Why are bureaucrats so dumb?
I don’t mean to be overly general; I’m sure there are many bureaucrats with above-average intelligence. It just seems that none of these smart people actually work for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. From DCist:
WMATA isn’t inclined to play nice with Google, apparently because the agency thinks its schedule data might be worth something. No, they’re not sure if they can get any money for it, but they’d like to find out: Metro has been talking about bidding out a half million-dollar contract for a consultant who can tell them whether they might be able to monetize their schedule data.
The short answer to their $500,000 problem? They can’t monetize the schedules. Period. For more info, check out Greater Greater Washington. Remember, WMATA oversees a metro system that is essentially falling down around the citizens of Washington: delays are rampant, the trains are poorly operated, and the occasional massive collision happens. But hey, what’s another half-mil of rider/taxpayer money that they can dole out to consultants* to tell them something a blogger and Google is willing to tell them for free?
*By the way, has anyone written the definitive takedown of “consultants”? Everytime I see my buddies from college who went into consultancy I shake my head. It’s quite the racket…
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4 Comments - add your own
Beeks — August 25, 2009 at 10:25 am
As some one who works in an industry that it bursting with “consultants,” I can testify that they are the biggest fraud committed against the American public since the futon.
Consultants typically work the least amount possible until the company who hired them realized there isn’t much value to their service. By then the consultant has moved on to one of the other 20 companies they were working for while billing you for the time.
Sonny Bunch — August 25, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Beeks, have you ever read a great article on how silly the whole concept of consultants is? I feel like there has to be a great Michael Lewis piece floating around in the ether on the subject…
Beeks — August 25, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I haven’t ever read an article on the consulting business, but I agree that it’s ripe and ready to be exposed as a total scam. A friend of mine who is getting ready to graduate from a top 5 MBA program, commented the other day on how most of his classmates are pursuing “consultant” work. You get to make your own hours, overcharge, and essentially do nothing. The only real work you do is hustling and selling yourself as a consultant to potential clients.
Sonny Bunch — August 25, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Beeks, here’s a solid takedown:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200606/stewart-business
The author has a brand new book out on the topic too: “The Management Myth.”