Go Back to the B3 Home Page
Complaints, compliments, arguments? Email me.
[<< "Santorum: Making new friends everywhere he goes"] [Main Index] [>>"It's gonna be one of those days..."]
05/18/2003 Archived Entry: "Don't let the Defense Department babysit your kids"
Don't let the Defense Department babysit your kids
They'll only end up losing them, or selling them on eBay...
Though Defense has long been notorious for waste, recent government reports suggest the Pentagon's money management woes have reached astronomical proportions. A study by the Defense Department's inspector general found that the Pentagon couldn't properly account for more than a trillion dollars in monies spent. A GAO report found Defense inventory systems so lax that the U.S. Army lost track of 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units.
And before the Iraq war, when military leaders were scrambling to find enough chemical and biological warfare suits to protect U.S. troops, the department was caught selling these suits as surplus on the Internet "for pennies on the dollar," a GAO official said.
Replies: 6 people speak up
So here I am, looking for full-time employment since January 2002, and then I read your post. A miserable end to a truly miserable weekend.
What ever happened to those quaint $700 hammers (or were they toilet seats)?
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 05/18/2003 10:11 PM NY
Metro99 kinda helped end my weekend on an up note. I've only been looking for a job since October.
Posted by Spade Hammer @ 05/19/2003 03:45 AM NY
Hey, Spade, what's your line of work and in which city do you live? (I'm in NYC and the proud, if somewhat bitter, owner of a useless MBA in Finance.)
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 05/19/2003 10:21 PM NY
I'm in SoCal. The majority of my work experience is in the trucking industry, which usually mirrors the economy pretty closely. So, you can imagine how far down into the crapper it is.
Posted by Spade @ 05/20/2003 02:53 AM NY
Last year, I remember reading that the Pentagon couldn't account for $2 trillion. How hard are these numbers?
Remember when Clinton first came into office and discovering the numbers on the deficit was worse than they've been told. I'm getting a sense of deja vu.
Can you buy a tank on ebay?
Posted by niner @ 05/20/2003 10:05 AM NY
Hey Spade,
The "official" unemployment rate for NYC is 9% (that probably means the real rate is 10% or higher). Not only are there no jobs in accounting/finance in this decaying, tired city, but I don't see any improvement for the rest of 2003.
If it wasn't for my wife's income (thank God she's a registered nurse) I'd have to default on my mortgage and move back in with my 81-year old dad. How pathetic is that?
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 05/20/2003 11:09 AM NY
