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Re:Public Money, Public Code by 3np on Wednesday April 27, 2022 @10:27PM (#31188156)
The way I'm reading it, no, that's not what they're saying. Govt doing the same things but having them done by contractors does not make it "smaller".
Re:Public Money, Public Code by machinerychorus on Wednesday April 27, 2022 @11:49PM (#31188525)
right, this is what I meant. Running a covid tracing app requires a certain number of people. Splitting those people into "govt employees" and "contractors" doesn't reduce the number of people involved, it just adds an arbitrary boundary between them, which hinders their efficiency.
Re:Public Money, Public Code by dragonwriter on Wednesday April 27, 2022 @11:57PM (#31188568)
> Splitting those people into "govt employees" and "contractors" doesn't reduce the number of people involved.

It increases it, because (even optimally) you need the same number of people doing the main work, and as supervisors, HR support, etc., for the main workers, plus you have additional contracting and contract management overhead on both sides.