4 ms·

300k over 3 years is hardly egregious, though it definitely qualifies as wasteful. The title makes it seem like he was flying private on taxpayers dime.

by jpgvm 4y ago

miguelazo 4y ago
According to the article: >The emails also show that approximately one third of the destinations documented in the emails were to cities outside of PREDICT partner countries. PREDICT leaders jetsetted to destinations like Vienna, Rome and Paris. Some of the trips to these destinations appeared to have only tangential relevance to the government program footing the bill. Further, several of the business class requests were on behalf of the Global Virome Project (GVP), a private organization founded using U.S. tax dollars. Ethics experts say the use of public resources for the private organization may have violated federal ethics laws.
msandford 4y ago
100k a year is more than a lot of people earn as their salary. Sure they aren't high flying international playboys (I mean scientists) but it's a reasonable benchmark to measure to.
- nine_k 4y ago
  Given the low salaries in science, $100k may as well be salaries of two full-time researchers. Also, if you tly a lot, you accumulate miles, so you pay less, or upgrade for free / cheap. Anecdotally, I managed to fly nearly 50k miles, that is, circle the Earth.twice in 2022 for about $5k total. In economy class, of course; a higher class would be, say, $12k. So, at these prices, $100k would buy me like 16 times around the planet. This puts the amount of flying into some perspective.
Aeolun 4y ago
Does it? A 20k flight sounds wasteful, but 300k over 3 years involving a lot of international travel sounds reasonable. If half your job is constantly flying all over the world the least they can do is have you fly business/first. International travel (especially across timezones) is already hard enough without it. Flying halfway across the world in economy means I need to pad my vacation with at least 3 days each way to sort of recover. To be fair, the same thing is true in business, but at least the experience is somewhat bearable.

300k over 3 years is hardly egregious, though it definitely qualifies as wasteful. The title makes it seem like he was flying private on taxpayers dime.

by jpgvm 4y ago

300k over 3 years is hardly egregious, though it definitely qualifies as wasteful. The title makes it seem like he was flying private on taxpayers dime.

miguelazo 4y ago

According to the article: >The emails also show that approximately one third of the destinations documented in the emails were to cities outside of PREDICT partner countries. PREDICT leaders jetsetted to destinations like Vienna, Rome and Paris. Some of the trips to these destinations appeared to have only tangential relevance to the government program footing the bill. Further, several of the business class requests were on behalf of the Global Virome Project (GVP), a private organization founded using U.S. tax dollars. Ethics experts say the use of public resources for the private organization may have violated federal ethics laws.

msandford 4y ago

100k a year is more than a lot of people earn as their salary. Sure they aren't high flying international playboys (I mean scientists) but it's a reasonable benchmark to measure to.

nine_k 4y ago
Given the low salaries in science, $100k may as well be salaries of two full-time researchers. Also, if you tly a lot, you accumulate miles, so you pay less, or upgrade for free / cheap. Anecdotally, I managed to fly nearly 50k miles, that is, circle the Earth.twice in 2022 for about $5k total. In economy class, of course; a higher class would be, say, $12k. So, at these prices, $100k would buy me like 16 times around the planet. This puts the amount of flying into some perspective.

Aeolun 4y ago

Does it? A 20k flight sounds wasteful, but 300k over 3 years involving a lot of international travel sounds reasonable. If half your job is constantly flying all over the world the least they can do is have you fly business/first. International travel (especially across timezones) is already hard enough without it. Flying halfway across the world in economy means I need to pad my vacation with at least 3 days each way to sort of recover. To be fair, the same thing is true in business, but at least the experience is somewhat bearable.