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0 pointsangry_octet4y ago0 comments

Completely disagree. You've absorbed the right wing mantra that Government workers are bad and incompetent. Actually the politicians have stripped the public service bare, capping staff levels at absurdly low levels, because they get big donations from consultants (and cushy post-politics jobs), and they somehow avoid blame for failed projects but outsourcing.

The politicians promote the staff who tell them what they want to hear, and independent advice has been lost.

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jillesvangurp4y ago· 1 in thread

I actually consider myself a bit left of center; definitely very moderate. Certainly by any US standards (hint, I don't live anywhere close to there). So, I kind of resent the gratuitous labeling a bit.

This is a simple case of objectively government projects around the world failing over and over again for more or less the same reasons. There are quite many studies on that topic. Lots of nice articles that get written whenever another one fails. So, that's not a right wing mantra against big government but a nice argument that maybe they should try doing things differently. Especially considering that there are some well run countries with more success on this front. Quite a few of those countries are what you might label classic big government states. I lived in a few of them (Sweden, Finland, Netherlands). These three have had some duds but also some successes when it comes to government IT projects. Overall well run places.

angry_octetOP4y ago

Even left leaning people have absorbed right wing economic thinking! Every economic think tank repeating the mantra that Government employees are fat overpaid bureaucrats that can't deliver projects.

All software projects are fraught with risk, but when no one takes responsibility for the outcome, and particularly when the people who generate requirements have no stake in its success, the probability of failure increases rapidly. The de-skilling of the public service in favour of advice from highly paid consultants, often the same ones who provide the services, means no impartial advice or trustable expertise, so governments can't be smart buyers.