3 ms·

The govt does not hire or promote on merit. This is why this occurred and why the obamacare site and other govt software had/have so many problems.

noir_lord 11y ago
That's only a small part of it, if at all. Other reasons are costly infrastructure, huge size of systems, how long it takes to replace them (if it's longer than an election cycle they'll probably get cancelled/modified half way through and go late and over budget), preferred vendors (only really large companies are given these jobs), political pork and lack of oversight. It's not just the US, the UK blew 12bn on an NHS system that basically never worked the way it was supposed to and that was just one of their disasters.
- pakled_engineer 11y ago
  Government here in Canada blew $200m on a glorified database that never worked either. Contract given to a crony corp of the political party in power of course. http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Auditor+general+slams+troubled+social+welfare+computer+system/10934904/story.html http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Auditor+general+slams+troub...
tomohawk 11y ago
Worse is the fact that above grade 13 promotions greatly favor those who do not take risks and who do not rile others. This makes avoiding risk one of the top success strategies for a career in govt. The risk averse culture of govt is probably more a factor here. To actually shut down a system that is "working" because it is not secure is likely to prevent someone from being promoted, as it at least implicitly points the finger at others, which is a major no-no. It really sucks that those affected have no recourse in the courts or any other venue to seek redress, and it is unlikely that the cost of the inevitable identity thefts and other dirty tricks that will result from this will be borne by individuals, when the govt is clearly culpable. I never have understood why we hand power over something to the govt without a means of holding govt officials responsible when they wield that power inappropriately or incompetently.

noir_lord 11y ago

That's only a small part of it, if at all. Other reasons are costly infrastructure, huge size of systems, how long it takes to replace them (if it's longer than an election cycle they'll probably get cancelled/modified half way through and go late and over budget), preferred vendors (only really large companies are given these jobs), political pork and lack of oversight. It's not just the US, the UK blew 12bn on an NHS system that basically never worked the way it was supposed to and that was just one of their disasters.

pakled_engineer 11y ago
Government here in Canada blew $200m on a glorified database that never worked either. Contract given to a crony corp of the political party in power of course. http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Auditor+general+slams+troubled+social+welfare+computer+system/10934904/story.html http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Auditor+general+slams+troub...

tomohawk 11y ago

Worse is the fact that above grade 13 promotions greatly favor those who do not take risks and who do not rile others. This makes avoiding risk one of the top success strategies for a career in govt. The risk averse culture of govt is probably more a factor here. To actually shut down a system that is "working" because it is not secure is likely to prevent someone from being promoted, as it at least implicitly points the finger at others, which is a major no-no. It really sucks that those affected have no recourse in the courts or any other venue to seek redress, and it is unlikely that the cost of the inevitable identity thefts and other dirty tricks that will result from this will be borne by individuals, when the govt is clearly culpable. I never have understood why we hand power over something to the govt without a means of holding govt officials responsible when they wield that power inappropriately or incompetently.