There's a right way and then there is the GOV. way

[apnorcal]

Insurance payout maybe? I knew a guy who was the employee of a cement company and he told me that his company purposely parked their forklifts near the flooding area of the adjoining river front. Every few years it would flood and ruin the forklifts. The resulting insurance payout gave them nice new forklifts!

 

[ak9]

I can only speculate why the G.C. did not move this equipment out. Why they descided to attempt to remove the sediment in this way and this time of year is ,i feel the bigger question.? The Army corps /Gov= county Allegheny, state ,and feds. all have a hand in it though... Have you All heard of our (PGH) tunnel to no -where project that was initially budgeted @ $360 million now costing tax payers almost $700million??? this is one of those...! what you have to relize about the N.Park lake project is they have only contracted to do a portion of the lake ... $15 million now... read and under stand the FEASIBILITY study of 1999 ...and then you will understand where this project is going >>>
The attached is info on the way it should have been done ... kudos to Dennis Gold for triing
I hope to get some pic's of them dragging this equipment out... it is expected to rain tues,wed,thurs... so pic's might be gotten 7-2011 lol

ak9

 

[rds1555]

my dad told me a story of another time that they tried to move the equipment but they did not have the keys they lost a lot . i think it happen close to Harrisburg pa

 

[Gator6x4]

I'm with you on the pro central planning slant of the press release. I'm still waiting for someone to show me an example of the government doing ANYTHING better than private enterprise.

On the other hand, perhaps this was one of those elusive "shovel ready" projects our deal leader kept promoting

Other than the military, here are just 22 things a quick check on the Internet found that the government has and is doing very well, better and more cost effective than the private sector.

1. The FAA. Crashes are a rarity here, thanks to equipment safety tests and massively successful air flight controlling.
2. Medicaid: private sector insurance companies make money by ditching their customers when they get very sick. Medicaid picks up the castoffs.
3. Social Security: What if Mr. xxxx had succeeded in privatizing SS before the markets crashed? Can you imagine how many old people would be working at WalMart, since their SS would have been cut in half? And did you know that before SS, thousands of older Americans simply starved to death?
4. SCHIP: Healthcare insurance for children who would not otherwise have it enormously preventive of school absence, long-term illness, loss of physical and mental development
5. The CDC: How do we know that the virulence of H1N1 is less than expected? Who is telling the world that US pork is safe to eat? How do we know whether an illness is H1N1 or not? It's all because of the CDC.
6. School hot lunch programs: For many children, their only serious nutrition all day every day. What industry would do it?
7. The Soil Conservation Service: though bureaucratic, there is no private industry comparable. How vastly different would America be without the wetlands our ancestors and a thousand like him have created.
8. Head Start: kids from homes that have seriously dysfunctional emotional and learning environments have benefited enormously
9. The Department of Motor Vehicles: how many mistakes have you had on your car registrations or titles?
10. E911 commissions: how long does it take an ambulance or fire truck to reach you if a child who can call 911 can稚 tell the operator an address? Before E911, there was simply no way to know. People died.
11. University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics known around the world for ground-breaking medical research.
12. Open meetings laws for city, county, and state government office nothing like it at all in the private sector. Name one private business that you can set in on a board meeting. But if public officials make decisions without notifying us, they can get in big trouble.
13. Free public libraries which most nations simply don稚 have. Where would our children do FREE research for school assignments.
14. Public health services how many lives have been saved by free or low-cost immunizations? Show me something analogous in the private sector.
15. The Interstate Highways Commission: we enjoy the best auto and truck transportation system in the world.
16. The FDIC: how safe is your bank account? Prior to the FDIC, if your bank got greedy and lent more than it could support, you lost your life savings.
17. The FDA: how do I know that the medicine I take is really medicine and really the dosage I'm told? Much of the world does not. The FDA constantly catches businesses attempting to cheat. Would you give your child medicine without the FDA?
18. The Federal Elections Commission: Nations are utterly astonished at the speed and accuracy with which US elections take place, and the efficiency and safety with which the US changes its administrations.
19. Uniform Building Codes: There are pre-code homes in every town (and probably in every City) that have sewer lines that run under the park and dump raw sewage into the creek that flows through the center of town.
20. NASA what business has landed on the moon?
21. The University of Iowa Writers Workshop One of the premiere writing teaching centers in the whole world. Only a handful do it as well.
22. Medicare Where would the seniors of the US be today without this Insurance coverage.

 

[ustmd]

Other than the military, here are just 22 things a quick check on the Internet found that the government has and is doing very well, better and more cost effective than the private sector.

1. The FAA. Crashes are a rarity here, thanks to equipment safety tests and massively successful air flight controlling.
2. Medicaid: private sector insurance companies make money by ditching their customers when they get very sick. Medicaid picks up the castoffs.
3. Social Security: What if Mr. xxxx had succeeded in privatizing SS before the markets crashed? Can you imagine how many old people would be working at WalMart, since their SS would have been cut in half? And did you know that before SS, thousands of older Americans simply starved to death?
4. SCHIP: Healthcare insurance for children who would not otherwise have it enormously preventive of school absence, long-term illness, loss of physical and mental development
5. The CDC: How do we know that the virulence of H1N1 is less than expected? Who is telling the world that US pork is safe to eat? How do we know whether an illness is H1N1 or not? It's all because of the CDC.
6. School hot lunch programs: For many children, their only serious nutrition all day every day. What industry would do it?
7. The Soil Conservation Service: though bureaucratic, there is no private industry comparable. How vastly different would America be without the wetlands our ancestors and a thousand like him have created.
8. Head Start: kids from homes that have seriously dysfunctional emotional and learning environments have benefited enormously
9. The Department of Motor Vehicles: how many mistakes have you had on your car registrations or titles?
10. E911 commissions: how long does it take an ambulance or fire truck to reach you if a child who can call 911 can稚 tell the operator an address? Before E911, there was simply no way to know. People died.
11. University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics known around the world for ground-breaking medical research.
12. Open meetings laws for city, county, and state government office nothing like it at all in the private sector. Name one private business that you can set in on a board meeting. But if public officials make decisions without notifying us, they can get in big trouble.
13. Free public libraries which most nations simply don稚 have. Where would our children do FREE research for school assignments.
14. Public health services how many lives have been saved by free or low-cost immunizations? Show me something analogous in the private sector.
15. The Interstate Highways Commission: we enjoy the best auto and truck transportation system in the world.
16. The FDIC: how safe is your bank account? Prior to the FDIC, if your bank got greedy and lent more than it could support, you lost your life savings.
17. The FDA: how do I know that the medicine I take is really medicine and really the dosage I'm told? Much of the world does not. The FDA constantly catches businesses attempting to cheat. Would you give your child medicine without the FDA?
18. The Federal Elections Commission: Nations are utterly astonished at the speed and accuracy with which US elections take place, and the efficiency and safety with which the US changes its administrations.
19. Uniform Building Codes: There are pre-code homes in every town (and probably in every City) that have sewer lines that run under the park and dump raw sewage into the creek that flows through the center of town.
20. NASA what business has landed on the moon?
21. The University of Iowa Writers Workshop One of the premiere writing teaching centers in the whole world. Only a handful do it as well.
22. Medicare Where would the seniors of the US be today without this Insurance coverage.

23. Rural Electrification.
24. Public Santiation

 

[deputy11]

23. Rural Electrification.
24. Public Santiation

25. Nebraska Tractor Testing Lab

 

[rd_macgregor]

I'm not sure its that the government does those things better and more cost-effectively than the private sector, its more that many/most of those things would never be done at all by the private sector because their isn't any way to make them pay. In the hands of the government, taxpayers foot the bill regardless of whether the bureaucracy is doing something worthwhile or doing it efficiently; there isn't a lot of incentive to be efficient, and there is (often) incentive to build/expand the bureaucracy needlessly. Lacking a private sector comparison, it is difficult to support (or argue against) the claim that public services are provided efficiently.

BOB

 

[buckeyefarmer]

There isn't any evidence given that the govt is doing any of those 22 things better or more efficient than the private sector can. The difference is that govt can legislate to make most of those things happen, that the private sector can not do on their own. Most of the E911 capability uses private sector systems, the govt just pays them a LOT of money and legislates they provide the capability. Google is doing a good job at making libraries obsolete, at least for research. MVA is a bloated vehicle taxing system. It could be steamlined easily. Govt definitely has to be the one to make most of those things happen, but they get future funding by being inefficient.