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A comment on Is America Encouraging the Wrong Kind of Entrepreneurship?. Parent comment

Re:Is America Encouraging the Wrong Kind of Entrepreneurship? by briandear on Monday August 07, 2017 @03:24AM (#14945874)
Government would beat Comcast? I would really have to see some data before I’d be convinced of that. You must have some really strong faith in government but there is nothing in my experience that would suggest a government entity would have any incentive to actually be good at anything.
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Re:Is America Encouraging the Wrong Kind of Entrepreneurship? by EliRivers on Monday August 07, 2017 @04:08AM (#14945973)
I understand the US military is considered good, and not just because it's huge and has a lot of money to spend. I'm told the competence of the individuals involved tends to be higher than many other militaries.

Sure, it's just one data point.

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Re:Is America Encouraging the Wrong Kind of Entrepreneurship? by lmm on Monday August 07, 2017 @04:58AM (#14946136)
Comparing to other national militaries isn't meaningful. How does their effectiveness compare to private companies that do the same kind of thing, e.g. Blackwater or whatever they're called now?
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Re:Is America Encouraging the Wrong Kind of Entrepreneurship? by EliRivers on Monday August 07, 2017 @06:12PM (#14951683)
US government military is so much better. Skill fade is brutal. The US military spends a fortune training and exercising and refreshing and retraining, over and over. Mercenary companies simply don't have the funding or facilities to do the same.

Typically, the employees are contractors. Some of them might still be in date for some of their professional qualifications, some of them might be years or even decades from their last professional military refresher. I'm sure they can get by swapping tips and visiting gunranges, but it can't compare to spending nine months of the year on exercise or deployment.

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Re:Is America Encouraging the Wrong Kind of Entrepreneurship? by ionised on Monday August 07, 2017 @06:02AM (#14946384)
Well, there is a reason Blackwater changed its name.
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Re:Is America Encouraging the Wrong Kind of Entrepreneurship? by sharemywin on Monday August 07, 2017 @10:47AM (#14947834)
Most mercenaries are usually formally trained by an elite government military.
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