. “This growth means that our jobs plan, including our childcare reforms, will be completely paid for in combination with proposed budget savings,” Trump said. “It will be deficit neutral. If we reach 4% growth, it will reduce the deficit. It will be accomplished through a complete overhaul of our tax, regulatory, energy and trade policies,” he said.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/melanie-hunter/trump-it-used-be-cars-were-made-flint-and-you-couldnt-drink-water-mexico

See also:

Ford Says It's Moving All of Its U.S. Small Car Production to Mexico
September 14, 2016 — Ford Motor Co. says it's moving all of its U.S. small car production to Mexico.


Ford CEO Mark Fields confirmed the long-expected move Wednesday during an event for investors and Wall Street analysts.

Ford currently makes its Fiesta subcompact in Mexico, but its Focus and C-Max small cars are made in suburban Detroit. Making them in Mexico would boost company profits because of low wages there.

The company is building a new $1.6 billion assembly plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. It will make small cars there starting in 2018.

Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant, which currently makes the small cars, will be getting new products under a contract signed last year with the United Auto Workers union. They will likely be larger, more profitable vehicles like the Ford Ranger pickup.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ford-confirms-small-car-production-moving-us-mexico

[exploited]

So much for Ford bein' America's truck...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_evil.gif
‘It Used to Be Cars Were Made in Flint, and You Couldn’t Drink the Water in Mexico’
September 15, 2016 – GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump told the Economic Club of New York on Thursday that the U.S. is a “silent nation of jobless Americans” as evidenced by the city of Flint, Mich., where jobs “have been stripped from the community and its infrastructure has totally collapsed.”


See also:

Ford Says It's Moving All of Its U.S. Small Car Production to Mexico
September 14, 2016 — Ford Motor Co. says it's moving all of its U.S. small car production to Mexico.

The only real redistribution of wealth happening is upwards. At what point will so-called "conservatives" realize that? Record profits for big business and the stock market over the past 30 years, meanwhile labour productivity is at an all-time high, and nobody is really getting paid more. This isn't because of the government, or regulations, or taxes. It is because corporations have never been so greedy.

[Newpublius]

The Federal Government and Outsourcing (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-federal-outsourcing-boom-and-why-its-failing-americans/2014/01/31/21d03c40-8914-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html)

An interesting article about how the privatization of government functions may have back fired and directly caused some famous news stories in recent months.



The outsourcing initiative started under Reagan and has continued to grow since then. Clinton put a bit of a hold on it, but that didn't last because government, to include the military, figured out that as their budgets were cut, contracting out was a way to get bigger and do more, while telling Congress and the American people that they are really getting smaller.



The article goes on to discuss some other contracting problems and concludes with contract management. Even contractors say that the government can't manage all of its contracts, and that contract management should be the government's job.

In my opinion, the root of the problem is that the government does way too much.

Should they make their own paper? The entire thing stinks. Look, the government, as an organization, just like any organization, should focus on the things it does cheaper than others, and outsource the things others can do cheaper. What this really proves is how the government is INHERENTLY INEFFICIENT. What they're telling me is that the government is so incompetent that it doesn't even have an insight into what its own core conpetencies are.

Or, perhaps, as I suspect, it also reeks of government apologism.

[Mac-7]

The only real redistribution of wealth happening is upwards. At what point will so-called "conservatives" realize that? Record profits for big business and the stock market over the past 30 years, meanwhile labour productivity is at an all-time high, and nobody is really getting paid more. This isn't because of the government, or regulations, or taxes. It is because corporations have never been so greedy.

Globalization is redistributing the wealth of the American middle class to the worlds underclass by moving US jobs to low wage 3 rd world countries