My new job on the army base and government waste

[panader0]

Some old friends of mine from Cal are in the commercial furniture business. They landed a contract on the base here in Az to take the old furniture out of the barracks and replace it with new stuff. Two beds, mattresses, desks, wardrobes, chests of drawers, nightstands and lamps in each room. Maybe a thousand rooms. It's a good paying job and will last until mid-February. But it's not the hard work that bothers me. It's the fact that 90% of the stuff we take out is in good condition, some nearly new. The old furniture is hauled to a huge outdoor storage lot and left to rot from the weather, and is eventually crushed. I had the same job for 6 weeks last year and repeatedly asked the officials if I could purchase 3 sets for my kids' rooms. No way. The stuff could be donated to charity or auctioned, but no. Throw it away. If there is unspent money in the budget, they must spend it or risk having their monies cut next year. What a waste.

[Dappleganger]

1. You should post this

on reddit.

[geckosfeet]

2. You are right. Someone needs get the cajones to make the decision to donate this stuff.

I am sure the local Salvation Army would take it if it's in sale-able condition.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. An oft-repeated story, it is so emblematic of government waste.

[Sherman A1]

4. Might be worth a letter to the editor of your local paper

and contacting your Congressman and Senators.

[panader0]

7. I have considered that quite a bit

The rub is that it's my friends' business and if I rock the boat it would be bad for them. (the suppliers)

[Sherman A1]

15. I understand

but, if I understand, his job is to move the stuff. If it is just a moving job the items can end up in a variety of other locations and be put to some use or scraped in some means. So I don't know if you would be rocking the boat. You will have to make that decision (and good luck with doing so) with your own judgement.

[msongs]

5. job security for paper pushers and more military/industrial complex welfare nt

[spooky3]

6. write your congressperson, but I hope you don't get retaliated against

or your friends lose business as a result. Maybe you can suggest a way to spend the funds that would be better for all concerned rather than just cut.

[wolfgangmo]

13. Have your friend or you put together a business plan for the congress critter.

That would include donating or recycling or reusing the materials. Create an ongoing job/company for yourself.

[madokie]

8. You should have seen what I seen shortly before I left VN in late '70

the army had excavated a hugh hole in the ground that was a good 40 maybe 50 feet deep , hard to say for sure now, that was a good half mile on each side and they were putting all kinds of war machines in there, said it was cheaper than transporting it back to the states. I'm sure that as soon as we were gone the Vietnamese dug all that stuff up. Jet engines still in the shipping containers sealed up, jeeps still in cosmolein. I was blown away by it all but I was a short timer by then and all I really cared about was coming home.

[mrcheerful]

9. It's not just furniture that gets mothed balled by the military complex

there are areas around the country where out dated weapons such as air craft, tanks and the like or stuck out in the middle of no where and left to rust or oxidize away, scraping them for their metals would give the government some extra cash, though it would drive down the resale price of metals to the scrap yards. At one time you could by military vehicles for pennies on the dollar, friend of mine bought a 1945 Willeys jeep for $500 in 1980 from uncle Sam, the only problem, it took him 3 years to assemble it. That was the only draw back, you had to put the cars, jeeps and motorcycles together after you bought them.

[tridim]

10. I thought the GSA was supposed to sell this kind of stuff at government auction.

I used to go to GSA auctions all the time and bid on wacky military equipment.

[tblue37]

11. It's like that in all bureaucracies. I teach at a university, and

departments and programs all rush to unload their money before the end of a fiscal year to prevent cuts in the next year.

A friend of mine who worked for a different government agency than yours told me that his main job was to make sure all their allocated money was spent in time.

[Gregorian]

12. The whole military is a big one way chute from manufacturer to the dump.

They pushed aircraft off the decks of boats after world war 2. We leave equipment everywhere. Bullets are the best example. They go from manufacturer to the dirt. And accomplish nothing.

It's a money machine. We pay them, and they dispose of their stuff as fast as possible so we will continue to pay them. We are suckers.

I'm not afraid to say this, nor to paint it with a broad brush. I'm certain to get dumped on my those who believe in the military. That doesn't change the fact that what they do is incredibly wasteful.

[Alenne]

14. The base I lived on used to pave the same street every year.

The base was always "fixing" things that didn't need to be fixed because if you don't spend it, you lose it. Everyone knows about it but no one stops it.

[Name removed]

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[akoldnav]

17. Just another example of government waste

I work at a military installation and was assigned the job of
working with a contractor to select new furniture for a
different facility that my group is moving into.  This will be
funded by BRAC.  When I looked at the old furniture, I
determined that it was quite sufficient for use in an
industrial facility (electrical, welding, etc.)  Today I was
pressured to change my mind and when I refused I was relieved
of that particular duty.  I think hundreds of thousands of
dollars will be spent and many thousands of dollars of old
furniture will be thrown out.  I am disgusted.  I am probably
the only one in my organization that could refuse this
"order" because I am retiring soon and there is
little that can be done to me.

The disgusting part of this is that this spending can be
justified because the old furniture is a certain age, not that
is worn out.  Our tax dollars are being squandered at an
unbelievable rate and this is only one very small part. 
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. 

akoldnav