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Historically, government contracting and the public sector has been incredibly corrupt, as it's basically unlimited funds with no market-based mechanism to addr
by rdl 8y ago
Historically, government contracting and the public sector has been incredibly corrupt, as it's basically unlimited funds with no market-based mechanism to address it (in a private entity, the owners will be angry about money taken from their pockets by employees, and in places where corruption is too high, you end up with family firms or other external trust structures, very small entities, etc.)
This is why the heavy-handed regulations exist in US contracting (along with massive risk aversion and other things). The Government uniquely cannot be subject to market forces and punishment for bad actions.
- USNetizen 8y agoThat's true in places like India, but not really in the U.S. I own a company that does government contracting and have never "paid someone off" or done anything remotely "corrupt" but we have been wildly successful nonetheless. There are NUMEROUS mechanisms for oversight and redress at every level - but the typical commercial-focused company doesn't understand them, so they don't research or learn what they are and just give up thereby developing a very misguided interpretation of the system akin to what you believe it is like.
- rdl 8y agoThis was true in the US before we created all these stupid regulations, which is why they were created. 1700s/1800s, "spoils system", etc. That is the whole reason the regulations (and attendant overhead) exist. (I bootstrapped a US government contractor and have worked for several others.)
- ambicapter 8y agoCan you clarify your point, were you saying that the US had 3rd world-levels of corruption before the regulation, or were you saying that the US was as fine as it is today, before the regulations.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- bartimus 8y agoI've worked for commercial, government and semi-government organizations. It's not corrupt in the sense that it's illegal. The problem is that while the stakes are high within the private sector there are no such stakes within the government sector. Yet people do get payed high stakes salaries. There's no incentive for efficiency. In the government realm when the end of year is nearing, departments start burning through their budgets to ensure they don't receive less the next year. Inefficiency is rewarded. It simply means more people get to pay for nice mortgages.