Thursday, July 08, 2004

Is Outsourcing the Way of the Future?

With the amazing stuff JPL has been doing lately, why not rename it NASA and fire everyone at the other, old, cruddy NASA? (link above)

1 comment:

Kevin Marousek, RPCV said...

Well, you are becoming more and more democratically minded every day without even jnowing it. My sister's godfather worked for JPL for many years. Essentially, NASA comes up with a concept, then farms out the work to companies like JPL who figure out how to make it happen. JPL, in exchange, gets a hefty wad of cash. It leaves NASA as the conceptual heads while the show is run from elsewhere. Problem is the private industry has inflated its worth over the years to the point where the government can't always afford them. Now, in a conservative setup, and one I happen to agree with, governments are smaller in scale. The so-called "idea men" are eliminated and the government directly hires the people who do the job. A level of middle management is eradicated (sometimes several levels), and money is saved. Product is produced.

But conservatives lately have frowned upon this notion because it leads to more unemployment in more noticable middle income and upper middle income citizens. By trimming the fat from government, it forces these guys to seek work in the rpivate sector. But fewer contracts being extended by the government means less work. The American government makes money, The American people lose money, and during an election year that sort of thing can't happen.