One of my clients installs equipment into police cars and other municipal vehicles. They won a contract to install 50 barriers into police cars for the city of Hartford. They sent a team of two down there and some city officials asked where they were staying. They were shocked when they learned they were leaving that day. Arrived at 8am and finished at 3pm. Previously the installations were completed by the city garage, city government employees. It took two workers one week to install the same 50 barriers. Similarly, the MBTA uses their own maintenace crews to clean trains. It takes a crew of 2 4 hours to clean a train, 8 man hours. A private cleaning company was used on a temporary basis for a limited number of trains for a week. It took a crew of 3 1.5 hours to clean a train, 4.5 man hours. The state tried to negotiate private cleaning crews as part of the MBTA contract, but of course the unions weren't going for that. That summarizes government bloat. Taking a week for what should take a day. Taking 8 hours for something that should take 4.5. With unions in full support of such bloat. While private business is engaged in lean manufacturing, unions and government are engaged in the opposite. A fattening the calf strategy.
