Forum Index > Public Lands Stewardship > Why do they keep messing with the system?
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kleet
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kleet
meat tornado
PostThu Jul 17, 2003 8:18 am 
MtnGoat wrote:
Every extra dollar spent on a salary for someone more qualified than they need to be, is one less spent on brushing out a trail and one more dollar increase in fees and taxes.
News Item from July 15: The Bush administration announced the 2003 federal budget deficit would be the highest in U.S. history: $450 billion. Experts discuss the causes of the growing deficit, including the war in Iraq, the tax cut and the weak economy. Somehow I doubt the $18/hour government employee pit toilet digger is the real cause behind increases in fees and taxes and the record deficit.

A fuxk, why do I not give one?
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Dante
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PostThu Jul 17, 2003 11:09 am 
I just Google searched "competitive sourcing plan" "National Park Service"--lots of interesting reading. The studies cost $3K per FTE (full time equivalent or full time employee). Consultants could cost $2.5 to $3 Million. LINK I wonder who the consultants are and who will get the contracts if/when work is outsourced? Here is info. on OMB's Competitive Sourcing Initiative: LINK A whole A-76 consulting industry appears to have sprung up from OMB's Competitive Sourcing Initiative. It will be interesting to see whether or not all of this saves the taxpayers any money. Hopefully, the Park System will not be hurt too bad in the process (they are already loding money (for consultants) and personnel (to help the consultants) to the process, though . . .

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Mongo
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PostThu Jul 17, 2003 1:49 pm 
I have been a consultant to the national park service, in renovations to facilities at Crater Lake. As far as capital improvements go, the service is hampered by spending rules that do not allow them to logically address problems that fall somewhere between minor fix-ups and major investments. There is a lot of wasted effort due to budget games that need to be played, true for any administration. But the Bush League have really made it worse, with some stupid consolidation of services, employee cuts, and the attitude that the Department of Interior as a whole is seemingly being run as a corporate hand-out center. Is what is good for corporations really good for America? I would say not. As far as employees, how could you seriously consider a minimum wage employee with a cost-driven boss for even the simple task of removing waste on Mt. Rainier? Many people in the park and forest service are practically volunteeering because they love the wilderness and the lifestyle. Look at the record of the concessionaires who recently left Crater Lake for examples on the benefits of privatisation. They left with no notice, and left the park service holding the bag. I think they are still holding the park service hostage before they can sign another company. Nothing like a bunch of corporate lawyers going after the government just because ther might be money available to make you wonder about privatisation. Bush is probably not satan, but he really has only a very narrow constituency which does not include anyone reading this list, whatever their political stripe may be.

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Dante
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PostThu Jul 17, 2003 2:30 pm 
Mongo wrote:
But the Bush League have really made it worse, with some stupid consolidation of services, employee cuts, and the attitude that the Department of Interior as a whole is seemingly being run as a corporate hand-out center
One of the links I posted on the first or second page speaks to that: "What is corporatism? In a (somewhat inaccurate) phrase, socialism for the bourgeois. It has the outward form of capitalism in that it preserves private ownership and private management, but with a crucial difference: as under socialism, government guarantees the flow of material goods, which under true capitalism it does not. In classical capitalism, what has been called the "night-watchman" state, government's role in the economy is simply to prevent force or fraud from disrupting the autonomous operation of the free market. The market is trusted to provide. Under corporatism, it is not, instead being systematically manipulated to deliver goods to political constituencies. This now includes basically everyone from the economic elite to ordinary consumers. * * * What makes corporatism so politically irresistible is that it is attractive not just to the mass electorate, but to the economic elite as well. Big business, whatever its casuists at the Wall Street Journal editorial page may pretend, likes big government, except when big government gets greedy and tries to renegotiate the division of spoils. . . . Big government, in turn, likes big business because it is manageable; it does what it is told. It is much easier to impose affirmative action or racial sensitivity training on AT&T than on 50,000 corner stores. This is why big business has become a key enforcer of political correctness. The final thing big business likes about big government is that, unlike small government, it is powerful enough to socialize costs in exchange for a share of the profits." What Is American Corporatism Conservatism Under Corporatism is also an interesting read. Both are written from a conservative point of view.

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kiliki
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kiliki
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PostThu Jul 17, 2003 4:56 pm 
I will second Mongo's observation about many NPS employees. Thugh I've woked on projecs for the NPS as a student hire for the past couple of years, this is my first time stationed at a park, and I can't believe the level of committment and initiative among park employees. There was a group clean up of a park graveyard after work recently because it needed to be done and there was no money/time for staff to do it on the clock, so people just got together and did it in their free time. Many park staff also serve as volunters for various park projects. How demoralizing to start replacing staff with contractors-that seems like a good way to kill the committment that current staff have.

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sarbar
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sarbar
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PostThu Jul 17, 2003 4:59 pm 
I need to ask Dicentra about how she feels about this-she is a Park employee at ONP. She LOVES her job.

https://trailcooking.com/ Eat well on the trail.
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sarbar
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sarbar
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PostThu Jul 17, 2003 9:12 pm 
https://trailcooking.com/ Eat well on the trail.
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polarbear-
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PostThu Jul 17, 2003 9:24 pm 
Even with the best intelligence gathered, people make mistakes. That's why I get nervous about the government contracting things out, privatization, trail passes and all the rest. I wonder how often President Bush visits Nation Parks and USFS land (and I mean for recreation, not campaigning). I suspect it's just a line item on the budget that affects the bottom line and that is what is driving the changes, not a true effort to make the parks a better experience for all. The people that created the parks had a vision in their heart and the budget was a tool, not the end all.

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Jill
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Jill
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PostThu Jul 17, 2003 9:31 pm 
Does anyone think it is a possibility that people who take the jobs that are privatized could be people that really do care and always wanted a job like that but were unable to cut through all the red tape of getting a federal job? This is just a question not an opinion. I have the right to remain silent.....yatta, yatta, yatta.............

"Security is mostly a superstition. <snip> Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." Helen Keller
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polarbear-
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PostThu Jul 17, 2003 9:38 pm 
But you can argue too that it was the people willing to cut through the red tape that really wanted the job. hmmm.gif

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