undefined | Better HN

0 pointsabtinf12y ago0 comments

We should spend tax dollars in the most effective way possible. If we can save money buying a good from a foreign source, more precious tax dollars are available for other vital government services.

You would need to do a lot of handwaving to try to argue that spending more money on "american-made" goods, just so that we can feel better psychologically, is a better use of tax money than, say, cancer research.

I'm not even sure what "american-made" would mean in the context of software, which is produced on a global scale. I guess we would have to use Windows Server for the backend systems (and only those parts of it made in the US), instead of Linux, which has Finnish origins.

Of course, I'm not saying CGI has proven very cost effective.

0 comments

mgkimsal12y ago

I didn't say anything about "american made" goods specifically.

"effective" can be measured multiple ways. The more money that's spent on US companies keeps the money in circulation in this country longer than sending it directly to a Canadian company (even assuming they have some US-based contractors on the project).

More to the point, the project is primarily code development, which isn't substantially cheaper in Canada than here (again, not sure where the work was done, and by whom, explicitly). All things being somewhat equal, services money should by default be spent with US companies.

From what I understand, this was a no-bid contract, so how could CGI being "most effective" ever have been the case? Unless, of course, the overhead of a bid process was factored in to the equation; then, sole-sourcing can always come out ahead.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse