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Why should police departments do automobile maintenance? Other than to add more sinecures for the politically connected…
by twoodfin 3y ago
Why should police departments do automobile maintenance?
Other than to add more sinecures for the politically connected…
- synetic 3y agoWhat is the benefit of outsourcing that to a private company that pays its workers much less in salary and a benefits? The money spent on maintenance is roughy the same but now the jobs for the workers are less desirable less well paid. The money now goes to the business owner. All the business owner is doing to squeezing money out of the workers to enrich themselves. There is no benefit to society in doing this. Indeed it is a loss for the community. Are you under the impression that government contracts for vehicle maintenance are immune to becoming sinecures for the politically connected? Only mechanics are subject to this possibility?
- twoodfin 3y agoShould they sew their own uniforms? Build their own laptops?
- synetic 3y agoNo. The larger departments should service their own vehicles though.
- twoodfin 3y agoSome outsourcing (aka buying goods and services on the market) is good but some other outsourcing is bad?
- jychang 3y agoObviously yes? Why wouldn’t it be? Outsourcing isn’t inherently good or bad, it’s just a means to an end that may have good or bad side effects.
- synetic 3y agoObviously some outsourcing is good and some bad. You seem not to understand that this could be true. Only a fool thinks all instances of outsourcing are good (or bad). Typically people don’t live in a world of extreme positions whereby one occurrence of outsourcing being good (or bad) means all of them are. It is obvious the position that I have. Government has outsourced too many jobs to the private sector and the effect has been to enrich the business class at the expense of the working class.
- DropInIn 3y agoDo you only perceive the world through a dichotomies lense? That's foolish beyond measure.
- JoeyBananas 3y agoI question whether these positions would be better paying if they were filled by government employees. In every case I can think of, government employees earn less than their private sector counterparts.
- synetic 3y agoI think you may be right as it stands now but I don’t think this was right in 1980. When factoring in benefits, pension, working conditions, and employment stability I think even today it may not be clear who is better off.
- brg 3y agoCan you name a few people positions as an example? Particularly in lifetime earnings and total comp government work in teaching, chemistry, and administrative work is 1.5x or more that of theprivate sector median with much stronger protections. In particular pensiins, health care, and early retirement make up for a lot in terms of starting hourly wage.
- JoeyBananas 3y agoCompare the POTUS or a military general to a private sector CEO. For anyone who works in the military industrial complex, the income difference is stark.
- bsder 3y ago> Why should police departments do automobile maintenance? Because, as we have seen, outsourcing these kinds of services is rarely cheaper and never actually better. By keeping it in house, you can hire people correctly for the volume of maintenance you do. Your people become very good at the specific needs and faults of your system (see: Why SF firefighters make and repair their own ladders). And when you genuinely need something, you can redeploy your labor. All outsourcing does is create an extra middleman whose mouth you must feed and whose workers you have no control over. Executives, of course, loved outsourcing as it let them crack up the unions.