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If the government pays its employees at market prices for tech, it'd be another sign of the bloated, inefficient federal government and, uh, socialism or someth
by jbooth 12y ago
If the government pays its employees at market prices for tech, it'd be another sign of the bloated, inefficient federal government and, uh, socialism or something.
If they pay a big federal contractor at twice that rate, who then pockets half and pays its people market rate, then that's private sector efficiency at work.
- nostrademons 12y agoMore generally - there is no market when there is only one purchaser. Right now, the market for "tech talent working in government" is separate from the market for "tech talent working in private-sector tech companies", and the former sector has only one customer, which can set salaries basically arbitrarily. If you watch the YouTube video provided, it seems like the subtext of this appointment is that Obama wants to merge these markets, so that the federal government competes for tech talent out of the same pool as Silicon Valley, Seattle, Boston, NYC, etc. tech companies. There will probably be many subtle culture changes there - programmers may stop wearing suits in government contractors, market rates may adjust, etc. I can't predict exactly how things will change, but wouldn't count on the status quo remaining for long.