As private enterprise entered the war zone at unprecedented levels, the amount of corruption ballooned, even if most contractors performed their duties as expected.
According to the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the level of corruption by defense contractors may be as high as $60 billion. Disciplined soldiers that would traditionally do many of the tasks are commissioned by private and publicly listed companies.
Even without the graft, the costs of paying for these services are higher than paying governement employees or soldiers to do them because of the profit motive involved. No-bid contracting – when companies get to name their price with no competing bid – didn’t lower legitimate expenses. (Despite promises by President Barack Obama to reel in this habit, the trend toward granting favored companies federal contracts without considering competing bids continued to grow, by 9 percent last year, according to the Washington Post.)”[/quote]
Just remember that somewhere in the chain is a corrupt public official allowing this to happen. They’re probably getting a huge cut, and or campaign contributions to look the other way.
Unionized public workers are a problem. As I’ve said before, I am pro-union for the private sector. That’s because I believe the union has to play a role in the health of the company, or face bankruptcy when people choose not to buy their products or services because those labor costs have been passed on. In the public sector however, the lack of need for profitability or efficiency means the unions can keep asking for more and more while those costs are simply passed on to the taxpayer who has no choice but to pay them.
