The root of US economic problems...and a cure.
phil scott
Ive had been largely self employed my entire life, as early as age
8... painting and lettering rural mail boxes for 2 bucks. .. then
during grammar school washing dishes in a restaurant at night.
Then working my way through college as i supported my wife and child,
then as a mechanical contractor in the state of california with 27
employees.
then consulting nationally, 1988-1998.. much of that in a quasi
employee or consultant capacity for major corporations and govt
agencies in the US. US dept of Energy (nuclear weapsons development
and production), various govt labs, bio science, semi conductor and
aerospace, and many of the contractors involved in those projects,
such as Boeing aircraft , Westinghouse Hanford Corp, Fluor Daniel
corp...and others I wont mention.
(I am a mechancial /electrical engineer licensed to provide
engineering and construction for such systems, AI controls, petrochem,
semi conductor and weapons lab, and aerospace facility systems
etc).... Im 68 now and still active in the business, exclusinvely
private sector these days as well as in the first 25 years of my
career.
***
I've noticed the following, and discussed these issues as well with
the staff I met and worked with on these sites, anyone if he or she is
honest working in these facilities knows full well, and in great
detail the following... its discussed openly and extensively on these
grapevines:
- Lay offs, the need to land another contract to survive and avoid
such lay offs.
- The need not to get the job done too fast... take your time. why
rush...if we get it done too fast our budget
will be cut the following year, then there will be *lay-offs.
Not discussed openly, but acknowledged in any private discussion with
ones associates on virtually all of those job sites, almost zero
exceptions in my 10 years inside these operations, asking those
questions:
(Govt agencies the absolute worst, their private engineering and
construction contractors about half as bad, those generally got
something done, but still half to 90% of the man hours were
wasted.... to keep the contract, the manpower had to be kept up, even
if there was no work.)
I would make the following comments to people I come to know on these
sites....... virtually all saw the same things, and commented,... most
comon comment at the Hanford Nuclear Weapons site...
"we are the we'be's'..... they said that to me for a month before i
gained their trust without telling me who the 'we be's' are.
'we be's' = 'we beez here when you are gone' (refering to the
contractors that come and go).
their second most common remark 'We beez sucked up to the giant golden
goose".
I would say things like this to then:
- Dang, it seems like we do 5% work around here and the rest of the
time treading water (faking work)
Response would be:
- We have to put in the hours or our budget will be cut next year
and there will be lay-offs
- We need to get vested in our retirements.
Summary:
All of this creates a culture of lies and deception, that ruins those
involved. as it bankrupts a nation.
I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity i was given to
testify to this mess before congress in 1994-95. It needed to be
said. 14 years later our nation is going into the final stages of
bankrupcy due to such corruption and mind boggling waste.
.
Reversal is unlikely. However as with Argentina's recovery, cutting
the size of bloated and corrupt govt and its bogus govt contractors by
80% or so would solve the problem...
these know full well, and those in govt reading this know full well
that you work 5% of the time productively...and waste the other 90 to
95% of your time....thats the middle to upper ranks, the lower on the
totem pole you are the more work you do... in govt that might be in
the 20 to 80% range...and a few no doubt working hard into the 100%
range.
But the bulk of the money, 80% or mroe is wasted...and by the top 50%
or so in such govt or corporation.. middle management and up.....
these are self destructive by those means, it ruins them...and having
to put up with it taxes those doing any actual work severely.
thats crimiinal.... it has created a need for high taxation, then high
wages in order to pay those taxes... wich have made US labor
uncompetitive in the world market... that ends in collapse.
****
None of this is rocket science.
Another Tee shirt line will follow, it will have the same effect my
line of shirts had on exposing bogus police and fire retirments in
the 150k range per year...(at age 51 no less, and with 100% lifetime
medical care..and oh yes, half of the %150,000? tax free)...
those are now hot topics at city council meetings and Mayors
conferences nation wide now, and sure as hell with those cities filing
bankrupcy, its starting to make the papers despite those unions
attempts to stifle the data (70-80% of most city budgets go to fire
and police... half of that in retirement costs alone, and its rising
fast, as the tax base is collapsing)
None of that....or this mess with bloated govt ever flies long in any
nation... end stage from the point where the first financial
earthquake is felt? under two years... thats a thousand years of
history... its a common pattern.
It is my view than any good patriotic citizen with balls has the duty
to speak up...at least thats what our founding fathers wrote into the
US constitution. Some of us ore speaking up. (mentioning 'US
constitution' in a rant these days btw gets you tagged as a dissident,
interesting, no?)
Some in the senate are speaking up. The mess is now deep into tis
collapse phase nationally, virtually every county city and state
included.
***
The situation can be cured by cutting out the cancer, an 80% reduction
in civil 'service' back to levels per capita that were quite viable
and affordable in the 1960's... bloated corruupt corporations
involved will follow as that 'work' dries up.
we don't need the vast bloat we have now... and we sure as hell don't
need the bloatee's getting vicious with us....taxing us to ruins
etc. it is us the US working citizens that are the nations golden
goose, and us alone... no exceptions.
so tell me what kind of integrity, courage, intelligence or balls do
we have to allow this?
answer... damn little of any of that, the same case historically, such
nations collapse on the weight of such degeneration.
we do it to ourselves....
a person can choose to be an exception.
Phil scott