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Comment Re:But their bid was lower! (Score 1) 227

For some reason, in the US it is more politically acceptable to pay a private firm $200K per worker for a government contract than it is to pay $150K per worker to hire people to do the job.

Because in aggregate the US believes in private enterprise above all else, to the point where we will hand de facto monopolies to cable television providers or mandate the purchase of health insurance from private companies (and only from private companies) before we'd ever stomach the idea of having government get directly involved in anything.

And this is not a partisan thing

Just because it's not "partisan" doesn't mean it's not a decidedly right-wing idea. And it was most certainly a partisan idea until Ronald Reagan won the most lopsided presidential election since 1792, at which point the party of Roosevelt and Johnson had to start positioning itself as "Republican Lite" in order to start winning elections again.

Comment Re:Education con game (Score 1) 95

Furthermore, a college education costs about as much as a good mid-size car; if you can't afford paying that back, you picked the wrong major.

Even if I grant you that statement, if typical 18 year-olds were decently equipped to make such rest-of-your-life decisions they wouldn't be such attractive targets for military recruiters.

Comment No (Score 1) 95

One solution is to open the process by having the Department of Education gather and post data and provide a platform and tools for all interested

How do you think the Department gets the information? Search warrants? Waterboarding?

The information gathered from colleges is provided to the Department voluntarily, with the understanding that much of it will be held in confidence and only published in aggregate. If you insist on all the data be made public, you'll find a lot less data to work with to begin with, particularly from private institutions that have a competitive edge to maintain.

Comment Re:A Textbook False Dichotomy (Score 1) 208

Oh, please. Don't pretend that that only options are TSA or no security at all. Back in the day, before the TSA, the airlines were handling security on their own and doing a fine job. It was a measured response, where the level of security suited the contemporary threat level.

It suited what the airlines thought they could get away with using the smallest possible expenditure.

We can't even expect corporations to implement best practices with regards to their password databases. Why should we believe in your tales of a Golden Age of Corporate Vigilance?

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