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This whole thing seems like such a farce... The conservative side of politics in Australia likes to do a much smaller version of this to "save money" whenever t

This whole thing seems like such a farce... The conservative side of politics in Australia likes to do a much smaller version of this to "save money" whenever they've been in opposition and then get back in to Government - and all it leads to every time is paying far more to have the same work done by the big consulting companies. You hear stories like people being fired from their public service jobs, then being hired by the consulting firm and being back the next week, now with the consulting firm charging more than double what they were paid before for their time - and they're doing the exact same job they were doing...

defrost 2y ago
The taxpayers lose out, the rent seekers that own the middle man consulting companies now get a good chunk of the increased charge to taxpayers .. this is why they suppport the conservative side of politics that makes this possible.
- __d 2y ago
  And the consulting companies provide lucratively paid, post-politics jobs to those who cut the public service payroll.
  - omnimus 2y ago
    This might be true for some high up possition but the actual day to day workers suddenly have middle men squzzing them too. So they end up payed less.
alexpetralia 2y ago
This is exactly what "small government" and "big business" means
suraci 2y ago
This looks like stories of some public services, like bus services. The government sold 'unprofitable' public services to companies. companies raised the price, but somehow it's still 'unprofitable', so the government has to provide subsidies to companies, or buy it back at a higher price than they sold it for
- tutorialmanager 2y ago
  A great example is the city of Chicago selling its parking meters for 1.15 billion dollars. Now considered one of the biggest financial mistakes the city ever made
  - pjc50 2y ago
    Chicago was also involved in the interest rate swap "mis-selling"; see https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2024/march/interest-swap-end.html https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press... Having sold a fairly sophisticated and expensive financial product with nasty downside risks to lots of states and cities, Wall Street then went on to rig the underlying number: https://www.reuters.com/legal/ten-big-banks-settle-us-interest-rate-swaps-rigging-litigation-2024-06-27/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/ten-big-banks-settle-us-intere... (although market conditions since the financial crisis would have caused the buyers to lose money anyway)
- pjc50 2y ago
  See UK trains. The track is unprofitable (legacy maintenance) and had to be brought back into public ownership for safety reasons. The staff are shuffled between various paper-thin "franchise" employers. The one profitable bit is train leasing; the privatization created ROSCOs, which are train landlords, who get the real profits from public subsidy. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/18/profits-of-uks-private-train-leasing-firms-treble-in-a-year https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/18/profits-of-...
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  "government" and "unprofitable public services" Should never be in the same sentence. Especially for the 4th largest country by landmass. The only legitmate ways you justify cutting public transit is 1. a superior form of transit has been established for a while 2. Literally no one is using the transit for whatever reason (which is nearly impossible) 3. mass extinction occurs and there's no one left to transit (though at that point transit is the least of our issues) It's not supposed to be a direct profit. You Transport people around to businesses to sell to, work to operate the city with, and overall stimulate the economy.
RicoElectrico 2y ago
Conservatives of the US seem to be positively evil when compared to conservatives most elsewhere in the developed world, who at least seem to have some notion of social contract.
- blooalien 2y ago
  > "Conservatives of the US seem to be positively evil" ... This is because the U.S. has become so excessively politically polarized in recent years. The typical "conservative" here is more like the "extreme right" elsewhere around the world. They're literal "extremists", taking those political views to the furthest extremes they can think of, and actively hating anyone and anything that's not totally in line with that extremist viewpoint. (The political "left" has become much the same in the other direction here these days as well, thus exacerbating the issue from the "other side".) It's really not a "winning combination" for humanity in general. When (some) folks say "both sides are the same", I suspect that's what they're referring to. They're both becoming increasingly "extremist" in their respective viewpoints, and unwilling to move toward "the middle" even a tiny bit to allow for any productive discussion or compromise that could benefit everyone involved.
  - pjc50 2y ago
    "both sides" when it blatantly only one side is the reason you're in this mess.
    - lionkor 2y ago
      This exact comment is part of the issue, you see? You're saying what Trump said, too, when asked about the divide in the country: "Oh, you know, we are only divided because of THEM". Very ironic.
      - 6510 2y ago
        Imagine this, if you provide state of the art free education with all the trimmings. Will the voter become more stupid? Back in the days in NL we had university grads stocking shelves in the supermarket. It was hard to see the point of it. How useful that was became obvious when it was abolished and political parties pretty much had to explain their program as if the voter was 5 years old. The thing is, hardly anything is that simple. Picture a field with spherical cows all over. Everything comes with an explanation simplified to the point it becomes a lie. Every politician needs to carefully keep up with the basket of lies. More and more lies are added on top. One might as well start lying for real and profit from it. If the lion share of voters buys into everything anyway??? This was funny https://youtu.be/T4kNUS7w8Tk https://youtu.be/T4kNUS7w8Tk If god wanted us to give power-point presentations he would have provided screens? Maybe the real budget isn't in the books? https://youtu.be/q_IoizTAL6w https://youtu.be/q_IoizTAL6w https://home.solari.com/fasab-statement-56-understanding-new-government-financial-accounting-loopholes/ https://home.solari.com/fasab-statement-56-understanding-new... http://files.fasab.gov/pdffiles/handbook_sffas_56.pdf http://files.fasab.gov/pdffiles/handbook_sffas_56.pdf
ciconia 2y ago
> every time is paying far more to have the same work done Some predictions: - The 2025 US budget will increase compared to 2024. - The 2025 US budget deficit will increase compared to 2024. - At the end of 2025 the US national debt will have increased compared to 1/1/25.
- pjc50 2y ago
  This is very likely. They'll do a Liz Truss budget of massive tax giveaways. I'll add "bond yields will go up" to that list.
- rtkwe 2y ago
  Not exactly groundbreaking predictions given the trillion or so dollars in tax cuts being proposed.
lionkor 2y ago
"The U.S. is only divided because of them, not because of us"
pabs3 2y ago
Isn't that the whole point of those sort of actions? Send public money into private hands. Just like when they sold off public assets like a telco (Telstra), or a bank (CommBank) etc.
alsoforgotmypwd 2y ago
Of course it is. It's both for show and a distraction from whatever else is going on like seizing unitary power and normalizing deviancy.
jrs235 2y ago
>then being hired by the consulting firm and being back the next week Who owns the consulting firms? They are tied to the conservatives doing this. They are now getting a free cut from the backs of the people.
chneu 2y ago
It's called starve the beast. The strategy is to identify government agencies or programs that conservatives don't like. Then they cut funding or put up obstacles for that agency. Over time the agency can't complete it's stated goals because of a lack of funding or restrictions. Then conservatives claim the program doesn't work and it's a waste of money. I've seen this repeatedly my entire life in American politics. It's so dumb.
spwa4 2y ago
Of course ... were you expecting the people who got fired to just forgive and forget? No, go to a large consultancy, get hired for twice your normal pay, renting you out to your previous employer for ... nobody cares, but WAY more than they paid you before.

defrost 2y ago

The taxpayers lose out, the rent seekers that own the middle man consulting companies now get a good chunk of the increased charge to taxpayers .. this is why they suppport the conservative side of politics that makes this possible.

__d 2y ago
And the consulting companies provide lucratively paid, post-politics jobs to those who cut the public service payroll.
- omnimus 2y ago
  This might be true for some high up possition but the actual day to day workers suddenly have middle men squzzing them too. So they end up payed less.

alexpetralia 2y ago

This is exactly what "small government" and "big business" means

suraci 2y ago

This looks like stories of some public services, like bus services. The government sold 'unprofitable' public services to companies. companies raised the price, but somehow it's still 'unprofitable', so the government has to provide subsidies to companies, or buy it back at a higher price than they sold it for

tutorialmanager 2y ago
A great example is the city of Chicago selling its parking meters for 1.15 billion dollars. Now considered one of the biggest financial mistakes the city ever made
- pjc50 2y ago
  Chicago was also involved in the interest rate swap "mis-selling"; see https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2024/march/interest-swap-end.html https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press... Having sold a fairly sophisticated and expensive financial product with nasty downside risks to lots of states and cities, Wall Street then went on to rig the underlying number: https://www.reuters.com/legal/ten-big-banks-settle-us-interest-rate-swaps-rigging-litigation-2024-06-27/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/ten-big-banks-settle-us-intere... (although market conditions since the financial crisis would have caused the buyers to lose money anyway)
pjc50 2y ago
See UK trains. The track is unprofitable (legacy maintenance) and had to be brought back into public ownership for safety reasons. The staff are shuffled between various paper-thin "franchise" employers. The one profitable bit is train leasing; the privatization created ROSCOs, which are train landlords, who get the real profits from public subsidy. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/18/profits-of-uks-private-train-leasing-firms-treble-in-a-year https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/18/profits-of-...
johnnyanmac 2y ago
"government" and "unprofitable public services" Should never be in the same sentence. Especially for the 4th largest country by landmass. The only legitmate ways you justify cutting public transit is 1. a superior form of transit has been established for a while 2. Literally no one is using the transit for whatever reason (which is nearly impossible) 3. mass extinction occurs and there's no one left to transit (though at that point transit is the least of our issues) It's not supposed to be a direct profit. You Transport people around to businesses to sell to, work to operate the city with, and overall stimulate the economy.

RicoElectrico 2y ago

Conservatives of the US seem to be positively evil when compared to conservatives most elsewhere in the developed world, who at least seem to have some notion of social contract.

blooalien 2y ago
> "Conservatives of the US seem to be positively evil" ... This is because the U.S. has become so excessively politically polarized in recent years. The typical "conservative" here is more like the "extreme right" elsewhere around the world. They're literal "extremists", taking those political views to the furthest extremes they can think of, and actively hating anyone and anything that's not totally in line with that extremist viewpoint. (The political "left" has become much the same in the other direction here these days as well, thus exacerbating the issue from the "other side".) It's really not a "winning combination" for humanity in general. When (some) folks say "both sides are the same", I suspect that's what they're referring to. They're both becoming increasingly "extremist" in their respective viewpoints, and unwilling to move toward "the middle" even a tiny bit to allow for any productive discussion or compromise that could benefit everyone involved.
- pjc50 2y ago
  "both sides" when it blatantly only one side is the reason you're in this mess.
  - lionkor 2y ago
    This exact comment is part of the issue, you see? You're saying what Trump said, too, when asked about the divide in the country: "Oh, you know, we are only divided because of THEM". Very ironic.
    - 6510 2y ago
      Imagine this, if you provide state of the art free education with all the trimmings. Will the voter become more stupid? Back in the days in NL we had university grads stocking shelves in the supermarket. It was hard to see the point of it. How useful that was became obvious when it was abolished and political parties pretty much had to explain their program as if the voter was 5 years old. The thing is, hardly anything is that simple. Picture a field with spherical cows all over. Everything comes with an explanation simplified to the point it becomes a lie. Every politician needs to carefully keep up with the basket of lies. More and more lies are added on top. One might as well start lying for real and profit from it. If the lion share of voters buys into everything anyway??? This was funny https://youtu.be/T4kNUS7w8Tk https://youtu.be/T4kNUS7w8Tk If god wanted us to give power-point presentations he would have provided screens? Maybe the real budget isn't in the books? https://youtu.be/q_IoizTAL6w https://youtu.be/q_IoizTAL6w https://home.solari.com/fasab-statement-56-understanding-new-government-financial-accounting-loopholes/ https://home.solari.com/fasab-statement-56-understanding-new... http://files.fasab.gov/pdffiles/handbook_sffas_56.pdf http://files.fasab.gov/pdffiles/handbook_sffas_56.pdf

ciconia 2y ago

> every time is paying far more to have the same work done Some predictions: - The 2025 US budget will increase compared to 2024. - The 2025 US budget deficit will increase compared to 2024. - At the end of 2025 the US national debt will have increased compared to 1/1/25.

pjc50 2y ago
This is very likely. They'll do a Liz Truss budget of massive tax giveaways. I'll add "bond yields will go up" to that list.
rtkwe 2y ago
Not exactly groundbreaking predictions given the trillion or so dollars in tax cuts being proposed.

lionkor 2y ago

"The U.S. is only divided because of them, not because of us"

pabs3 2y ago

Isn't that the whole point of those sort of actions? Send public money into private hands. Just like when they sold off public assets like a telco (Telstra), or a bank (CommBank) etc.

alsoforgotmypwd 2y ago

Of course it is. It's both for show and a distraction from whatever else is going on like seizing unitary power and normalizing deviancy.

jrs235 2y ago

>then being hired by the consulting firm and being back the next week Who owns the consulting firms? They are tied to the conservatives doing this. They are now getting a free cut from the backs of the people.

chneu 2y ago

It's called starve the beast. The strategy is to identify government agencies or programs that conservatives don't like. Then they cut funding or put up obstacles for that agency. Over time the agency can't complete it's stated goals because of a lack of funding or restrictions. Then conservatives claim the program doesn't work and it's a waste of money. I've seen this repeatedly my entire life in American politics. It's so dumb.

spwa4 2y ago

Of course ... were you expecting the people who got fired to just forgive and forget? No, go to a large consultancy, get hired for twice your normal pay, renting you out to your previous employer for ... nobody cares, but WAY more than they paid you before.